I know that this post is going to fly in the face of a lot of nutritional dogma, but I think it is about time we faced up to the fact that calories are not all created equal. What’s more, when you start thinking about calories that you intake and calories that need to burn to lose weight, that calculation never seems to work. Calories are an outdated way of thinking about food and weight loss and you have to learn to look at food in different ways.
What is a Calorie?
The first thing you need to know is what a calorie is supposed to represent.
When asked, most people will say that calories are the amount of energy that is stored in the food that they eat, and, basically, that is correct. But that it is not the whole story. If you take the common nutritional wisdom about calories as truth, then you would say that every food has energy in it and that certain foods contain more energy than others. For example, by common caloric measurements, both proteins and carbohydrates have about the same amount of energy stored in them (about 4 calories per gram) and fat has over twice the energy (9 calories per gram). This is where the wisdom behind keeping fats out of your diet comes from: there are more calories in fat than in protein and carbohydrates.
Okay, that is all well and good, but let’s stop for a minute and find out how this “energy” is determined.
A calorimeter is a scientific tool that is used to measure calories. To use it, scientists place a food in the calorimeter and then burn that food to ash and measure the amount of energy it took to change that food from its original state to ash. Scientists will tell you that a calorimeter is a good substitution for what happens in the body (but don’t you believe it).
Caloric Consequences
If believed that a calorie was a calorie no matter what, you might make this kind of calculation:
Let’s say that you were eyeing that piece of cake and you found out that the cake contained 300 calories. In your mind you think, “hmm… 300 calories, I think I can burn that off by a little bit of exercise.” So you sit down at your desk and you calculate the amount of exercise that you need to do to burn off that amount of calories. It turns out that if you were running around 9 minute miles (not too fast), you would burn around 775 calories in an hour. [click here to see how many calories you burn per hour] So, you figure that you only have to run for around 20 or 30 minutes to burn off that piece of cake.
If you have ever tried this, you know how crazy this can be. Most people I know who have tried this approach to weight loss stop because they are too frustrated. I’ve had people report to me that they have exercised for one to two hours a day and still can’t lose weight. Shouldn’t that much exercise burn off the calories that they are consuming?
The answer is no, but let’s see why it isn’t so.
It Not the Calories
Using calories as a way to measure what you should be eating can only take you so far. The reason this is true is that you simply are not a calorimeter, you are a living being and not some laboratory tool. Something happens when you consume carbohydrates that is different from what happens when you eat proteins or fats… regardless of calories.
Let me show you why:
Imagine that you have a certain amount of energy your body needs and then you eat something sugary. In the first scenario, you are using exactly what your body needs; you are eating the exact same energy that you are using. If we were to graph that relationship, it would look something like this:
In this first scenario, your body is acting exactly like a calorimeter, you are burning all the energy that is coming your way.
The situation is exactly the same if you are eating sugar energy from carbohydrates and the energy you consume is under your energy needs, like this:
But what happens when you are eating more energy than your body needs at the moment? This is the situation were your body no longer acts like a calorimeter and calories don’t matter any more:
When you consume energy over your basic energy needs, your body now has a problem: what to do with that extra energy? Well, you probably know the answer to that question. Your body stores those extra calories as fat. This is what makes carbohydrates unique. This is what makes the thoughts about calories obsolete. This is what makes carbohydrates much worse than fats and proteins and this is what no one is telling you: calories don’t matter as much as blood sugar especially when you are talking about weight loss.
To lose weight, yes you need to burn more calories than you are consuming, but you also have to keep your blood sugar from spiking too high and causing your body to store that extra energy as sugar.
I as doing very well and then went on vacation…..while I did not stick to my 30 days sugar free, I did not go off target completely. Now I want to start the challenge again. do you have any advice?
Charlene, most people fall off the program and then restart. Even when I was writing Sugarettes, I would have problems. I would say keep trying and you will get there. What I find is that most people who try the program don’t stay on it forever, but, hopefully, they are on the program long enough to make some permanent changes to their diets and lifestyles.
Exercise and strict dieting can do magic if you are trying to lose weight. I did a lot of cardio just to lose weight.;-;
I don’t believe in calories, low fat, and all that stuff. I believe in high fat and protein, and no carb/sugar diets. The reason people loose weight on low calorie diets, is because they are putting their bodies into starvation mode when they don’t consume enough of them, and they WILL gain it all back very fast. I have thousands of calories per day, and I am doing just fine. I eat a lot of fat and protein, and very little sugar, and for the things that need sweetening, I use stevia. I have lost a lot of weight without even really exercising, and felt a lot better in the last year. Good quality organic coconut oil is one of the best things you can put in your body. Seriously, I eat it by the spoonfuls.
@arthritisremedy, I think you should stick to arthritis remedy spam and maybe not weight loss advice.
FYI if you eat like the good Doc says in his “30 Sugar Free Days” you’ll probably notice your arthritis go away
The most effective way for Losing Weight is exercise. You just do some cardio workout everyday like jogging and running for miles. That would effectively burn the fats in your body.
I have checked out a few of your posts and found some great information, just wanted to say thanks there is so much garbage out there, it’s nice to know some people still put time into managing there sites.
[...] The name Olson alone implies it is going to be good, although I have an obvious bias. Follow this link to the [...]
I have lost 6.5lbs since going sugar free 7 days ago. The food I eat mostly consist of lean meats, cheeses, avacodos, all berries, all nuts, all greens, water, stevia, and with the help of some good food ideas on http://www.fattoskinny.com
Thank you Dr. Scott for sharing your knowledge. I started my 30 day sugar free diet and I know I will love it. Three years ago I quit all the sugar stuff and was able to do it for 8 months. i ate home made whole grain breads and only whole grain products, vegetables and a little meat. I felt GREAT! On top of feeling good I always had a natural weight of 130lbs.
In our society it is so hard to eat healthy and not run into temptations.
Thank you for your support! I really appreciate it!
Cornelia
You are ruining things for the health/fitness magazines. If you give away the secrets, there will be no reason for people to need to buy books and stuff! I kid, but I wish I saw more discussion like this than surface suggestions on what to do to lose weight. Great article, Dr. Scott. My 30 Day trial went swimmingly and I’m going to stick with it!
Hubert Sawyers III’s last blog post..Day Trip: Frankenmuth, Michigan
If I eat more roast chicken energy than my body needs won’t it store that as fat too?
Leslie,
When you eat chicken, you are absorbing mostly proteins, fat, and some carbohydrate. It can convert the proteins and fat into energy, but this takes time and is under the control of the body: meaning it will only convert to energy what it needs. When you eat something sugary, the amount of sugar in the food is deciding what you blood sugar levels are, not your body. Since the body now has too much sugar, it has to make a choice and it usually chooses to store sugar as fat.
Thanks for you comment!
I have found that when I pay better attention to what I eat and making a conscious effort to add vegetables and fruits to my diet, that the weight naturally comes off.
Fred’s last blog post..What is Reiki? Demystifying an Ancient Healing Art
New blog post: When it Comes to Weight Loss, Forget Calories http://tinyurl.com/bpp6ba
[...] Original post by OlsonND.com [...]