Do the type of calories count?

Question

I always hear about people doing these low calorie diets, so i wanted to know if the type of calories you eat matter.. Ex. if i were to be on a 1000 or 1500 calorie diet and i eat chips and drink soda all day, would i loose the same amount of weight if i just ate fruits and vegis, if both amounts were under 1000-1500 cals? Does the type of food matter?

Answer 1

If you just want to lose weight, the technical answer to your question is, "No...it doesn't matter what type of calories you eat." In order to lose weight, the *only* thing that matters is calories expended vs calories consumed. Period. You must burn more calories than you eat.

Now, if you want to lose weight AND be healthy, then the answer is, "Absolutely it matters what kind of calories you eat!" Chips, sugar, soda, etc. are comprised of "empty calories," meaning they have no nutritional value whatsoever. Complex carbohydrates, which come from whole grains, legumes, and fruit feed your brain. Your brain *must* have carbs in order to properly function. Also, these types of carbs provide essential energy for sudden bursts of activity. In addition, complex carbs are typically great sources of fiber. Your body needs fiber in order to have proper digestive function. Not to be graphic, but imagine what kind of extra weight you'd carry around in your gut alone if you couldn't expel the waste. (Not to mention how sick you'd feel.)

Calories which come from protein are essential for building healthy muscle tissue. The more lean muscle mass you have, the more efficient your body becomes at burning calories. So for every calorie you eat that's a muscle-builder, you're essentially creating the very mechanism you need to lose weight faster. Why would you trade that for chips and soda that do nothing but bloat you and leave you unsatisfied? (Chips are loaded with salt which causes water retention. Soda makes you feel fuller than you actually are because of the carbonation, so you're less likely to want the essential calories your body needs in order to lose weight.)

The other thing to remember is that protein and complex carbs fill you up faster and longer than do chips and soda. You will most likely be tempted to eat more in the long run with the junk food.

By the way, just to give you an idea of healthy caloric intake for healthy weight loss: I'm a 40 year old woman. I'm 5'7". At my heaviest, I weighed 200 lbs. Within a year and 1/2, I lost 50 lbs. by eating roughly 1500 calories a day of healthy foods. (I also ate some non-healthy stuff on occasion because I refused to deprive myself. That's ok too!) Healthy caloric intake is dependent upon age, sex, height, and activity level. As a general rule, women shouldn't drop below 1200 calories a day, and men shouldn't drop below 1500, unless they're supervised by a doctor. Dropping below these numbers can actually cause your body to go into "starvation mode," and you won't lose anything! Your body thinks it won't be getting the next meal, so it retains whatever fat it can in order to survive.

Before starting any weight-loss program, check with your doctor to make sure it's a safe plan. Good luck to you!

Answer 2

Well, if you want to feel like crap, go ahead. The more processed the food, in general, the lower the nutritional value. If you ate 1000-1500 calories of chips and soda, you would rack up the calories a lot faster that if you ate the same amount of calories in lean protien, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain products, and water, plus you would get a lot of the vitamins and minerals that you body needs to function properly. You could take a multi-vitamin with the Chips and soda, but it's not the same. Research this by reading the Nutrition labels of different foods. On a bag of chips you'll see that you get a lot of fat, sodium , and calories for a serving (Usually 15-20 chips), and hardly any vitamins or minerals.

Answer 3

Calorie counting is not exact, it is really just a way of measuring what you eat and giving you an estimate. The problem is that 1 peice of fruit means what...an apple is different from a banana. 1 slice of cake will depend on the size of the slice.

If you want to keep things are accurate as possible, then you would need to only eat processes foods which list the calories.

However, combination of different food can change how much of the calories you absorb into your body and of course fruit and vegetables contain a lot of other good things as well.