Food for thought
I think most of us could testify to the truth of this:
What would happen to your weight if you added a tasty chocolate chip cookie to your daily diet without making any other changes? So you don’t exercise any more than you do today and you keep eating everything else that you’re eating today. Except for that extra 210 calorie chocolate chip cookie.
Your weight would go up, right? In fact, there’s a pretty well-known relationship between net calories consumed and changes in body weight than should be able to tell us by how much. That relationship tells us you will gain one pound for each additional 3,500 net calories you consume above what it takes to maintain your weight at a constant level. Likewise, you should expect to lose one pound for each 3,500 fewer net calories you consume with respect to what it takes to keep your weight steady over time.
As you might expect, the entire weight loss industry is largely built around this basic relationship. The only problem is that it the math behind the relationship doesn’t work in real life.
What happens in real life is that your body’s metabolism will adjust over time to compensate for the additional calories you’re consuming, in such a way that the amount of weight you might gain will be much smaller than what that 3,500 calories = 1 pound relationship would predict.
Comments
22 Responses to “Food for thought”
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RoadID
I’m surprised this is news to anyone. Maybe I’m too much into science but clearly that is the way it should work. Once you reach the new equilibrium point of calories in vs. calories out your weight will stabilize again.
Twitter: gregstransform
This was information I needed 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. It surely would have saved me a lot of heartache over the years.
But I’m older and wiser now.
Twitter: tippytoediet
I don’t understand the science of it, but I always knew it was not an exact correlation. Those little ‘extra cookie a day’ habits do tell in the end (and the tummy, and the jowls) though.
I disagree.
The whole idea of adding 210 calories a day is hypothetical in the first place. In reality, if you add a cookie to the diet, the person may not eat as much mashed potatoes during dinner. But in the hypothetical realm, 210 extra calories a day will add up to an extra pound in a couple of weeks.
As the person gets heavier, their basal metabolic rate will go up. and so when they gain 8 kilo (18 pounds), they will require about 200 more calories than they did before, and so the extra cookie will be a wash.
of course, presumably the person will be hungrier and eat more, and i think the extra cookie presumption means to say on top of what the person would otherwise eat.
i would say that most people don’t keep eating more and more and more. and yet, if left unchecked, most people continue to gain weight over time. and that is because if you let yourself eat even a little more than what you need, that little bit adds up every day.
I don’t know for sure where I stand on the cookie issue, but I am not a real believer in calories. Maybe I should explain a bit, I think there is something to it, but the system has inherent flaws. For example, a cooked carrot and a raw carrot have the same calories. Which do you suppose is more easily digested? While it is not the only factor, the speed in which food digests has an effect on our bodies ability to use that food.
Wouldn’t this just make the temptation of eating that extra cookie or treat higher?
Twitter: dtsnake
I will not eat the cookie every day….. wonder if the same holds true for ice cream ? just kidding
Twitter: ronmichel1115yahoo.com
Eat just one cookie? If I am eating a cookie, then I am eating a 2nd, a 3rd, and more. Cookies in the diet are just not going to work for the average person trying to get healthy. Math or not to prove or disprove it, just not going to work.
This weight & calories stuff is always interesting. The thing is, once you start letting yourself have that one cookie.. does it lead to more little snacks or nibbles here & there??? Now that you have to watch out for if all else stays the same!
The only time I’ve ever eaten only 1 cookie is when I’ve only had 1 cookie available!
Twitter: AndrewENZ
I think that is the point of the original article. That it’s not just maths. The body adapts to what you put into it or takes out of it.
Twitter: AndrewENZ
I want to know how many people stop at one cookie…
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Seriously — it works out to be complex math, but it’s still math. As your average daily calorie consumption rises, you will gain weight in the form of both muscle and fat. This will in turn cause an increase in metabolism, and so your weight will stabilize. But if you repeat this trend often enough, you will be overweight.
Been there. Done that.
Twitter: livefitblog
Mmmm, cookies! (in my best cookie monster voice)
Twitter: dadshrinks
I think the premise is fine. You are adding calories and not working them off. Plus the body adjusts
Twitter: billjw05gmail.com
Well, you just convinced me to add a cookie a day to my diet. Thanks.
Twitter: seejoerun
The only thing missing in this analysis is the TYPE of extra calories that you consume when you eat that cookie. Namely, processed sugar which your body immediately converts to fat by way of a spike in your insulin levels. If that extra 210 calories came from lettuce, for instance, you would be unlikely to gain any weight.
The whole calories in must equal calories out thing is a bit misleading and a massive oversimplification. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that everyone read the book “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes. It is an eye openner.
I had a cookie one day after lunch at work last week. That lead to 3 the next day. And 3 the next with another 2 at the next break. By the weekend, I was eating bags of candy and McDonalds again. I got control only when I felt so ill yesterday that I had to miss my gym workouts. And the scale put me back into the 150′s which took me months and months to get out of. That one cookie was NOT worth it.
I run, therefore I can eat more cookies.
Interesting discussion – I’m leaning towards Vava’s comment. I burn a lot of calories in a day, but don’t necessarily eat any more than a skinny person not eating those calories. I’m starting to try and change my habits to healthy food eating, rather than calorie (or WW point) counting.
As for cookies – we just don’t have them in the house, poor kids! LOL
I think that should read “skinny person not BURNING those calories”
Makes sense, we aren’t as static as the health industry tells us we are.
Its a good thing too.
Twitter: jayloss
I will not eat the cookie every day….. wonder if the same holds true for ice cream ? just kidding
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