Excess Calories, Carbs, Fats, or Additives? Which is MOST fattening?

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   FitnessTomposted 12 years ago

   The order of most fattening to least fattening is as follows:
   
   1. Additives (example: high fructose corn syrup)
   2. Carbs
   3. Fats (only the bad ones)
   4. Calories
   
   Anyone care to discuss?

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      Medical-Attorneyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      And we all thought it was Fats and calories as told by TV

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         FitnessTomposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly. It is especially ridiculous, because reducing calories below your daily energy requirements and/or avoiding certain fats promotes weight gain, not loss!

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            rcrm89posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Please explain how?!

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               FitnessTomposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               1. Reducing calories causes your body to shut down many of its normal processes to conserve energy -- this leaves you feeling lethargic. This also potentially permanently damages your metabolism. Here's the kicker: eventually your brain will force you to eat to counter that lethargic/hunger feeling, at which point you gain everything back plus maybe more.
               
               2. Saturated fat plays a huge role in fat metabolism. It has no effect on your bad cholesterol or triglyceride count. This has been disproven many times now by numerous studies. Avoiding saturated fat makes weight loss that much harder.

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                  FitnessTomposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Having said that btw, meeting your daily energy requirements makes you feel good. Raising them, by say doing exercise, makes you feel better. It makes your metabolism (TCA cycle) run faster.
                  
                  Weight loss is more about how well your TCA cycle runs, not how many calories you consume. However, eating excess calories can overburden your TCA cycle which will lead to fat storage and weight gain.
                  
                  There is no case in which cutting calories back is needed for weight loss. Doctors that promote this method are misinformed unfortunately.

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      BlissfulWriterposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Totally agree with the order of most fattening being 1) High fructose corn syrup, 2) Carbs, 3) Bad fats
      
      I'm glad you got it correct that Carbs is more fattening than Fats -- especially high-glycemic carbs such as sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. 
      
      Calorie counting is not the way to loose weight.  Not eating carbs is.

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   Disturbiaposted 12 years ago

   Well I don't know all the bio-mechanics of it, I just know that I don't eat a lot of processed junk and I exercise every day.  I am now in my 50s and still the same size 5 I was in my 20s.

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      Home Girlposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Do you have any children, Disturbia? Having 3 ruined my metabolism. Had to struggle for many years not knowing what to do. For me sugar is the biggest enemy. I just love sweet things!  I know sugar + fat+overprocessed food "improves" your weight so fast. Biggest I weighted was 180 pounds! And I am not very tall. Eventually after 20 years of starvation - deliberately, I learned what to do with my food intake, so I can keep it in 150ties level but cannot move lower with my sedentary and stressful lifestyle. Sugar is no-no. It gives you wrong cravings, eventually pushes you into eating more than needed and wrong foods! It's a bad guy.
      In some cultures they eat a lot of fat per se and have no problems. All kinds of processed fats and cooked fats and oils - that's what's killing us. We eat poison with lots of sugar, our overloaded bodies in desperate attempt to get rid of it retain a lot of water and we walk around like birthday balloons ready to soar but in reality just suffering miserably.

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         Disturbiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I have children, but I have always been thin and I think it's just genetics. My mother was thin and she was not the Betty Crocker type so there were never sweets or cookies backing in the oven when I came home from school. I think that's why I don't have a sweet tooth for pastries and candy, especially chocolate like many of my friends seem to have.  Give me a piece of ripe fruit or some juicy berries with my own home made yogurt and that's plenty dessert for me, in fact that's a meal for me.  My diet is as plain, as organic, and as raw as possible. My home is like a mini-farm where I grow most of my own veggies and herbs in my gardens. I have a small orchard.  I make my own yogurts and mayonaise, do my own canning, and raise chickens, both to eat and for eggs.  I eat very little food that is processed.  Also, my lifestyle doesn't lend itself to sit down meals.  I just seem to "snack" all day long, grazing so to speak.  I have a great deal of excess energy so I really need and enjoy my exercise.  If I don't walk or workout I start climbing the walls and driving everyone around me crazy.  I'm not very tall either Home Girl.  I'm only 5'2" and right now I'm around 105 lbs.  I have actually gone up to about 115 but that was during a time when I was very unhappy in my marriage and using food inappropriately as a crutch.  I don't think I've ever had a problem with my metabolism, at least not with it being too slow anyway.

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   Home Girlposted 12 years ago

   Your life style explains your weight and proves my point nicely. My parents gave me bad eating habits and lots of sweets. My lifestyle is as far from being healthy as it can be. I am suffocating in a big city and crave open space and fresh air... one day may be, one day...

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      Disturbiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, Home Girl, I agree.  I think a lot of our tastes are developed because of the foods we are exposed to, not to say that one couldn't crave sweets even if one didn't grow up with them.  However, you can change the foods your body craves.  My friend is doing a ten week  "cleanse" and she is already no longer craving some of the foods she used to.
      
      I really don't know which of the things on the list is worse for you, but it's only common sense that too much of any of them is bad.   So what I take away from this is you should eat enough calories so your body doesn't think it is starving, and you should limit your carbs and fats.  Also, additives are very bad for you.  I try to avoid as many of those as I can.

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   Home Girlposted 12 years ago

   We can train and develop our tastes same as everything else. After 20 years of drinking tea without sugar I cannot drink it with sugar anymore. I started to like pizza, I hated it when I came to Canada. Certain foods in Canada look appealing now when I am used to it. I am still craving some butter but I know Canadian butter and bacon are not good. I still cannot live without meat but I eat less of it. The road is not ended I am still walking it. Learning is lifetime process, knowledge is power, it puts you in control of things, your life included.

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      FitnessTomposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Disturbia: I wish everyone would have a similar eating lifestyle to you.
      
      Home Girl: Butter is fine. As long as its natural without any additives. Try coconut oil, it is SUPER healthy and promotes so many good things including weight loss.
      
      Dr Robert Lustig said in a radio interview that for many people it can take up to 5 years to kill sugar cravings. As you said Disturbia, we train our tastes. Food is addicting.
      
      Having said that, in many cases these cravings can be largely reversed quickly by stabilizing blood glucose and eating frequently.

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   pleasure11posted 12 years ago

   Reducing fat doesn't mean that you will have to leave all the calorie foods and skip a meal.It does no good, only makes your brain idle and blunt.Diet must be in a balanced way that will not harsh your metabolism.

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   fit2dayposted 12 years ago

   I don't think that calories should be on the list because the other 3 are calories in different forms. Nonetheless, I would say the additives are the most fattening because the body isn't made to process them and so they're more likely to be stored as excess fat.

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   FitnessTomposted 12 years ago

   Through much more extensive research of peer reviewed studies, I would change that list to:
   
   1. Calories
   2. Calories
   3. Calories
   4. Calories
   
   Reason is simple: not additives, nor carbs, nor fats are fattening at all when you are at a daily caloric deficit.
   
   For example: as long as you're not consuming 200+ grams of fructose each day, and you're in a caloric deficit, you will still lose weight and improve health markers even at say, 100 grams per day.

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