New research time!
And today we’re going to look into a popular weight loss topic.
And when you think about weight loss, one of the first things that comes to your mind
is probably the dreaded word we call CALORIES.
And when we think about word calories, we think about counting them, avoiding them,
burning them, and of course completely forgetting them in about 2 weeks and wondering why the
weight loss suddenly stopped, but that’s a topic for another day.
Proponents of calories as a weight loss tool often boil it down to the simple phrase of
“calories in versus calories out,” or CICO for short.
That is, to lose weight, the amount of calories consumed, aka the amount of food you eat measured
in calories, must be less than the calories you expend, aka the amount of energy used
by the body which is also measured in calories.
Calories in versus calories out.
Now in the most fundamental sense, weight loss does indeed boil down to this exchange
of energy.
It’s hard to see that ever changing as research after research has shown calories being the
common factor in weight loss outcomes.
Even in one extreme case study, a professor lost weight eating only junk food simply by
making sure he was in that calorie deficit.
He ate largely twinkies and powdered donuts, but personally, I think he would have been
better off with zebra cakes and chaco tacos.
But that’s how clear calories are for weight loss or even weight gain and maintenance.
Calories matter.
Unfortunately, the use of calories for weight loss often leads to the misguided advice of,
“you can eat whatever you want as long as you count your calories.”
And, even as a calorie advocate myself, I do think it’s important to tell you wonderful
people that calories in fact are NOT equal.
Yes, for weight loss they might be thanks to a little thing known as the laws of thermodynamics,
but weight loss itself is only one factor in achieving a fit and healthy lifestyle.
That’s something we often forget to discuss.
And based on this new study, the source of your calories does seem to be quite important.
Now before we dig in, as always a disclaimer, this is only one study thus it should not
be used to formulate any concrete conclusions.
It’s more so new information that helps us further expand our understanding of the
many wonderful facets of health and fitness.
Now, let’s check it out.
In this 2022 study, due to the ongoing prevalence of obesity in the world, researchers wanted
to investigate an approach to weight loss that expands to more than just counting calories.
Again, we know calorie restriction leads to weight loss and in obese populations, weight
loss alone can even improve a wide variety of health markers.
Outside of calorie restriction though, does the actual nutrient composition of your diet
matter?
Can it make an even bigger impact in overall health?
Well, let’s see if this study gets us closer to answering that question.
In this 12-week study, 110 participants within the ages of 40 to 70 classified as abdominally
obese were split into three different groups.
We have the high-nutrient group, the low-nutrient group, and the control group.
The control group unsurprisingly stuck to their habitual diet.
For the two other groups, subjects were placed on a 25% calorie restriction, eating 25% fewer
calories than their estimated daily calorie needs.
The groups also matched for alcohol, sodium, and total fat intake.
Where they deviated were on a few key nutrients.
For the high-nutrient quality group, monounsaturated fats accounted for 13.4% of their total energy
intake, whereas only 9.3% accounted for the low-nutrient quality group.
7.7% of energy intake went to polyunsaturated fats for the high-nutrient quality group,
4.1% for the low-nutrient quality group.
3.1% went to fiber for the high-nutrient quality group, only 2.2% for the low-nutrient quality
group.
10.3% went to plant proteins, my favorite stat, for the high-nutrient quality group.
5.7% for the low-nutrient quality group.
And finally, fructose, a type of sugar often found in fruits but also processed foods,
accounted for 3.4% of energy intake for the high-quality nutrient group, and 7% for the
low-quality nutrient group.
As you can see, the nutrients considered quote “healthy nutrients,” unsaturated fats,
fiber, protein, were allocated more in the high-quality group and the simple sugar fructose
was higher in the low-quality group.
Very distinct differences in nutrient composition.
And now, for the results.
First, the big thing, weight loss: Unsurprisingly, with such a high calorie deficit,
both groups lost weight.
The high nutrient quality group on average lost 8.4 kilograms, or about 18 and a half
pounds in 12 weeks.
The low-nutrient quality group on average lost 6.3 kilos, or about 13.8 pounds in 12
weeks.
A very clear advantage to higher quality nutrients.
It was also clear that, for cardiometabolic health, the high-nutrient quality group was
indeed more effective.
Both diets did improve health markers like reducing overall body fat, reducing liver
fat, improving blood pressure, and increasing insulin sensitivity, showcasing that calorie
restriction itself can provide meaningful health benefits and also reducing risk of
diseases like type 2 diabetes.
The high-nutrient quality group, though, also saw greater improvements in fasting cholesterol,
triglycerides and lipid synthesis.
Overall, the added benefits, along with improvements on fasting blood lipids and lipoproteins,
the high-nutrient quality diet provided an anti-atherogenic effect, which means mitigating
buildup of yucky plaques in one’s arteries, which is a huge deal.
On top of that, again, they did also lose more weight.
The reason why is not entirely clear.
The researchers chalked it up to potential variability in energy restriction, differences
in energy metabolism, a difference between insulin sensitive and insulin resistance subjects,
unforeseen changes in physical activity, or possibly greater adherence due to an increase
in satiety, or the feeling of fullness, provided from an increase in protein and fiber intake.
Regardless of whatever the case may be, by simply shifting your weight loss diet to contain
more unsaturated fats, more fiber, more protein, and less sugar, you’re setting yourself
up for potentially greater weight loss and greater health.
Which is awesome.
Of course we do need to point out some limitations of the study:
The subjects were between the ages of 40 and 70, which is indeed a great deal of our population,
but I know most of you watching this channel don’t exactly fall in that age range, so
we cannot technically generalize these findings to younger populations, although there are
a good deal of overlap.
But not to leave you wonderful kiddos behind, I did cover differences in nutrients between
weight loss diets before, more specifically differences in protein intake.
We’ve seen that, although it does not lead to greater weight loss, a high protein diet
can lead to more of the weight lost being body fat while preserving or even increasing
lean mass, like muscle mass.
So there are benefits for you younger kiddos to at least consider your protein intake.
I’ll leave a link to that video in the description if you want a bit more info on that.
Another limitation of this study is that it did rely on self-reported dietary intake.
In other words, the subjects themselves were responsible for logging the food they eat,
which isn’t the most reliable dataset.
It might even explain the difference in weight loss if there was a clear bias towards misreporting
in either group.
Even then, the plan was to simulate a more practical life setting rather than have everything
controlled in a lab, and given the circumstances, in my opinion, they did an overall decent
job.
Now finally back to the question, what does all of this ultimately mean?
Are all calories equal?
In the most technical, thermodynamic sense, yea… they are.
No study will every truly challenge that.
A calorie is technically a calorie and strategizing your weight goals based on calorie estimates
is about the most practical method you can use.
Anyone telling you that you can lose weight without a calorie deficit probably should
be given a powdered donut and go away.
BUT MR PICTUREFAT, THEN HOW COME PEOPLE LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT COUNTING CALORIES!
Just because you might have heard someone losing weight without ever counting a single
calorie does not mean that they were not in a calorie deficit.
It’s just that whatever diet they were on, did result in a deficit without them knowing
it, probably from an increase in protein, so kudos to them, but it doesn’t change
that calories in its technical sense, still matter.
But in the sense that calories are attached to different types of nutrients, then calories
are not really all that equal and your calorie composition most definitely matter.
No, whether it’s twinkies or chaco tacos, you should not try to lose weight eating whatever
you want just because you meet your calorie goals.
It matters that calories come from good sources, more protein, more fiber, more unsaturated
fats, less processed fats, less added sugars, and so on.
That’s the way to do it right.
Anyway, make sure you aim for the nutritious good stuff, set a good moderation for the
questionable stuff, do a good amount of that exercise stuff, and then your stuff should
be stuffed towards the right stuff… stuff.
Calories matter folks.
Anyway, if you enjoyed this video, please give it a stuffy thumbs up and share it with
your calorie-loving friends.
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As always, thank you for watching and GET YOUR STUFFY PROTEIN!