To ask if this is bollocks or not re chocolate eating

[wineoclockthanks]

A friend has decided to start healthy eating (and lose weight) but still has a stash of Christmas chocolate.

She has read somewhere that if you eat it all in one sitting you are less likely to put on weight than if you eat it over a few days.

Surely this can't be right can it? Anyone know?

Watching this as asking myself the very same question. I’ve got a huge stash after Christmas. I’m thinking I’m going to scoff it all whilst watching dodgy movies on Saturday night

Your body can only process so much sugar at once surely, so it might be true.

I’d do the same but more from a will power perspective - eat it all to get rid so I’m not tempted while dieting, I never buy it myself but can’t stop thinking about it if I know it’s there. Plus having a bit can make you want more. Going low carb really stops the cravings, but one slip and it’s hard to stop.

Although she must have decent will power if it’s still there from Christmas!

I suppose if she eats it all at once she will get one big blood sugar spike, then start her diet/healthier eating, whereas if she eats a bit everyday she will be having blood sugar spikes everyday, and a bit of sugar might set off cravings for carbs that would sabotage her diet. I know that for me, with regards to sugar, going cold turkey works best.

I can eat 4 twixes and not feel sick so not sure how your mate will get o on

Get on

Not get o on

Well unless someone finds a study saying it's not true then it might be true.

Usually the weight takes time to go on, so it would be impossible to measure this unless the person was always the same weight and always ate the same food and then ate a 4 stone bag of chocolate one day in January.

In summary: it's worth investigating

A day off a week works for me. A bit of indulgence, then back on track.

Reading some of these replies, I wonder if all weight myths come from the same source? Is it women's magazines? Adverts?

All this calorie in etc shit. Has anyone ever wondered why their actual shit, the stuff that goes in the toilet, is so varied?

I did notice when my kids did Biology the emphasis was on ethics rather than actual science.

Depends on her digestive system?

I find that if I eat LOTS of junky sweet food, possibly TMI, I poo a lot.
Spread over a longer period, I wouldn't = so presumably I absorb more of the calories.

Calories in v calories out is the major part of the story of weight gain and weight loss. The way the calories are processed isn't precisely the same for everyone, but, broadly speaking, it's right.

I don't know about the science bit, but the part that doesn't ring true for me is that someone still has a stash of Christmas chocolate left over...

@ShastaBeast The amount of sugar a body will process is the amount of sugar it eats. If it was just somehow 'getting rid' of excess sugar (or excess anything), we wouldn't have weight issues.

@TotHappy - on the cocoa question - I was told once by a GP when I was anemic that calcium and iron compete for absorbtion and not to eat/drink high calcium and high iron together. He said though that it is the iron, not the calcium that loses out. ...but when I checked more recently studies seem to say things balance out in the end but there is short term inhibition of iron uptake.

If she eats all the chocolate at once - and it’s a substantial amount - it could make her feel very ill, give her diarrhoea, etc., to such an extent that she never really wants to eat chocolate again? Voila! Weight loss.

*Disclaimer to my post above - Individual experiences may vary and this does not qualify as medical advice

I was always under the assumption if you eat food quickly it doesn't stick so you don't gain weight.

Is this why I'm fat?

On another note I used to mention dieting years ago and people would say"no! You don't need to diet!" Now when I mention dieting people give me tips and recommend diets. Nothing like people agreeing to make you realise you're now fat

I now often chuck chocolate out.

Dontgo I think it's worse when you sat to friends that you've put on a bit of weight and they oh no you look slim you don't need to lose any when you know that you clearly do. Those friends are the ones I never take clothes shopping as I won't trust them for an honest opinion.

Is this from the same school of thought that calories don't count on your birthday.

Thank you for all the wisdom! So it seems mum may be right but still no need to think cocoa is nutritionally void as presumably you still get the fat from the milk and whatever is good from the cocoa.