In my own experiences of losing weight, I am also convinced that a "calorie is not a calorie." I have my best success when I stick to foods that are "full-fat" and satisfying than to have foods that are "low-fat" that instead have hidden sugars and salt to make the food palatable.
For instance, take "no fat" yogurt with fruit on the bottom. That fruit on the bottom is mostly sugar and you might as well be having a soft drink with all the sugars you will be ingesting. But go with a plain whole-milk yogurt and while you might get 4g of fat, there is virtually no added sugar. If you want, you can add frozen blueberries or some other fruit yourself. I prefer frozen blueberries however as it makes the yogurt taste like an ice cream sundae - only without all the sugar. Having that full-milk yogurt will generally keep me full until lunchtime.
Maybe I’ll start a pinglist for this topic. Not sure what to name it though...Diet? Food?
My husband and I are on a low-carb diet. I don’t count calories at all.
Today I had an Atkins frozen meatloaf dinner and added frozen broccoli florets with a little butter for breakfast. For lunch I had some sliced chicken breast.
For dinner, we’re having a mostly meat but with some black beans chili, with some yoghurt.
I was pretty heavy. About 80 pounds overweight. What finally worked for me was intermittent fasting and strength training. The fact is, if you don’t increase your lean body mass, you will always have to limit your calorie intake. As you increase lbm, even while at rest you will burn more calories than before.
There is another dynamic at work.
The more you work out, the thinner you get and the less you weigh.
And the more fit you are.
I don't eat as much as I used to, but I am also now addicted to exercise and fitness.
I.e. I want to eat right so I can improve my fitness.
The Weight Watchers plan, recently updated, uses “SmartPoints,” which are calculated using a formula that includes calories, saturated fat, sugars, and protein.
I was a little irritated when they took fiber out of the calculation, but a food that is high in fiber is often high in protein, too.
And yes, a cup of Chobani yogurt and a bottle of Dr Pepper have about the same calories. Yogurt has been turned into a dessert, like coffees and other items.
stop eating WHEAT ~!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it will change your life- I promise
The more you work out (particularly doing cardio) the higher your metabolism. And the more calories you burn and the lower you appetite.
I don't understand it...but it works.
Plus cut the carbs and go heavy on the protein, fat (yes fat), and fruits and veggies.
You ever read any Denninger on this topic?
The problem with simply dieting is that you lose muscle as well as losing fat. Muscle tissue is what ups your metabolism to help you burn those calories. So unless you are also doing something like weightlifting to maintain and increase your muscle mass, you are usually fighting a losing battle. The other thing is that, for the same volume, muscle weighs more that fat. So you may not think you are losing that much weight on the scale, but if you are actually building lean muscle, you are going to be much leaner even if there is not necessarily that much weight loss.
Losing weight is definitely about more than calories consumed/calories burned. Need to look at the body’s fat storing and burning processes and how different foods and ingredients affect those processes.
Counting calories burned is not an exact science because we all have different metabolisms. I have hyperthyroidism, high metabolism. A blessing in some ways, but makes it hard to maintain muscle.
Just eat less and exercise more. People who obsess on calories are just avoiding the whole question. There is no way that you won’t lose weight if you expend more fuel than you load on.
yep.
I agree with your observations.
If I want to lose weight, I eat just foods that fill me up and stick with me.
For me that’s meat.
On a lighter note...comedian Brian Regan talks about reading food labels...and serving sizes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBko_3wT44Q
I never eat diet food or anything that is not full fat.
With anything low fat the flavor is always replaced by sugar. Sugar destroys gut flora.(Ask any rancher/farmer if they would feed sugar to their livestock and they will tell you no - they figured out long ago it kills them)
Bread and regular store bought pasta are among the worst things you can possibly eat. In this country they add an chemical to our wheat products that destroys your gut flora.
Soda - diet soda might have no calories but it makes you crave more food , again it destroys your gut flora.
Grains are fed to livestock to make them fat. Our recommended food pyramid has way to many grain servings on it. Most of our grains are also stripped of their nutrition and what they strip out of is used for animal feed.
Margarine is worthless nutritionally and is really bad for you. Real butter is great for your body and so is coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil.
Eggs - they are one of the best foods there is
Yogurt - most of the stuff in the grocery store is biologically dead and full of sugar . May as well eat a candy bar . Plain yogurt (if you can find it full of probiotics) or kefir is much better for you.
Kefir is very similar to yogurt but not as thick .
I make smoothies in the blender with it for my husband and he loves it. The man normally hates to eat fruit so this is how I get some down him.
I just use a little kefir + a tiny bit water + a small amount whatever fresh/ frozen / dried fruit(like prunes) I have around and toss it in the blender.
Kefir is really easy to make yourself too (yogurt is easy to make in a crock pot)
Counting calories will get you one thing - more weight gain after you stop starving yourself .
It’s a about controlling your blood sugar and having good gut flora.
I have been thin and muscular all my life , my husband is the opposite . I never ever eat diet food and lots of people gasp when they see me sit down to eat (oh yes I can eat my steak and then your too lol )
I made a deal with my husband that he would lose a ton of weight and body fat if he stopped eating out and stopped eating what he wanted and only ate what I put before him .
He dropped 60 pounds and he is not hungry and he does not crave stuff .
Dieting never works
Interesting and accurate.
BML...
I started with a Fitbit Charge HR in May of last year. After 6 months, I lost 30 pounds. That was with diet and exercise. I ate my share of pizza! I also found that I really liked the chicken salad at Quiznos. It is really tasty. I also agree that full fat yogurt is the way to go.
Being a male, I set goals at 3,000 calories expended per day as a minimum. I also averaged 16,000 steps per day. A lot of those steps were on an elliptical trainer which allowed me to get my heart rate up. I also goaled myself for at least 1 hour of cardio exercise a day. On most days I was over 1.5 hours of cardio. Getting your heart pounding really makes a difference.
My doctor is quite happy with my new weight and says that at this point, being fit is more important than further weight loss.
As an added bonus to being fit, my son invited me to go skiing with him this weekend. :)
Thanks for posting this.
I think a lot of dieters make the mistake of exercising after eating. If you put food in, the new calories are being absorbed and are readily available in the bloodstream to be burned by the activity of the exercise so no stored fat needs to be burned.
To burn fat off the body needs to be active at a time when you have been in a fasting state. I think exercising before breakfast is ideal in that you have not taken in calories for many hours so the muscles have to tap into the stored calories. For fat loss this works well. For general maintenance of physical fitness it is less important.
"And then I realised that every human eats their food cooked."Gee, I never would have thought of that -- I guess it takes a highly trained anthropologist to make such a startling and insightful observation.