Many people here seem very knowledgeable about this kind of thing, so I thought you guys could help. I recently lost a decent amount of weight, and I'd like to keep it off (if not lose a tad bit more). I was just curious which is more important to watch, the amount of fat I eat or the amount of calories. Which leads more to weight gain? Some foods (like peanuts or other nuts) have a lot of fat, but not a ton of calories. Other foods have no fat but have a lot of calories. Which type of food should I avoid, high calorie or high fat? Thanks a lot for the help.

By the way, I just restarted my vegetarianism over the summer (not for weight loss reasons though). I had stopped being a vegetarian for some unknown reason to me, but I decided to pick it up again. I feel much better already.

Calories. As long as you're not consuming too many calories, you're typically not going to be getting too much fat.

Every time I see something labeled "low-fat" that is high in calories, I roll my eyes. Come on, people!!!

Definitly calories. Fat doesn't really have anything to do with weightloss. You gain weight by taking in more calories then you burn by living and exercising. So the more active you are, the more calories you can eat without gaining weight.

I agree with the others; it's calories that count. But I dissagree with what you said. Peanuts and other nuts are high in fat like you said but they are also very high in calories. There is no such thing as a food that's high in fat and not high in calories; it's impossible.

Every gram of fat in food contributes 9 Kcals. If you have 100 grams of nuts and the nuts are 50% fat by weight then you have 50 grams of fat. Those 50 grams will have 9*50 = 450 Kcals. And that doesn't count the calories from carbohdrates and protein. 100 grams of dry-roasted peanuts has 585 Kcals according to the USDA Nutrient Database; that's a lot of calories for only 100 grams of food.

It's important that you eat enough fat. Your body needs it! The best kind of fat is monosaturated, like what's in peanut butter, almonds, olive oil... This stuff is good for your heart and actually lowers cholesterol. And many things labeled "low fat" are chocked full of sugar to make up for the taste. Like regular peanut butter is healthier (and tastier!) than reduced fat peanut butter.

so you can eat as much fat as you want and not get fat as long as you watch your calorie intake ???!?!?!

so you can eat as much fat as you want and not get fat as long as you watch your calorie intake ???!?!?!

I believe it's true. The thing is, eating a ton of fat isn't the best for your overall health. But as long as your total calories are low, you will still lose weight (theoretically) even if you're eating 100% fat.

Consuming excess calories on a consistent basis is what makes a person fat. It's really easy to overeat if you're eating high-fat foods, because a tiny portion has a lot of calories. But in the end it's the calories that are making a person fat. You could probably gain weight on a low-fat diet if your daily calories were too high.

to understand fats better, read Udo Erasmus's Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill. It's an excellent book.

i agree with everyone here--calories in and calories out is most important. when your calories going in to the body match the calories used by the body (both at rest and during activity), then you'll balance out and maintain your weight.

also recognize that weight fluctuates on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis (particularly for women). It also changes based on body composition (body fat percentage), which is a better guage than weight. i use a 7 point caliper test.

As a registered dietitian, I must say that you all know your stuff!

Like it was said - excess calories make you gain weight. It doesn't matter where those calories are coming from (protein, carbs, fat, alcohol). I work in a private practice part-time and see a lot of weight loss clients. You would be surprised at the number of people who think that just because a food is "low-fat/fat-free" they can eat it until the cows come home. The same goes for fruit juice....I have clients who drink a half gallon of juice per day and don't understand how they gained weight!

errrr....none of this makes any sense to me...a fat vegan who rarely, if ever, exceeds 1800 calories a day and who gets plenty of activity. if it's as simple as calories in/calories out, why am i fat? and why is my husband thin, when he leads a much more sedentary life and eats 2 - 3x as much as i do? and why hasn't there ever actually been a study that definitively proves that fat people on average eat more calories than their thin counterparts?

Yeah, um..what she said. Great questions.

errrr....none of this makes any sense to me...a fat vegan who rarely, if ever, exceeds 1800 calories a day and who gets plenty of activity. if it's as simple as calories in/calories out, why am i fat? and why is my husband thin, when he leads a much more sedentary life and eats 2 - 3x as much as i do? and why hasn't there ever actually been a study that definitively proves that fat people on average eat more calories than their thin counterparts?

Because things like metabolism, height, and activity level come into play. You say you get lots of activity...but how much do you really get? And are you sure you're getting 1800? Not saying you're lying, but many studies have been done that people constantly underestimate how much they eat. Also, like I said, height is a factor...the shorter you are, the less your body needs, so the fatter you will get on the same amount of calories. How much do you exercise? It is recommended to get 1/2 hour to an hour a day.

uhm. how often do i have to repeat: body type

my husband eats far more calories than me, but those calories meet his needs. he's also "leaner" than i am. without weight training (with a different sort of exercise such as running, which he did before) he'd be a bean pole. it's just his body type.

my sister is quite different. Even at her most fit, she is "soft." her calories in equal calories out, and she maintains a healthy weight. She's just different than my hsuband.

Because things like metabolism, height, and activity level come into play. You say you get lots of activity...but how much do you really get? And are you sure you're getting 1800? Not saying you're lying, but many studies have been done that people constantly underestimate how much they eat. Also, like I said, height is a factor...the shorter you are, the less your body needs, so the fatter you will get on the same amount of calories. How much do you exercise? It is recommended to get 1/2 hour to an hour a day.

trust me, as a recovering disordered eater, i KNOW how many calories i'm taking in every day. it's usually more like 1500 - 1700.

i walk 2 miles a day (back and forth from my son's school, twice) + walk my dog three times around the neighbourhood + 7 days a week i have a toddler to chase after and entertain + 7 days a week i have housework to attend to + 7 days a week i spend anywhere from 1 - 3 hours on my feet, cooking. on tuesdays and thursdays i also do 1.5 hours of belly dancing practice. on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays, i also do 30 minutes of pilates and/or yoga. on saturdays, i swim 10 laps in an olympic sized swimming pool, and i attend my one hour belly dancing class. on sundays, i do the laps again. (i'm at the pool anyway, for my kids' swimming lessons).

does that sound like enough to you?

i'm 5'11".

uhm. how often do i have to repeat: body type

my husband eats far more calories than me, but those calories meet his needs. he's also "leaner" than i am. without weight training (with a different sort of exercise such as running, which he did before) he'd be a bean pole. it's just his body type.

my sister is quite different. Even at her most fit, she is "soft." her calories in equal calories out, and she maintains a healthy weight. She's just different than my hsuband.

apparently, zoebird, we have to have this conversation here anew every week or so.

this is my point.

everyone is all up in here saying that losing weight is as easy as calories in/calories out, but as soon as the fat grrls pipe up it's all, "oh well it's your metabolism/height/genetics/maybe you don't really know how much you're eating/did you know you have to exercise 30 - 60 mins a day"? derrr. which is it? is it "as simple as" calories in/calories out, or is it a complex mixture of a number of different factors and nobody really has an actual answer?

I always get confused by these questions, too. It seems that many people do everything right and still don't lose weight or they feel as if they are overweight.

I'm considered short (even though I'm average, 5'3), have a bit of a muscular shape, exercise daily, and eat about 1500 calories a day, and I think I am losing weight even though I'm not trying. In fact, I raised my calorie intake recently because I don't want to drop another size and have to buy more new clothes.

So why is it that Kreeli doesn't lose weight with all of her activities and great eating habits? It doesn't make sense. Does anyone know the answer?

i walk 2 miles a day (back and forth from my son's school, twice) + walk my dog three times around the neighbourhood + 7 days a week i have a toddler to chase after and entertain + 7 days a week i have housework to attend to + 7 days a week i spend anywhere from 1 - 3 hours on my feet, cooking. on tuesdays and thursdays i also do 1.5 hours of belly dancing practice. on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays, i also do 30 minutes of pilates and/or yoga. on saturdays, i swim 10 laps in an olympic sized swimming pool, and i attend my one hour belly dancing class. on sundays, i do the laps again. (i'm at the pool anyway, for my kids' swimming lessons).

Holy ****, Kreeli, are you sure you don't need more calories?!!! :)

If you gain weight eating a certain amount of calories and you want to lose weight or stop gaining, then you should eat fewer calories...everyone's intake needs varies and even cutting 100-200 calories a day can make a huge difference and put you on your way to losing weight slowly.

Everyone is different. When I excercised more regularly (2 1/2 hours of swimming and 45 minutes of strength training every day - I competed for swimming) I ate more than my obese 300 pound father.

Now, I find that I only need about 1,000 calories per day of quality food to feel very full and maintain my weight.


One thing I learned when weight training - if you build muscle you will start losing weight without doing anything else - because muscle burns more calories than fat. The first day of class the instructor told us that - I forgot about it until 3 or 4 months later when my jeans were falling off.

according to everything i've read (which is a lot) anything less than 1200 calories a day and you are risking health problems. 1200 calories a day is considered to be the lowest amount of calories a person needs to maintain simple body functions like breathing, brain function, and immune system maintenance. the world health organization defines starvation as being a caloric intake of 900 calories per day, or less.

1200 calories a day is "semi starvation" It'll drop your metabolism so fast... not that I would know or anything... 1200 calories, if you do it for long enough, will hurt you too. One ? that I have is someone can be very underweight and only eat junk, but it's okay and sometimes even praised, even though they are doing so much damage to their body, but then there's an overweight person, but who follows a healthy diet and lifestyle, and they need to change and there's something wrong with them and there are all these ugly stereotypes... I don't get it.

kreeli:

ah, now i see a difference in our conversation--you're equating being fat with needing weight loss. which are two different issues. Also, you use "fat" a bit more liberally than i do--i think. also, like artichoke--i thought--heck, she probably needs MORE calories, which may be why she's holding on to weight (if indeed it is *excess* weight and not what your body normally needs in order to maintain health)!

so, i'll tell you about my basic assumption. i think it's the difference between "overweight" and what you consider "fat." Any body type can become "overweight" which is holding more body fat than their natural, healthy body type would hold. I think that some body types are considered "fat," and people of all body types who are "overweight" are often considered "fat" (though, often, when ectomorphs become overweight, they tend to maintain a generally accepted size and shape and still fit into smaller clothing sizes, this seeming "healthy" and "normal"). Perhaps this is why i perfer terms such as "overweight" to "fat" generally speaking.

I don't like to use charts because i do not think that they are adequate indicators of health. they do not have enough varients, which is why i use a body-type approach. each person IS different--and what is the right weight for one person is not necessarily the right weight for another person. what is the right body fat percentage for one person is not the same for another.

So, for instance, you may have two people standing side by side. one is a 5 foot seven inch gal who weighs 155 lbs and wears a "size 10" (in US sizes at least). This is an average size here. Next to her is another gal who is the same height and weight, same size clothing. One is a natural endomorph. one is an ectomorph.

Endomorphs naturally carry more body fat than ectos. In fact, they need to or their bodies will be unhealthy. Ectomorphs tend to carry less body fat when they are healthy. As a matter of description, they tend to be stringy. In the example above, the endomorph may be just fine--and have found the perfect balance of calories in-calories out for her body type. The ectomorph though likely has a very high body fat percentage, higher than what would be "normal and healthy" for her. Now, since the size and weight are "ok" in a general acceptance standard, (and many people will say "you don't need to loose weight) it is likely that she should probably shed a few lbs to get to the right body composition for her body type.

this is exactly what my sister and i are. she's endo, i'm ecto. we're the same height, she outweighs me by 20 lbs. she wears a size 10-12. she looks great all the time, and she is very healthy. she is what many people would call "fat" but she is actually "just right" for her endo body. She is not "overweight" and i do not call her "fat." I could gain the weight and wear the same size clothing as her, but it would not be "just right"--i would be *overweight* and need to look at my diet, my exercise, and body type and see what i needed to do to loose weight and become "just right."

So, i think the real difference is what is "just right" for the individual? for some, it may be a higher body fat percentage than for others--and that's ok. Again, it's body type. the real question then can only be answered by the individual: what is my body type and am i at a healthy weight and body fat percentage for this body type? Am i overweight or am i "just right?"

If one is overweight, then they should look to diet, exercise, sleep, etc--if nothing else to strive to improve health overall, and often weight loss comes. If one is "just right" then they should just keep doing what they're doing. But, online, i can't determine if someone is "just right" or if they are "overweight." But, either way, the "calories in-calories out" will work for them as they determine whether or not they're "just right" or "overweight" and needs to loose.

and even harder, culturally "just right" may be called "fat" and similarly "overweight" might be called "fat" too. That's where it gets really confusing--and i think that's where you and i went in two different thought processes. :)

Kreeli- I'm sorry if I've offended you, if I did I didn't mean to. I'm not saying it's as simple as calories in/calories out, but if one wants to lose weight that's usually the way to do it, to exercise and eat less. I'm not saying that everyone of a certain height/activity level/calorie level will have the same weight, that's not true. The reason I said you may not know how many calories you eat is cause most people don't.

Artichoke47- the reason you're losing weight is because 1500 calories a day is considered to be dieting by most people.

Moonflower- You're praticly starving yourself. Normal dieting is usually considered 1200-1500 calories. Are you trying to diet? It's highly unlikely you're getting enough vitamins/nutrients/protein eating that little.

Moonflower- You're praticly starving yourself. Normal dieting is usually considered 1200-1500 calories. Are you trying to diet? It's highly unlikely you're getting enough vitamins/nutrients/protein eating that little.[/QUOTE]


I am NOT starving myself by eating 1000 calories per day! around 1200 is considered normal. 1000 is around 1200!

I eat "about" 300 for breakfast and lunch and 400 for dinner. I don't eat junk food often, and eat lots of whole grain bread, soy veggie "meat", low fat yogurt, reduced fat cheese, raw veggies - (I love peppers and tomatos!), potatos, spininch and other various Boca "meat" products and Amy's frozen dinners and soups.

These things are naturally low in calories and packed with protein, vitamins and fiber and even FAT! I only count saturated fat, I don't worry about overall fat.

Today I ate -

Breakfast -

2 slices Natural Ovens Whole Wheat Bread
2 pieces reduced fat string cheese
reduced salt V8

Lunch -

Veggies Ham sandwich with 3 slices Lightlife Ham and 2 slices Natural Ovens Whole Wheat Bread and yellow mustard. Green and red raw pepper slices, raw broccoli and tomatos.

Snack -

Low fat yogurt

Dinner -

Grilled cheese and veggie ham on whole wheat bread, pickles, and a beer.

(not the healthiest dinner, but nothing sounded good...)

I also drink about a gallon or so of water a day.

Moonflower, 1000 calories is way too low unless you're a small child. The average calorie intake for women is actually about 2000 calories. Anything under the 1200-1500 range is very dangerous. Between 1200-1500 calories is what your body requires for basic metabolic functions (heart beat, internal organs).

Sometimes when people diet on and off for a long time, they lower their metabolism so much that eating what to most would be a low calorie diet, they gain weight. Everybody's body is different, but anything under 1200 for a woman and 1500 for a man, is extremely low for calorie intake.

Moonflower, 1000 calories is way too low unless you're a small child. The average calorie intake for women is actually about 2000 calories. Anything under the 1200-1500 range is very dangerous. Between 1200-1500 calories is what your body requires for basic metabolic functions (heart beat, internal organs).



I have to agree with her. You write that "1000 is around 1200." If you're eating 1,000 calories a day, pretty consistently (for whole weeks or longer), then that's NOT the same as eating "around 1200-1500 calories a day."

Unless you're extremely petite, or you have damaged your metabolism, and you're extremely sedentary, it's hard to see how 1,000 calories a day could be enough, especially if that's all you're eating for months on end.

It's also possible that you are underestimating your caloric intake, but it's hard to say. I guess if you are counting, and you read labels, then you probably aren't.