[alok-g]

Newbie question: I find zero-fat food that is very high in protein and reasonable in sugar. Such food also is high on calories. Is food with 230 calories (zero from fat) the same as 230 calories (120 from fat, zero grams protein) in terms of weight loss? I am avoiding the latter, do I need to avoid the former too?

[mzarate06]

If you want to lose weight, the type of calories don't matter as much as quantity. So in regard to the 2 230 calorie amounts you've cited, they'll both contribute to weight loss, or weight gain, equally, depending on what side of a daily or weekly caloric budget they land on.

Consider this:

A popular belief is that 1 lb. of fat contains about 3500 calories. [1] By that measure, and assuming you regularly eat at maintenance calorie level each week, eating 3500 calories below what will result in about a 1 lb. reduction in body weight that week. (which realistically turns out to be mostly fat, but can also include small amounts of lean muscle, too).

Whether you create that deficit from removing sugar, fat, carbs, or protien doesn't matter.

But that's solely for weight loss. When you simultaneously want to increase lean muscle, exercise and protein become more important. Also consider medical conditions that require adhering to certain diet regimen.

So I'm not saying that, globally, what you eat doesn't matter, only that weight loss primarily comes down to maintaining a caloric deficit. To supplement, of all the diet programs out there ... Atkins, South Beach, and even intermittent fasting ... the one thing they all have in common is that they promote a caloric deficit, somehow. And they have to, other wise they wouldn't work!

[1] Some argue the 3500 calories = 1 lb. of fat is bs. All I can say is that I've based my caloric deficit on it and it seems to hold true. I dropped my weekly caloric budget by 7k calories, and have been losing about 2 lbs. a week.

[alok-g]

This helps. This understanding is what I was looking for. Thanks!

Seems to fit my case too. I am cutting down by about 400-600 calories per day and have been loosing at about 4-5 lb per month. I am intending to loose another 10 lb while building some muscle, and got confused by some articles I came across online which talked about increasing protein intake significantly.

[wavesounds]

Your body does not digest fat and turn you into fat, just like it does not digest broccoli and turn you into broccoli. Whats actually important is carbs vs protein. You wan't to eat things that are high in protein and low in carbs, theres many schools of thought that say fat doesn't matter at all anymore. You can learn more by searching for Paleo and Ketosis on Google or Reddit. Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor or dietitian just sharing whats worked for me.

[alok-g]

Oh! My understanding so far was that fat gets stored in the body as long-term energy reserve while sugars form short-term energy reserve. Proteins on the other hand make up the muscle mass. So what I have been trying for the last two months is to force my body to eliminate excess fat deposits by practically eliminating fat intake, reducing sugar intake to make the body low on energy and start digesting the fat reserves, and finally also augmenting proteins (with exercise) to build muscle mass.

Are you suggesting that I can continue to consume fat, as far as I do not increase my calorie intake (say by cutting down on carbs correspondingly)?

I'll read the reference as time permits. Thanks for the same.