Topic: "10 Body Myths Debunked" - counting calories?

[Karyn]

I used to weigh my food and keep very detailed notes on what I ate.  I suck at doing anything like keeping a journal for more than 2 weeks, so I mostly just used it to understand what a 'serving' generally looked like for most foods, and how many calories were likely to be in a serving.  I learned a lot of good rules of thumb and gave up all the extra work.  I discovered I find it much easier to burn 500 extra calories a day going to the gym every morning, and try not to eat things with flour or more than 9g sugar per serving in them.  I've lost 30 pounds over 3 years, 1/2 of it since I started exercising 5 months ago, so something is working.

[jt512]

[E]veryone burns calories differently...

What does that even mean?

...it's amazingly difficult to figure out how many calories you are eating, even in packetized food.

No.  It's actually amazingly easy.  For packaged foods, you read the number off the package.  For everything else, you look it up here.

Jay

[jt512]

it shouldn't mean "in your stomach"

Thats generally what people count when they count calories, though... They look on the packaging, which lists the total caloric content of the food. Hardly anyone actually calculates how much you absorb from each food.

Wrong.  The amount on the package is an estimate of the physiologic energy content of the food.  That's the amount you absorb minus the amount you excrete undigested.

Jay

[jt512]

The type of food consumed has an impact beyond even its usefull energy content. For instance, studies suggest that fructose intake (in contrast to glucose) seems to stimulate lipogenesis and contribute to gains in body fat beyond the mere caloric input.

Fructose can stimulate lipogenesis all it wants.  If the person consuming the fructose is in energy balance, then he'll burn an amount of body fat equal to the amount of body fat he made; that is, lipolysis will equal lipogenesis.  It's still just a matter of calories in vs. calories out.  Nothing is immune from the first law of thermodynamics.

Jay

[jt512]

I think counting calories is counterproductive because it creates an obsession with food when the goal should be to pay as little attention to it as possible.

That is precisely the opposite of what the research has shown.  The best predictor of successful long-term weight-loss maintenance is continual self-surveilance of food intake and body weight.

Jay

[lonely moa]

Well, one can bias one's body to use fat primarily.  Takes a few weeks of training.  Great for endurance sports. 

[GodSlayer]

Well, one can bias one's body to use fat primarily.  Takes a few weeks of training.  Great for endurance sports. 

I'm going to need at least three citations for this one.

[jt512]

Well, one can bias one's body to use fat primarily.  Takes a few weeks of training.  Great for endurance sports. 

I'm going to need at least three citations for this one.

Plus an explanation of how it relates to the topic.

[GodSlayer]

Well, one can bias one's body to use fat primarily.  Takes a few weeks of training.  Great for endurance sports. 

I'm going to need at least three citations for this one.

Plus an explanation of how it relates to the topic.

I have some vague recollection of the idea he's talking about.

imagine if you could eat a chocolate cake, but any activity you do relies on your stored calories for energy, as though you haven't just provided your body with a ready source ...a bulimic's dream.

[jt512]

Well, one can bias one's body to use fat primarily.  Takes a few weeks of training.  Great for endurance sports.

Dubious relevance to the topic notwithstanding, the first part of your statement is trivial; the second part, false.

The trivial part is that the body will burn whatever macronutrients you feed it, in the proportions you feed it.  If your diet is 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat, you'll burn 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat.  If your diet is 20% protein, 60% carbohydrate, and 20% fat, you'll burn 20% protein, 60% carbohydrate, and 20% fat.  This follows from the first law of thermodynamics and the fact that your body has only one long-term reservoir of energy storage: adipose tissue.

The false part is that a high-fat diet is good for endurance athletes.  It isn't.  Jogging isn't an endurance sport.  I'm not an expert in exercise physiology, but, as I understand it, endurance sports rely highly on anaerobic metabolism, and hence need glycogen.  And a high-carbohydrate diet maximizes glycogen storage.

Jay

[GodSlayer]

The trivial part is that the body will burn whatever macronutrients you feed it, in the proportions you feed it.  If your diet is 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat, you'll burn 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat.

didn't he mean 'fat stores' not 'consumed fats'?

[jt512]

The trivial part is that the body will burn whatever macronutrients you feed it, in the proportions you feed it.  If your diet is 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat, you'll burn 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat.

didn't he mean 'fat stores' not 'consumed fats'?

Based on my familiarity with high-fat-diet mythology, I don't think so, but you'd have to ask him (at your own risk) to be sure.

Jay

[GodSlayer]

The trivial part is that the body will burn whatever macronutrients you feed it, in the proportions you feed it.  If your diet is 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat, you'll burn 20% protein, 20% carbohydrate, and 60% fat.

didn't he mean 'fat stores' not 'consumed fats'?

Based on my familiarity with high-fat-diet mythology, I don't think so, but you'd have to ask him (at your own risk) to be sure.

I'd wager he's not arguing in favor of some non-moderation diet, based on my familiarity with him.

[DG]

As someone who has lost a bit over 20kgs based almost exclusively on a change of diet. I am going with the whole "counting calories is a good idea".

Although, as a general rule I ignore calories in vegetables, and in the first 2 servings of fruit a day.

[GodSlayer]

As someone who has lost a bit over 20kgs based almost exclusively on a change of diet. I am going with the whole "counting calories is a good idea".

Although, as a general rule I ignore calories in vegetables, and in the first 2 servings of fruit a day.

is it 'counting calories' so much as just 'common sense', though?