Key To Fat Loss: All Calories Are Not Equal

Key To Fat Loss: All Calories Are Not Equal

You have been told that if you will simply eat less then you will lose weight. Upon first hearing this it sounds correct, but in truth in can be terribly wrong.

It is true that your calorie intake will affect what you body looks like. But it is not the only factor that will determine if you burn fat or will carry more fat. There are a number of other different factors that also have an influence. Below you will find a few of them.

The Fiber Present in Your Food

Fiber can do more than just help keep you “regular.” Although fiber is a carbohydrate it acts a little differently than the average carbohydrate. For the most part fiber goes undigested. Each gram of fiber will contain four calories just like that average carbohydrate however since much of it is not digested and absorbed it does not affect you as much. Think about it. Many foods are high in fiber. If you were to eat more of them and from 1/3 to ½ of the calories were not digested, how good do you think that would be for you? After all, why do you think that fiber keeps you regular? It is because it is not digested easily and make you have to “go” more often.

The Glycemic Index of Your Food

The glycemic index was created so that you would know how quickly a particular food will enter your bloodstream as sugar. Did you think that only sugar entered your bloodstream as sugar? This is far from true. In fact, many of the carbohydrates that you eat will be broken down as sugar. How do you think that we got so fat as a nation when we embarked on low-fat diets? The average low-fat diet is loaded with carbohydrates that were converted to sugar and then got stored as fat. You may have even gotten fatter on that low fat diet. Maybe you ate too many low-fat danish. Foods that are high on the glycemic index also create another potential problem: high blood sugar. This makes sense because the carbohydrates are broken down into sugar and then loaded into your bloodstream. When this occurs your body goes into action. It does not want too such sugar in your bloodstream so your body sends a hormone called insulin to the rescue. Insulin is used to remove the sugar from your bloodstream. When insulin removes the sugar it will attempt to store it as glycogen which can be used later as energy. Your body will store very little glycogen at any one time, so the insulin will store the sugar as saturated fat. In case you were wondering, this is not good. You body can also become resistant to insulin. If insulin is always present you body just tends to ignore it and then you have a whole other problem called diabetes. But that is another article.

You want your body to burn fat. But if you are supplying it with a constant supply of sugar through your carbohydrate intake then your body will burn that first and it will never get around to burning the fat. So eat foods that are low on the glycemic index. Your body will thank you.

The Macronutrients in Your Food

Insulin not only removes sugar from your blood stream to store it but it will also do the same with fat. If you were to eat a large high carbohydrate meal that is also high in fat (i.e. pizza) then you have the perfect storm for fat storage. Instead of focusing on foods that are high in carbohydrates you should attempt to eat more protein. Protein has the highest thermic effect of any of the macronutrients. Thermic effect is a fancy of saying the amount of energy that it takes to digest your food. You body works harder and will spend more energy digesting and absorbing protein that it does with carbohydrates or fat. Don’t get me wrong this is not going to make a huge difference but every little bit helps.

The Size and Frequency of Your Meals

If you eat meals more frequently, it will help you to lose fat at a quicker pace. But remember you have to eat smaller meals if you are eating more frequently. When you eat smaller meals you give your body the chance to actually use the nutrients that you just ingested. When you eat a large meal it results in an increased insulin response and greater fat storage. Smaller meals will prevent these spikes in insulin. Also, avoid big meals before you go to bed. You have heard it said many times that this is not good. You do not want to deter overnight fat burning.

So you see it is about more than just the number of calories that you consume, it is equally about the type of calories that you eat.

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