Are Calories all equal?

Depends on your goals...

Nutritional values are different, different foods provide satiety over others..

You say you hate to eat, I would choose the highest calories for less volume of food.

Calories are equal but they do have context. Would I be full on bread and nutella vs something with more fibre and protein? Probably not. Just experiment with what works for you and leaves you satisfied.

A calorie is a calorie--it is the unit of energy required to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. So from that perspective, all calories are equal. (As an interesting aside that not every knows--what we commonly call a calorie is actually 1,000 calories. A true calorie is an extremely small amount of energy, as defined above).

Now, as far as nutrition and the health and satisfaction of eating calories from different sources, that is a whole other story..........

Total calories determine what weight you will or will not use.

Satiety--feeling full--will depend on other details, like vitamins, fiber, fat, complex carbohydrate (starch) and simple carbohydrate (sugar) content.

You can get the same calories out of junk food but wind up gaining weight because the junk food doesn't satisfy your body's other parameters, leaving you feeling hungry. Then, because you are hungry, you eat too much of additional food to fill out your 'dance card' in those other categories.

For my body, I find if I eat 1600 calories (roughly my current target) of low fat, high complex carbs, at the end of the day I'm still so hungry I could eat the boxes the foods came in. OTOH if I overshoot my mfp fat target and undershoot the carb target by, say 70 grams, I am not hungry throughout the day and may spontaneously finish the day 100 or more calories under-target because I am full.

You have to experiment with your diet to find out how your body responds to these non-calorie categories, to find a diet that you can stick to that results in a calorie deficit so you can lose weight.

The only diet that works is the one you can stick to.

(I hypothesize my body's preference for a non-mediterranean diet arises out of my northern european ancestry--sausages and preserved meats would have been a staple for half the year when the world is covered in snow, with a dearth of the fruits and grains that would have been available to, say, Italians, so there may have been some natural selection for people who can tolerate fat intake. So far my cholesterol has been rock solid in the 'good' zone regardless of what I eat, though I don't want to push that too hard!)

AsrarHussain wrote: »

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Nutritional values are different, different foods provide satiety over others..

You say you hate to eat, I would choose the highest calories for less volume of food.

I dont hate to eat. When the eating gets too much then it can become annoying. I eat around 5-6 meals a day. I am bulking so it can get annoying.

In that case, eat whatever you find the least filling, will make you less uncomfortable and which you find the most enjoyable to eat