Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Diet Nutrition Tip

Question:
I have a few basic nutritional questions: Suppose that to maintain my weight, I need 2,000 calories per day... How exactly does it make a difference if I get these 2,000 calories either via fruit, skinless chicken, etc., or via 2,000 calories of Haagen-Dasz? Which basically begs the question, what is the relationship between saturated fat, caloric intake and body weight? There are diets that state that carbohydrates are a real no-no. Why is that? Using spaghetti and bread as an example, in choosing a good brand, while not low-fat, their percentage of saturated fats do not seem to be so high. So why is there so many anti-carbohydrate diets?

Answer:
A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. You will lose weight eating a healthy 2000 cal diet or 2000 cals of haggen daz. However, you will be severally malnourished, ill and very unhappy. What is the point of losing weight, if you are in worse shape when you reach goal. As for carbs. Well, some people feel that carbs make them sleepy, causes mood swings and other stuff. So it works better for them to restrict carbs. It works for some people just like ww works for some people. There are not really so many low carb diets. It just seems that way because they are in the mainstream, when in the past they were not. They also get a lot of attention because they Saturated fat is very unhealthy. It is the worst type of fat health wise. However, 2000 cals of sat fat will still mean weight loss if you BMR is 2000 cals. But again, you will be less healthy. The reason why the big low fat craze started was when it was discovered that one gram of fat has 9 cals. protein and carb gram are only 4 cals. So the idea was that if you reduced you fat intake, you would lose weight because you would eat less cals. A gram of fat is more fattening then a gram of carbs. The idea was flawed, but it made sense on paper. The idea that fat is bad for you has been around for a long time, but moved in to the main stream when the cal discrepancy came to light.