What you eat vs. how much you eat?

hlw19
hlw19 Posts: 29
in Food and Nutrition
In high school I watched this documentary (can't remember name) where a study was conducted on two teenagers who ate only fast food for a certain amount of days and still lost weight. All they did was count calories.

The take away message: it doesn't matter what you eat, just how much of it.

Is this true?

On campus the only place I like to eat at is Jimmy John's and when I come home, I mainly eat rice and other "carby" food. My sister thinks I'm stupid because all I really eat are carbs but I kind of feel like if I stay within my calories, I'll be able to lose weight.

Are all calories equal?

Replies

  • HonkyTonks
    HonkyTonks Posts: 1,193 Member
    A calorie is a calorie yes. Ultimately you will lose weight if you eat whatever you want as long as you eat in a caloric deficit.

    Check out the twinkie diet for example, or the Maccas diet.

    It's not particularly healthy or recommended of course. You should be eating a well balanced diet, including proteins and healthy fats for good health.

    I definitely think eating some rice is okay, I eat carbs and I have lost weight.
  • cmeade20
    cmeade20 Posts: 1,238 Member
    While you'll still lose weight you'll probably find you'll lose it faster if you eat right. You'll also have more energy to do rigorous exercise and stay full longer.
  • hlw19
    hlw19 Posts: 29
    thanks :) and yea I think my diet should have a little diversity, wouldn't hurt lol
  • parsnips1980
    parsnips1980 Posts: 11
    if your goal is only to lose weight and you aren't that concerned about health and well being then yes, calories in, calories out probably will do the trick. however, i think that if more people really knew how different they would feel if they switched to a plant based, non processed diet (or at least most of the time) that we wouldn't be eating most of the things that we consider to be acceptable. i recommend watching the documentary "food matters". it'll really make you think about the things you eat (processed, genetically altered, etc) and what they are doing to you long term, as well as what eating healthy food can do for you short term and long term. at one point they mentioned that a handful of cashews has the same effect as one prozac in terms of treating depression....pretty wild stuff!
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    While you'll still lose weight you'll probably find you'll lose it faster if you eat right. You'll also have more energy to do rigorous exercise and stay full longer.

    Holding cals and macros constant it will make no difference for weightloss if you eat unclean/bad/dirty foods or clean/good foods in your diet
  • parsnips1980
    parsnips1980 Posts: 11
    also...on here somewhere i remember seeing a post about this video that compared the digestion of ramen/gatorade/ and gummy bears against a comparable meal prepared from scratch with no additives/preservatives. kind of gross, but it gets the point across.
  • 6mimi
    6mimi Posts: 1,432 Member
    I saw on the news a while back a professor that did an experiment where he only ate processed food from a vending machine but stayed within his calories. He lost weight. However, there are so many other things to consider. His blood pressure, energy level, that kind of thing. I know I used to drink tons of soda pop and didn't eat very well. Now I eat mostly unprocessed food and no pop at all. When I look at old photos even of me at a similar weight I look so much more bloated and tired. I also dropped 80 points on my cholesterol level.
  • hlw19
    hlw19 Posts: 29
    I saw on the news a while back a professor that did an experiment where he only ate processed food from a vending machine but stayed within his calories. He lost weight. However, there are so many other things to consider. His blood pressure, energy level, that kind of thing. I know I used to drink tons of soda pop and didn't eat very well. Now I eat mostly unprocessed food and no pop at all. When I look at old photos even of me at a similar weight I look so much more bloated and tired. I also dropped 80 points on my cholesterol level.

    I just looked that up!
    I think my main priority was just losing weight and I forgot to take health into consideration (as stupid as it sounds).

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