Originally Posted by
RiverHills
Pamestique and Chasm,
I appreciate your effort, but you guys really need to educate yourselves on a few things. And no I’m not going to spend a lot of time citing references. Use google…
Lot’s of you talk about calories as if they are objects. How many calories IN a steak, how many calories IN a pound of fat, etc., and then all the statements that the only way to lose weight is to eat less calories. You don’t eat calories. Calories are not objects of mass. A calorie is simply a measure of heat energy that is released when burning, or in the body’s case metabolizing. So while a serving of broccoli worth 100 calories and a piece of cake worth 100 calories are both equal in that potentially they could both yield the same amount of energy when broken down, how the body uses that energy is a completely different and more complex story.
Yes it is true that you could eat a 10,000 calorie steak or 17 chickens and not gain weight (other than the mass of all that sitting in your digestive system while it is processes). This is why:
Your body burns one fuel and one fuel only: sugar (a simplification of glycogen). Sugar is the body’s gasoline. Not fiber, protein, fat, etc. The body can use those other things as fuel, but it first has to convert them to sugar. When you eat sugar, your body has not much converting to do. The sugar is fuel that is readily available for burning. Your body produces the hormone insulin as part of the metabolic process of burning sugar. When you eat more sugar than your body needs, your insulin level spikes. This increased insulin triggers your body’s survival mechanism.
You see it hasn’t been until modern times when we’ve had this problem of “oh how do I possibly eat less?” For thousands of years, man did not know when his next meal would be. So one of the body’s natural survival mechanisms is to store excess energy whenever it was available. When your insulin spiked, that is telling your body that there is more energy (sugar) present than what is needed, start storing the rest. This is exactly why weight gain and diabetes go hand in hand.
When you eat that 10,000 calorie steak, as long as you don’t eat any sugar with it, you get no insulin spike to trigger your body to start storing excess. For the most part, your body will take what nourishment it needs from the steak and crap out the rest. If you truly eat no sugar or carbs with the steak and your body needed energy, it would in fact break down the protein and fat in the steak to make energy. But the key is that it would not be triggered to store excess in reserve. Is it wise to eat a 10,000 calorie steak? Absolutely not. There are other implications like cholesterol and saturated fat that accumulates in your arteries, etc. But from a metabolic perspective, the 10,000 calorie steak is better for you than a 500 calorie piece of chocolate cake, most of which is going to be stored as fat.
This is exactly why the Adkins diet works.
The subject is what more complicated than this, but I have attempted to break it down into explainable terms for a forum post. The same is true for vegetables. Vegetables like broccoli that are low in carbohydrates, but high in vitamins and minerals and especially fiber, can be eaten almost unlimited. The high fiber of broccoli slows digestion because it is very complex to break down. Anytime you eat a lot of fiber, it slows the rate at which your body absorbs any sugar and thus reduces the insulin spike. Anytime you eat anything with sugar or carbs, you should also eat a lot of fiber with it.
Notice this has nothing to do with FAT. I once lost 60 pounds by cutting all fat from my diet and the result was poor health. Your body needs fats to make vital hormones. Your joints use it for lubrication, your brain uses it for many things, as do most major organs. The right fats are good for you and will not lead to direct weight gain. Also, studies have repeatedly shown that consuming the right fats, Omega-3s, coconut oil, etc. actually increase metabolism and lead to weight loss.
I will close with a word of caution:
If anyone out there whoever reads this thread wants to lose weight, please do not do so by blindly cutting calories!!!!! You will create a myriad of health problem for yourself. When you are a rigorously active cyclist, your body needs lots of nourishment that it will not get if you just stop eating enough like has been suggested in this thread several times. For starters, after an intense workout, your muscle fibers have been broken down and are craving protein so they can rebuild. Your body also can burn off essential amino acids and hormones during exercise that may not be replaced if all you are doing is eating less calories than you burn.
As cyclists, we need diets that are high in unsaturated fats, amino acids, fiber, and protein, vitamins and minerals. Those will not be stored in excess especially if you are physically active. Simple carbs should be avoided. The whole idea behind exercise is to become more efficient at burning sugar. When you age and your metabolism naturally slows, your body becomes less effective at burning off sugar and stores more in reserve. It’s an uphill battle, as I am perfect proof.