Quality vs. Quanitity (DIETFITS Study)

Because you can't outrun a bad diet!
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La
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Quality vs. Quanitity (DIETFITS Study)

Postby La » Tue Feb 27, 2018 8:53 am

The headlines read: "The Key to Weight Loss Is Diet Quality, Not Quantity, a New Study Finds" (NY Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/well ... w-fat.html

The reality: "Yes, Calories Counted (Literally) In The Recent #DIETFITS, Low-Carb, Low-Fat, Shootout Study" (Weighty Matters)
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2018/02/ye ... ly-in.html
[links to the actual study in that blog post]

My takeaway:
It's both of course.

The currency of weight is certainly calories, and while we all have our own unique internal fuel efficiencies when it comes to using or extracting energy from food or from our fat stores, at the end of the day, we still need a surplus of calories to gain, and a deficit of calories to lose.

But don't kid yourself - foods matter too. Choice of food matters in terms of health, but also in terms of how many calories our body expends in digestion, and more importantly, upon satiety, which in turn has a marked impact upon how many calories, and which foods, we choose to eat (and of course to health, but that's a whole different matter).
\

I also read a comment on that blog post (on FB) that resonated with me, which is that if you're currently overweight and have a poor diet, focusing more on eating healthy foods WILL yield results. But if you're already eating well (more whole foods, less processed foods, restaurant meals and take-out), you really do still need to count calories to ensure you are running the required deficit to lose weight.

On a personal level, the challenge is that my ever-slowing metabolism is making it hard for me to know how many calories I'm actually burning at rest and during activity so that I know how much I should be eating. :?
"Maybe I will be my own inspiration." - UltraMonk (Laura)
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Jwolf
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Re: Quality vs. Quanitity (DIETFITS Study)

Postby Jwolf » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:09 pm

Good points!

La wrote:I also read a comment on that blog post (on FB) that resonated with me, which is that if you're currently overweight and have a poor diet, focusing more on eating healthy foods WILL yield results. But if you're already eating well (more whole foods, less processed foods, restaurant meals and take-out), you really do still need to count calories to ensure you are running the required deficit to lose weight.


Definitely!

You hear about so many people who claim the key to their weight loss was not counting calories, all they had to do was "cut out sugar" or "eat more protein" or "eat more veggies" or "cut out flour", etc. The bottom line is that these choices that they made to improve their diet resulted in less calories eaten.

My goal right now is to get back to better food choices because I know I'm eating too much crap, which leads to eating too many calories. Specifically I am aiming to eat more lean protein, more vegetables and fruits, and less processed crap and sugar.
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