Shaun Kober: So the first thing we need to understand when manipulating bodyweight, is energy balance.
Okay.
What is energy balance?
This is where we look at calories.
Calories in, calories out. You can also use kilojoules. It depends where you are in the world. I
personally like using calories as a measure because it's a little bit more universal.
So what is a calorie?
A calorie is simply a measure of energy. This can refer to the energy that we consume through food and drink, or it can refer to the energy that we burn through the body's metabolic processes, daily movement or activity levels, exercise, and what's called NEAT.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
Okay.
So the law of thermodynamics states that:
To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. This puts you into a calorie deficit.
To gain weight, you must burn less calories than you consume. This puts you into a calorie surplus.
To maintain your weight, your calories in must equal your calories out. This is caloric balance or maintenance levels.
A few of points here:
1. Too much of anything will get stored as fat, even healthy foods.
I've done a post on my Instagram, many, many years ago, maybe I'll post this again in the coming weeks, of a salad that I used to make that was pushing like 1,000 calories. Okay. Because it was very high in fat, (and this is something we'll talk about - macro-nutrients, in a moment) but it was very high in calories because of the fat content.
It had salmon, feta cheese, olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocado, eggs, etc. So yes, most people think salad is healthy, and yes, it is healthy. However, if I'm eating three of those salads a day, and I'm pushing 3,000 calories and my maintenance levels at 2,400 calories, for example, I'm now in a 600 calorie surplus. That means that that extra energy is going to be stored.
2. Small amounts of anything will probably not get stored as fat, as long as you are in a calorie deficit.
So there was a study that was done many years ago, which is now known as the "Twinkie diet." This was in 2010. There was a professor Mark Haub, who was a Professor of Human Nutrition, at the Kansas State University. He lost 12 kilos in 10 weeks, eating a diet consisting of mostly junk food.
So how did he do this?
He reduced his daily caloric intake from 2,400 calories (maintenance levels) to down between 1,600 to 1,800 calories, and didn't change his exercise habits. Okay. Now this proved beyond reasonable doubt, the law of thermodynamics. It showed that you could eat junk food, and as long as you're in a caloric deficit, you're still going to lose weight.
What actually happened was he improved a lot of his health markers at the same time. Now, was that from eating junk food? Or was that because he lost weight? Likely because he lost the weight. Now, this was a short-term study. Okay. Over 10 weeks.
What it doesn't show is, long-term implications of this way of eating. If you eat shit for long periods of time, you're going to feel it. You're going to be missing out on optimising macro-nutrient ratios, which all serve a purpose, as well as vital and essential micro-nutrients, which are vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, etc. which play an extremely important role in a healthy functioning metabolism, and are required for many of the body's metabolic processes.
3. Calorie quality counts.
If you eat a hundred calories from an apple, and a hundred calories from a Mars bar, which one do you think is going to be more easily processed by the body, and provide the most nutrients required for normal bodily functions.
Okay. Pretty simple really.
Ideally, we want to consume the majority of our energy, and macro and micro-nutrients in the form of real, minimally processed foods.
What does that mean?
Real food is real food.
It doesn't have a barcode.
It doesn't have an ingredients list or nutrition label that's full of 20 ingredients that you can't read or understand. If it swam, it walked, it flew, it grew in the earth, it's likely going to be minimally processed, be of good high quality, and contain multiple colours of the rainbow, which will provide you a lot more in terms micro-nutrients: vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients - than eating highly processed foods.
So there's actually been studies done showing that, people not tracking their food, but just eating until they're "full" or 80% full, that were consuming the majority of their calories from highly processed foods, on average ate 500 to 600 calories more per day, than the people that were eating non-processed, or minimally processed foods.
Food for thought.
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