It was long thought that weight loss simply involved reducing the calories consumed and increasing the calories expended. Common sense... that needs some nuance. Of course, there needs to be a certain balance between what we consume and what we expend, and it is useful to know our average energy needs and expenditure over the course of a day.
However, it also seems obvious that not all calories have the same effect on your body, and that consuming 100 calories from broccoli and 100 calories from sugar will not have the same consequences for your weight and health.
Here are the main reasons:
The number of calories contained in a food is not necessarily equal to the number of calories you absorb by eating that food.
What determines the ability of calories to be absorbed by our bodies?
- The degree of processing of the foods consumed. We absorb fewer calories from minimally processed foods because they are richer in fiber and therefore more difficult to digest. Processing is equivalent to pre-digestion; part of the work has already been done for you. For example, you will absorb more calories by eating almond butter (99%) than by eating the same quantity of almonds (75%).
- In addition, certain cooking methods can alter the energy absorbed. Cooling and reheating certain starches increases their resistant starch content and thus reduces their calorie content.
- Finally, each person's microbiota also influences their ability to absorb energy, with differences of more than 10% between individuals.
The type of food you consume influences your appetite and your ability to store calories as fat throughout the day.
Unlike whole foods, consuming sugar and refined grains or ultra-processed foods that are low in nutrients and high in hidden sugars causes an immediate spike in blood sugar, which has several consequences:
- A sudden energy spike
- The release of a hormone called insulin, which stores excess energy not used for immediate needs, first in the liver, then in the muscles (provided you have sufficient muscle mass), and then as fat!
- A strong feeling of fatigue and a compulsive need for something "sweet" to remedy it, and the vicious cycle begins.
Over time, your brain also becomes resistant to leptin, the satiety hormone, and thinks that you are constantly hungry. It therefore pushes you to consume more sugar and fuels your dependence.
The type of food you consume influences the number of calories you burn during the day
Eating, digesting, and absorbing your food requires energy. This energy expenditure is known as thermogenesis and accounts for 5 to 10% of the calories you burn each day. But here again, there are differences depending on the foods consumed:
- Each macronutrient generates a different amount of energy expenditure. Protein, for example, produces a much higher expenditure than fat or carbohydrates.
- The degree of processing of the food consumed also has an impact. With equal calories and macronutrients, digesting and absorbing unprocessed foods burns more energy than doing so for processed foods (as we have seen, they are "predigested"; your body does not need to expend energy doing it).
On average, it takes twice as much energy to digest real foods as processed foods. This difference allows you to burn an additional 80 to 100 calories per day without any effort.
Finally, be aware that other factors are involved in gaining or losing fat through their influence on basal metabolism, such as hormonal imbalances, the type of physical activity performed, lack of sleep, or stress.
📚 Also read
✨ Our Epycure solutions
