All calories the same?

tcleeton
tcleeton Posts: 10
in Food and Nutrition
So I have seen this idea that all calories are the same over and over. We know that it takes the body 35% of the calories from protein to digest it, we know that it takes 18% of the calories to digest fat, and 11% of the calories to digest carbs. So why doesn't this study make perfect sense?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-06-27/calories-low-carb-weight-loss/55843134/1

Replies

  • patrnbabe
    patrnbabe Posts: 42
    your insulin response is different with different types of calories. Low glycemic foods don't enter your blood stream (and thus start an insulin spike) as quickly as higher glycemic carbs do. With low carb diets, your body goes into a ketosis stage. Calories are calories, but how quickly they get into your bloodstream affects your body's response to them.
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
    Where did you get those percentages? I've never seen that. I thought I'd read "possibly as much as 10% for proteins", the highest for TEF. And I thought fats were lowest.
  • tcleeton
    tcleeton Posts: 10
    I agree with your statement patnbabe, however the bodies response to the types of calories we eat is not limited to its insulin response. The digestion of food itself consumes energy based on the length, complexity, and strength of the molecular bonds in the foods we eat and how much effort the body has to extend to break them down. While longer term absorption is affected by the blood stream in insulin response as you stated. The foods we eat also drive other body responses that can spike good hormones (Testosterone comes to mind) that burn calories at greater levels or spike bad hormones (Cortisol comes to mind) that slow our bodies use of energy, other things -- particularly spices burn more calories through increasing the body's temperature. There are many complex relationships between the foods we eat, and our bodies use of them as food. Some promote increased energy expenditure and others make it much less likely.

    Doesn't your point alone prove that a calorie is not just a calorie? If one calorie slows the amount of calories that body burns in the day, and another calorie increases them -- it is too simplified view of human anatomy to say that -- "all calories are the same".

    A calorie of a complex carbohydrate is going to retard the bodies use of energy, and increase its storage -- while I simple, clean carb is going to promote it. Therefore the body of the person that eats 3000 calories of clean food a day, and the body that eats 3000 calories of processed foods -- is going to look and behave much differently -- even with the same amounts of physical activity.

    The percentages I got are what we typically use around the gym. I did find a source that shows they are roughly correct..... I can do some more investigation of a paper that shows this as a study...... but for something quick, here is a rough source. http://www.sharecare.com/question/why-digest-protein-fats-carbohydrates
  • patrnbabe
    patrnbabe Posts: 42
    You're right. I was just giving a short answer ;)
  • tcleeton
    tcleeton Posts: 10
    I have had this debate with a few people in the forums before, I took the short answers in the past too ---- and it always has gone badly....... I was hoping to drum up some more discussion on it by dedicating something to it.

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