All calories are NOT the same

Just few little fun facts from Banks to make your life a tiny bit more complicated

I see quite a bit on here the phrase "calories in vs calories out" and "a calorie is a calorie" or some such variation.

While I agree that the amount of calories you consume is vitally important to weight loss, I feel it's JUST as important to have the right kind of calories.

Few fun facts.

- A single serving of simple carbohydrates (lets take white, bleached flour) takes about 15 to 30 minutes to digest where as, whole grains(depending on the type) takes between 45 minutes and 3 hours.

- A calorie of protein from meat takes anywhere from 3 hours to 12 hours to completely digest and another couple of hours to move through your body (and sometimes longer depending on about a million factors). That isn't to say you don't receive any protein until 3 hours later, the process begins immediately, but you don't recieve the full amount until the end, think of it like a time released cold pill, it breaks down slowly in the stomach, and as it does, some nutrients are leeched out, and more are leeched out as it passes through the colon and intestines.

-Fiber is not only indigestible to humans, in many cases as it travels through the intestines it will feed the "friendly flora" there and it can also absorb toxins and carry them with it out of the body. So not only does it help fill you up and give you a sense of "fullness" it can keep you healthy as well.

-Fats are not an enemy to the human body, in fact besides being a secondary fuel source, some vitamins and minerals require dietary fats as a vehicle for delivery in the blood. The brain needs certain types of vitamins that the fats can provide, as does hair, skin, and nails and cell membranes for various (fat soluble vitamins being one) reasons to stay healthy. Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids are the preferred types of fat for humans though, where hydrogenated oils and saturated fats are less helpful and can affect cholesterol numbers aversely (and are a factor in CAD and plaque).

-Fructose and lactose (fruit sugar and milk sugar) use an entirely different process from sucrose to enter the blood stream, it takes longer and as such usually doesn't spike the blood sugar and cause insulin release like sugary or white flour products do.

-While almost all fruit and some veggies contain fructose, many also can contain high quantities of sucrose, so be aware that some fruits can have similar detrimental blood sugar effects as white sugar or white flour.

-In order for protein to be broken down into energy to use as fuel, the liver needs to process the protein and turn it into (this is a VERY simplified definition but...) glucose for short term energy that the muscles can use for ATP (the actual fuel muscles normally use), this takes far longer than the process needed for breaking down carbohydrates.

-If the body requires more energy than is currently available (like during moderate exercise or intense exercise), it will attempt to use ALL available energy sources, I.E. food intake, protein from either intake or muscle, AND stored fat, which ever is the most abundant and readily available is the one that will be used the most, which is why it's easier to shed fat when you have a lot, than when you don't.


What does all this mean? I'll let you judge, but generally it means, there's a lot more to a healthy body than just calories in vs calories out!