Is a calorie a calorie?

I went to my support group last night. It was about eating out.  At some point in the evening my surgeon said something along the lines of "The basics of losing weight don't change.  If you eat fewer calories than you take in, you will lose weight.  A calorie is  a calorie."

I don't have any scientific background, but for me, I seem to process carb calories much differently than protein calories. If I let carbs creep into my diet, it really impacts my weight loss ... more than letting fat creep in.  Upping my protein seems to help my weight loss. 

Is it that carbs are so easy to digest and I can eat more?  Is it the metabolic make-up of protein?  Is it all in my head?

I've been pondering about this since the meeting.  What do you, my fellow lightweights, think?  Is a calorie just a calorie?

Kay

ultimately that is probably right...too many calories weight gain....too few weight loss...but then there is the way your body reacts to the kind of food you put in and how you loose weight...I think if we all ate 600 to 800 calories of bread a day we would lose weight....I know I have been on crazy diets and  lost weight....but the carbs slow you down for sure...since they are used as energy first and your body does not feed on itself...like it does if you just eat protein calories...but in the long run you would probably lose as much weight in a week if you ate protein calories or carb calories...fat has the most calories in it so it will also hurt weight loss...the body is a really simple machine and if we learn how to trick and manage it...it can work wonders. ....have a great day..SEAVIEW
 

Hopefully someone will point out the research that says that a calorie isn't a calorie.  I have read it but not bookmarked it so of course can't find it.

I know when I changed away from carbs to more protein, even at the same calories, I lost weight.  Was it just time for me to start losing again, who knows?  But, for me at any rate, a calorie isn't just a calorie.

You'll never convince me of that. If true, since all my docs have said calories in, calories out, I shoulda gotten skinny as a rail on 5 salads per week, huh? Never did.

Now I can eat or drink as much protein as I want, and lose or maintain. I do nearly 1000 in protein drinks alone (made with water), and roughly another 1000 in food.

According to one of the Tanita fancy schmancy model scales, I need 1156 cal to maintain about 110 at 5'1". I never get that low! I don't limit fat, but I don't eat butter by the stick or anything crazy.

Fats satisfy, carbs make us crave.

I'm a firm believer that part of the physical portion of our disease (I don't see obesity as a mental illness, hence why mental treatments don't work), and our bodies do not SPEND carbs, they STORE them. I can, as I said, take in endless protein, as long as there's no sugar in it. Few carbs, of course, and negligible fats.

Eat 300 cal in sugar, like cookies or donuts and hello larger sizes.

Read up on the history of a calorie.

I read an older article that boils down to the discovery of the calorie in the 1920's. How much time it took to burn a XXXXX in a specific type of oven, assuming all of us to be exactly alike and like that oven. We're not.

Luckily, my surgeon also never believed a calorie is a calorie, and only wanted us to count protein g in, sugar g out. Pretty simple formula, huh?

Vitalady,
 
Is the reason for so much protein supplementation, because of your malabsorption surgery? Do you eat any carbs at all? I think, if I ate 2,000 ca/day, even with all my exercise, I would gain weight, even if all my intake happened to be all protein.

Gail

Originally, yes. But I prefer how I feel on this much and it helps control my wt. Whey has a property of providing a bit of satiety without fullness, if that makes sense. I say it turns off my "wanter", just a little.

When I had to undo my foolishness a few years ago, my low carb was still 20-30g carbs. I don't count now, but I do have bread or potato or pasta or rice in small proportion with food.

It's just actual SUGAR I avoid.

Try it in protein shakes (no milk or fruit), meat, cheese, egg. Not veggie proteins or things like peanut butter or yogurt. Those are foods that contain a dab of protein, not proteins.

The more protein without carbs you consume, the more wt you lose and muscle you gain. Not big muscles,m just a lining between the bones and skin, so you don't look too skeletal. Pop onto my blog to see how it works IRL. LOL vitalady.com, click on Vitatour 2011 (or any year), you'll notice we were heavier in 05, 06.

I'm so glad I posted this topic.  This is much more complicated than I realized, but it is good to know others have been working through this issue too!

Kay

Technically yes...a calorie is a calorie - it's just a unit of measure. 

But there is so much more to it that leaves a lot of holes in the theory of calories in vs calories out and how it relates to weight loss.

I firmly believe the true measure is what your body does with the leftovers.  You burn food for energy and then your body does something different with each of the different macronutrients e.g. carbs (including sugars), fats, and proteins.  

I believe that the processing of the leftovers is what makes the difference in whether a person loses, gains, or maintains weight.

Protein calories convert to energy, feed the muscles and they burn fast and clean
Fat calories are filling, comforting, and help with skin, hair, nails, and digestive processes
Carb calories take more effort to process, get converted to energy to a limited extent and then get stored as your winter coat

I agree with Bekah. Technically a calorie is a calorie. So whether it's a gram of protein or a gram of carbs, it's still 4 calories in (and 9 for a gram of fat).

But, in addition to what she said, the different kinds of calories seem to effect your calories out. So, for insulin resistant people, carbs often slow the metabolism. So that means now calories out is less than if you had those 4 calories as protein compared to carbs.

Here is another way to look at it:

Carbs - quick energy, like tinder in a fire. They light easily but are gone just as fast leaving you sometimes hungry for more. But, if you are about to exert yourself physically, they can really hit the spot and be exactly what you need.

Protein - a more sustained energy, more like sticks of wood on a fire. They are a good type of energ for people with office jobs because we aren't going out and tilling a field so we don't need quick energy.

Fat - a very sustained energy, like the coals on the fire that just keep going and going. They are good as a base of energy that we can draw from over time.

A good fire requires all 3 kinds of energy sources and so do we.

Thanks for your insight! It is helping me come to terms with my food choices.

Kay