Carb calories

[NaturalScone]

I watched a few videos about processed foods and such, like the Dr Mosley guy, stuff about low and high GI foods.

Which made me wonder, If I ate a 500 calorie dish containing 120 cals of pasta, and the rest veg/protein...would it make me gain weight or alter my body composition as opposed to a 500 calorie dish without the pasta?

I know that carbs/protein, etc are all processed by the body differently, and one would have to be careful if prediabetic. But in a fairly average, healthy person does it make such a shocking difference?

The reason I am curious at the moment is that 4 days ago I introduced a small, ciabatta roll to my meals, but my food/calorie intake hasn't increased. I now look slightly bigger in the mirror, although this could definitely be unrelated to the poor ciabatta roll. And I would imagine you couldn't gain that quickly or visibly, within 4 days of 1 new carb joining the party. Or can you??

I used to practically live on bread and pasta, back in the days when people considered it super healthy, and was always very slender. I always tended to gain eating stuff like cheese or fattier carbs like pies, etc.

I know there are people who are evangelical about quitting carbs as a cure all, but I would prefer to keep eating some as my body and brain like it in healthy versions.

It would for me. My body is wholly carb intolerant. Even whole food carbs like apples and potatoes make me gain weight.

I can eat 1700 calories a day low carb but if I ate more then 30% of those calories from carbs I gain weight.

It would make a difference to me too. The weight gain is water rerenton because carbs encourage your body to retain water but it would leave me feeling really bloated and uncomfortable.

I know that because I've tried.

I limit my carb intake to under 50g a day.

For me, the 'looking bigger' would be water retention and bloating. One day eating normally again and I'd look the size, and and the weight, I was before.

But from one small roll?
It just seems so unlikely. But who knows!

I tend to bloat and puff up for days after drinking wine, that does seem to remain ever popular though

I also wonder how cultures who incorporate rice, bread and pasta don't seem to have had issues with rising obesity. I'm sure many now are, having been introduced to fast food and so on, but it was ok before. And not everyone's job is now sedentary...

Despite everyone’s answers claiming they’re somehow the exception to science; no - if you are in a calorie deficit you could eat 500 calories of potatoes and it wouldn’t matter, you’d lose mass.

calories are energy and although our body uses each type of energy differently at the end of the day if we are eating less calories than we are expending you will lose weight.

carbs retain more water per gram than other macronutrients (protein or fats) so that’s why after a carb fest we can weigh more the next day but it’s not fat, it’s water retention. That won’t cause you to gain fat though overall, water weight will dissipate over the course of the following day(s)

It's like a religion, this low carb mania.

I can only suggest that you monitor yourself & believe that what happens to your body being true for you.

Some people "tolerate" carbs better than others. The weight fell off me once I started low carbing, I lost three stone in three months, and keep it off if I stay low carb. I took a 10 day break from it over Christmas and gained half a stone.

But other people a low calorie but not low carb approach seems to work better.

If you use an app that calculates your macros it’ll make it easier. I use My Fitness Pal. It’s free.

Last night, my boyfriend cooked and everything was low carb but he'd made himself a small naan. I had half of it because it smelt really nice! 🙄

We went out for the evening and I had to come home early because I felt so uncomfortable. I was really bloated, my abdomen was swollen and hard to touch and I felt like I was carrying a medicine ball around inside me.

Veeything else we ate was stuff that I'd normally eat. That's how I react if I've eaten carbs. So yes, one small roll would do that.

And yet, low fat is seen as sensible... 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think the point some people (me included) make is that if you low carb you don't need to eat to a deficit and will still lose weight.

I used to religiously stick to 1200 calories and, after a while, weight loss would stall and I was always hungry.

My experience is that I rarely feel hungry low carbing ( because of the effect on and of insulin) and I eat around 1500 calories a day and lose weight and maintain the weightloss better than I ever did doing low fat and calorie counting.

I did keto for a while and my macros were 20g carbs; 60g protein and 135g fat. I ate around 1500-1600 calories a day and lost 2 stone which I kept off by moving to low carb. I couldn't maintain eating 135g fat a day because I simply wasn't hungry enough to get it all in!

Well I am only one data point, but I went very low carb for a good while in an attempt to monitor my IBS.
So I am an example of someone who went low carb, ate all of the other things, and gained weight. I substituted many carbs for natural healthy fats.

So maybe moderation and balance is optimal, although if someone is uncomfortable after eating bread, there's no need to eat it i suppose.

I bloat horribly and feel incredible discomfort after eating leeks, raspberries and mash. Not all together But not with bread. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule.

I am surprised at 1/2 a piece of nan bread causing such a huge reaction, perhaps you have an intolerance? I am like this after the foods I listed above, I so wish I could eat bananas..

Oh, I was also very slim when I quit carbs. Within a few weeks of substituting for fat and protein i did gain weight. Maybe this was because I was small to start with and my calorie content went up.
If this is the case, then it is highly dependent upon your starting weight, and if the low carbing instigates healthier choices.

But to say that low carb will result in weight loss isn't always the case for everyone.

I think you are missing the point. You can ONLY lose weight in a deficit.

so if you lost weight, you were in a deficit. There is no other way to lose weight.

if you ate at 1500-1600 calories (regardless of the makeup of your macronutrients) then your maintenance calories (the amount your body requires in its current state to stay at your current weight) must be more, perhaps 1700 or 1800 or more.

a deficit doesn’t = 1200 calories
a deficit is any amount of calories below your maintenance calories.

if you are in a deficit the makeup of your macronutrients doesn’t matter (for weight loss only, of course it’s healthier to eat a balanced diet) but I’m sorry to say the carbs didn't make a difference to your weight loss specifically, the calories did.

if you lost weight you were in a deficit. There's no other way to lose weight

This isn't true. I did lchf and would have sausage, egg, bacon for breakfast, cheese and pepperami etc for lunch, takeaway for dinner, if we hot pizza I'd order the largest one and just eat the topping and a salad that was lettuce, those processed chicken satay skewers snd dressing. If we got kebab I'd eat the doner meat & salad. If we got Chinese I'd order crispy duck or lamb pancakes, only eat the meat, with chilli oil, crab claws, beansprouts etc.

I lost 3 stone. There's no way I was in a calorie deficit.

Refined carbs 'behave' differently in your body to unrefined.

Try eating two largish apples (approx 150 calories). See how you feel after one hour, after, two, after 4.

Another time try eating 150 calories of boiled sweets (about 12) and monitor how you feel. You may be unusual, but I'd bet most people will feel very different after them from how they did after the apples.

Can you please explain then how you lost weight if you don’t believe you were in a deficit?

i am talking about body fat, not water weight or temporary small changes that cause your weight to fluctuate. You cannot lose body fat unless you are in a calorie deficit.

unless you tracked your intake or activity levels during that time how could you say you were not into a deficit? You can still enjoy calorie dense foods and remain in a deficit - there are so many factors that can take you into the slightest of deficits, not just your diet.

I did no exercise whatsoever.

As for how, I was in ketosis, so burning fat rather than glycogen.

My tdee is around 1400, there's no way I was eating less than that. I was eating nuts, mayo, cheese slices slathered in butter with bacon.

There are more ways to lose weight other than lowering your calories.

I’d be more than happy to learn the other ways you can lose weight without being in a deficit. I didn’t say lowering your calories, you don’t have to do that necessarily at all, you can increase your expenditure by moving more but that would still put you into a deficit.

it’s not on me to prove to you how you are wrong, it’s on you to prove with evidence how you are right and how you can lose weight without expending more energy than you consume. :)

Also ketosis is just another form of burning energy, so once again it comes back to something putting you into an energy deficit. You can’t lose weight in ketosis by eating in a surplus. You can’t lose weight by eating in a surplus at all on any diet, ever.