I am cutting down my calories at the moment to lose a bit of weight. I had an apple last night for a snack and when I tracked it on my calorie tracker app I realised it was pretty much the same amount of calories as a small chocolate bar. Does this mean that if I’m trying to lose weight I might as well be having the chocolate bar instead?
Obviously there is more fat in a chocolate bar but when I Googled it it said you should focus on calories more than fat
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Simply put: Not all calories are created equal. They are a good starting point for weight loss, but if you want more success, you need to distribute that caloric intake effectively across protein, carbs, and fats.
Different diets have different takes on what’s more important, but high-protein foods will make you feel fuller longer, and most plans try to limit (or altogether remove) carb intake, which is the biggest culprit of weight gain.
Candy bars have a large portion of carbs in the form of sugar and little else nutritionally. Apples come with a bunch of fiber (which helps the body process an Apple’s sugars much better instead of storing it as insulin/fat) as well as vitamin C , E, and antioxidants. Even if they have the same number of calories, the Apple’s nutrients and fiber content make it a better choice.
To answer your question directly?
No. A dude lived on gas station food for like 90 days to prove it, but he was heavily vitamin deficient at the end of the experiment.
. I believe the same experiment was done with fast food, but again, I recall there being complications at the end of the experiment. (I think blood pressure?)
To answer your question in a real world way?
Calories and macronutrients are a complex science, and often misunderstood. Your goals are likely best met by figuring out what method of dieting is most *sustainable* for you in the long term.
All calories fuel the same, but they do not fill the same.
You could eat 1500 calories of veg or you could eat 1500 calories of McDonalds. You would lose weight so long as you held to it (though water weight will likely differentiate between the two).
The difference between the two is that 1500 calories of veg is an awful lot of veg. And the more you eat, the less hungry you feel. Which leads to less cravings making you less likely to break on your diet. Lean, high protein foods (eg chicken breasts) are also great for keeping you full.
The best approach is to not completely ban any one food, but to work out a moderation where you are creating a calorie deficit (or maintenance if not dieting) over a long time period. You may have a day you go over calories by 1000 with a nice great big pizza. But if the next 3 days you were 500 under each, youd burn fat over the 4 days. When you find this balance, it won’t feel like a diet at all and you won’t struggle with hunger etc.
No. HUNGER.
Try eating your calorie limit in chocolate one day, and try eating your calorie limit in Apples another day.
With chocolate you will feel like you have eaten almost nothing. With apples you might feel so full you can’t eat enough of them.
But you are on the right way. By using a calorie tracker, you learn which foods have a better calorie/satiation ratio. If you only have 500 calories left for dinner, naturally the apples will look way more appealing then the small chocolate bar. And you will really struggle to justify a softdrink, if instead you could drink water and eat something else that satiates you.
Here is a study that gives you an overview:
[http://ernaehrungsdenkwerkstatt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/EDWText/TextElemente/Ernaehrungswissenschaft/Naehrstoffe/Saettigung_Lebensmittel_Satiety_Index.pdf](http://ernaehrungsdenkwerkstatt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/EDWText/TextElemente/Ernaehrungswissenschaft/Naehrstoffe/Saettigung_Lebensmittel_Satiety_Index.pdf)
Reduce white bread, eat Potatoes (not fried). Eat fruits and vegatables, reduce noodles.
Yes. If health was a video game nutirition has 2 stat categories.
Calories
Macro Nutrients
Calories keep your character moving and macro nutrients give passive stat increases.
But too many and too few calories causes a big stat nerf that undoes almost all the passive stats.
So most people recommend focusing on calories first, then nutients because you only really get the nutrient benefits if the calories are on point overall.
You can min/max it but any complications often results in worse consistency
Yes
Let’s take a fire. If you want a fire to burn for let’s say 1 hour, would you rather use 2 pounds of wood or two pounds of tissue paper?
One of those will burn very fast and will leave you wanting to add more to the fire your appetite), while the other burns more consistently and longer
TLDR you’ll lose weight either way, but what you eat can affect overall health and body composition.
Micronutrients are important for health. Fruits and vegetables have tons of these in general and they will help keep you healthier than a chocolate bar. Micronutrients cannot be used for energy, so more micros does not mean more calories.
Fiber is also important. Sugar (found both in chocolate bars and fruits) causes your blood sugar to spike which encourages your body to store fat and leads to diabetes. But fiber (found in fruit but not chocolate bars) causes you to digest the food slower which means your blood sugar won’t spike as much. If you’re eating at a calorie deficit no amount of blood sugar spiking will cause you to store enough fat to gain weight, but it might affect body composition (muscle versus fat).
Macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs) matter for body composition. If you eat more protein it will help maintain more muscle while you’re eating a calorie deficit. But genetics play a big role here too so no guarantee it’ll make a significant difference. Keto people will tell you that eating more fat and no carbs will encourage your body to burn fat as opposed to muscle; not sure whether this is scientifically supported.
Some food still have different nutrients in them. It’s not just that you need 2000 calories, but also that you need a mix of proteins, sugar, fats, and fiber; that you need various vitamins and minerals.
Even if the apple and chocolate have the same calories, the apple offers vitamins and fiber that the chocolate does not.
It’s true that “calories are calories”, when it comes to weight loss, but some foods will keep you satisfied longer, and may make the caloric deficit easier to endure.
High-protein foods and complex carbs (beans, whole wheat, etc.) tend to keep you satiated longer.
Sugar has a lot of calories but no protein or fat. No vitamines or minerals either.
Our bodies need a lot more than just energy to function. Lots of small digestive functions require us to intake different things to work properly.
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