Is a calorie a calorie

All Calories are not Created Equal!

You’ve heard it over and over. . . “Calories in Calories out; burn more calories than you consume and you will lose weight. Exercise more, eat less it’s that simple.” This would seem to make sense on the face of it; after all it follows the first law of thermodynamics as applied to human energy balance. But this is not the whole story, not all calories are created equal.

Picture this example: two people weigh the same and need to lose the same amount of weight. They exercise the same amount of time and both consume a diet of 1400 calories; both are in a calorie deficit. One eats salmon, broccoli and brown rice, the other feels he wants to enjoy his life, so he eats 1400 calories of donuts each day– yum! To avoid boredom, he rotates the flavors; maybe jelly-filled for breakfast and buttermilk glazed for lunch. Donuts are from 200-400 calories each, so that’s about 4 – 7 donuts per day. Do you think they will lose weight at the same rate?

The answer is no! Refined, high glycemic carbohydrates like our friend the donut will cause spikes in insulin levels and eventual insulin resistance. In the long run this will lead to diabetes. In the short run it will make you fat. Your pancreas will pump out insulin to handle the increased sugar load. The insulin will convert this sugar into glycogen to be stored in your liver and muscles. But you can only store a very small and limited amount of glycogen. With all that sugar coming in all day long the excess gets stored as fat.

People are Not Created Equal

It is important to realize that people are not all the same as well. An equal amount of calories for one person does not metabolize at the same rate as for another person. This could be due to differences in body type, stress levels, or exercise duration or intensity for example. So if you are dealing with a chronic level of stress, not sleeping well or enough or not exercising you will be more susceptible to gaining weight with the same calorie intake as some else having a more balanced lifestyle.

Food is not Created Equal

During the act of digesting food we actually burn calories. This is called the thermic effect of food (TEF). What if donut man ate 3 donuts for breakfast and one for dinner? His digestive system is doing very little work with all those hours between donut feedings, so he will burn less calories per day than our happy salmon eater. The thermic effect of food is not the same for all food. Mr. Donut will not like this news but carbohydrates only burn about 6-8% of calories through digestion. Protein (ie. Salmon) has the highest burn rate of all the macronutrients, a whopping 25-30% of calories burned off during digestion. At this point it should be plain to see that a calorie of salmon is not the same as a calorie of a Dunkin Donut!

The Stress Hormone: Cortisol

In addition to the adaptation of storing fat when you do lots of aerobic exercise, it also creates excess stress on your body. When your body is stressed it releases a hormone called Cortisol, which stimulates your body to store fat. Stress from work or lack of sleep has the same effect. Cortisol is especially responsible for belly fat because belly fat contains lots of cortisol receptors. Also an enzyme is released in the belly that binds to inactive cortisone to make more active cortisol and the cycle continues on.

Conclusion

By now it should be obvious that a calorie is not a calorie. What you eat can be just as important as how much you eat. Of course if you eat way too much of a good thing you will gain weight too. But the lesson here is that by increasing the quality of your food you can change the impact of those calories on your system. And by reducing stress and doing the right kind of exercise you can create an environment in your body that will burn those same calories at a greater rate.
So don’t just count calories, instead try to eat till your about 80% full. Shift your ratios so that you eat more protein and less carbs (simple carbs, that is). Do more exercise, manage your stress and get more sleep. And finally, don’t skip meals, sespecially breakfast, eat every 3-4 hours to keep your metabolism humming.