Not all calories are created equal: let’s talk macronutrients 🍎
In case you missed it: I went on a tear last week (here) about the faulty old “calories in-calories out” model that SO many women (and their trainers!) are STILL following when it comes to weight management…
Without seeing results.
Some of you had questions, so I thought I’d offer one last thought for now on the topic of calories, since it’s such a hot and often misunderstood topic.
(And thank you for responding and asking questions! I read ALL of your emails personally)
Before we dive in, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression about me: I don’t love dwelling on this topic because calories tend to be the focus of yucky diet culture, and that’s NOT what I’m about. I NEVER EVER give clients prescriptive diets that have them counting or weighing anything. That makes me sad and it drives most people crazy.
The ONLY thing I’ll say that’s positive about understanding your rough caloric intake is that it IS helpful to understand approximately how much energy you’re taking in when you eat so you don’t overdo it…
Especially if you’re trying a new eating style, as many of you are right now as we start a fresh new year, whether that’s a high protein, moderate fat, low carb thing or something like keto.
So what do I mean by “not all calories are created equal?” We’ll look at this from 2 angles here.
Firstly, different macros (macronutrients) have shockingly different #s of calories per gram:
1g of fat = 9 cals
1g of protein = 4 cals
1g carbs = 4 cals
1 g of alcohol = 7 cals (woah!!)
…Notice that fat has way more calories per gram than carbos or protein…(also, check out alcohol! Weird, right?)
In practical terms, this means that if you’re following a high-fat + low-carb diet, you need a much smaller volume of food in general to satisfy your daily caloric needs.
(After all, a “calorie” is literally just a measure of the energy food can give us. 1 calorie is defined as the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water temperature by 1 degree Celsius = ~4.2 joules.)
Of course, if you put too much food energy (calories) into your body without putting it to use as activity relatively soon after, the excess is stored as fat for later use…a brilliant adaptation that used to be oh-so-valuable for our survival, but sucks for us today. We went over this in last week’s post.
This is why if you’re unfamiliar with how much energy (calories) is in the food you eat, it CAN be useful to read nutrition labels for a little while to get oriented, or use a free nutrient tracking app (like Chronometer) just to get a handle on what is calorically dense and what’s not.
Again, I want to be super careful here: honing that level of awareness is VERY different from obsessive tracking! We’re talking rough ideas here.
Anway, the idea above - that each macro varies wildly in the calories it contains per gram is the first half of today’s “not all calories are created equal” chat.
The second idea is this:
The different types of macros/calories affect our bodies in totally different ways!
It’s wayyyyy too simplistic to think that 100 cals of protein does the same thing to your body as 100 cals of carbs or 100 cals of fat…
The three macronutrients — fats, carbs, and protein — affect your body in VERY different ways.
Not all calories were are created equal.
Take for instance a high-protein + low-carb style:
You might think that you’d be hungrier after eating a smaller, high-protein meal because your meal size is smaller, BUT…
That high protein meal is SO much more satiating (by weight) than a meal with the equivalent grams of carbs - you just can’t eat nearly as much on a high protein diet.
Why?
Because there are a few really magical things about protein:
Protein is VERY satiating - even MORE than fat - but it has FAR fewer calories, so it helps you feel more full with less food AND fewer calories.
Mmmm, love my post-workout chocolatey protein shake with blueberries and creatine!
This is partly because protein reduces your levels of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin…and women tend to have higher levels of grehlin in perimenopause!
It also boosts the levels of a “fullness peptide” called YY, which makes you feel full.
These effects on appetite can be very powerful: in one study, increasing protein intake from 15% to 30% of calories resulted in overweight women eating 441 fewer calories each day without intentionally restricting anything! Wild!
Anyway, the bottom line here is that not all calories are created equal, and that’s partly because of their calorie content but also how the different macros affect your body.
Yes, (healthy) fat and protein are both awesomely and satiating, but fat does have more than double the calories per gram compared to protein and it’s not as functionally amazing at supporting your health as you age (another post for a later time).
I hope this article has been helpful towards how you think about the ever-present and confusing question of “how much / what do I eat?”, by far the most common question I get when it comes to nutrition.
If you enjoy this content, please let me know and please follow my social channels @drmarypines! I read ALL your comments on everything, and appreciate you very much for it!
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If you’re a woman in her 40s who wants to go deeper and get my personal help to transform your health, balance your hormones, ignite your metabolism and lose weight the healthy, lasting way, check out my Better Beyond 40 Formula program - watch this video and book a free call so we can chat about what’s holding you back and come up with a winning plan for your success moving forward.
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