# Are all calories equal when it comes to weight loss? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975 "2016-09-26T21:28:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975/21 "2016-09-28T00:45:13Z")
One other effect that can occur with specific diets (that is, anything more complicated than “eat X total Calories”) is that it forces you to think about what you’re eating. In fact, with many fad diets, this is the _only_ way that the diet works. If, every time you grab a snack, you have to stop and think “How many carbs does this have? Is this a processed food? Is this on the list of foods I’m allowed to have on a day that starts with T?”, or whatever, the result is going to be that you don’t grab snacks as often. But of course, if you stick to a diet for long enough, or come back to it after already having done it for a while, this becomes a lot easier. “I know these pork rinds are low-carb, because I checked the label last time I was on Atkins, so I can just go ahead and grab a snack”. This might be the reason why Atkins is less effective the more times you go on it: The stop-and-think factor is reduced. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975/22 "2016-09-28T01:30:58Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > Thanks all for the answers! > > Does this mean that the Atkins diet (and other diets which restrict simple carbs) are more effective in fat loss than traditional diets which focus on restricting calories? … No. It merely answers an extreme hypothetical without fighting it. It states nothing about that question. > [@](#): > > I have heard that people who lose weight on a low-carb diet and then go off the diet, put on weight faster than those who lost the weight on a calorie-restricted but not low-carb diet. That is, my hypothetical twins blow their diets big time and spend a few weeks eating 3000 calories a day that includes a lot of sugar and other simple carbs. Will the twin who lost weight on the low-carb diet gain weight more quickly than the other twin? … Yes. Glycogen is obligatorily stored with water. A major (if not the major) reason for more significant weight loss right away in low carb is that one’s initial energy deficit comes to a large degree from glycogen stores, which releases water, which is then urinated off. As soon as one liberalizes carbohydrate (including complex carbohydrate) some the body replenishes those stores, along with the obligatory water stored with it. It’s early water weight out and early water weight back on. Low carb has worked well for lots of people. Weight Watchers has worked for lots of people. Meal replacement shakes has worked well for lots of people. Focusing on high nutritional value high satiety real foods and paying attention to real hunger cues, along with regular exercise, has worked for lots of people. Hell, specific approaches to veganism has worked well for lots of people. What works well for one individual may not be what works best for another and may not be what works well for you. The only thing I’d state that is true for all is that if the goal is _fat_ loss then that is maximized by including exercise, inclusive some of some intensity. It may not cause any more _weight_ loss but it does impact body composition more than does diet alone. And of course health too! ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975/23 "2016-09-28T14:50:00Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > 1200 Calories is about 1 can of coke plus 3.5 [glazed donuts](https://www.dunkindonuts.com/content/dunkindonuts/en/menu/food/bakery/donuts/donuts.html?DRP_FLAVOR=Glazed%20Donut). That only gives you 11 grams of protein. I’m not sure one could survive on that. This is a good point, the stuff of our bodies is made of proteins. Cells are constantly dying off and the body is only so effective at recycling the amino acids into new proteins for the new cells. Argo, we need a constant supply of proteins in our diet so to make available the required amino acids to rebuild what is being lost. As a construction worker I blow through carbs like nobody’s business … a can of Coke and three donuts won’t even get me through to lunch time … ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975/24 "2016-10-01T17:52:51Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > That’s an understatement of the Atkins carbohydrate limitations. During the first two week induction phase carbohydrates are limited to 20 grams per day. In the ongoing weight loss phase you add five grams per day every week until you stop losing weight, than you subtract 5 grams per day and hold that level. There’s a pre-maintenance phase where you add 10 grams per day per week and a lifetime maintenance phase as well. Everything except induction allows more than 25 grams of carbohydrates per day. Okay, but what about the point of my question? The study states that an Atkins-type diet doesn’t result in more weight loss than a different diet involving the same calories, but with more calories from carbs. Is this a fair conclusion when their Atkins-type diet involved 33grams of carbs? That’s well above the 20 you mention is necessary for the first 2 weeks of induction to put the body in ketosis. If that study never did that, then how can they state it was a “ketogenic low-carb” diet? ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975/25 "2016-10-04T12:10:31Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Was this study fair in giving the “low-carb” dieter 33 grams of carbs when Atkins specifies a maximum of 25 carbs per day? Sure it was. From the abstract of the study: > [@](#): > > Background:Low-carbohydrate diets may promote greater weight loss than does the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Objective:We compared weight loss and biomarker change in adults adhering to a ketogenic low-carbohydrate (KLC) diet or a nonketogenic low-carbohydrate (NLC) diet. It’s not about Akins. > [@](#): > > the author refers to it as a “ketogenic low-carb” diet, but did he do any blood tests to determine the participants were in ketosis? Since most people would enter ketosis after eating less than 50 grams of carbs a day after a few days, saying that obese individuals eating 33 grams of carbs for 6 weeks are on a ketogenic low-carb diet seems accurate. Here is a link to the study: [http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/83/5/1055.full](http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/83/5/1055.full) From the link: > [@](#): > > Reductions in total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations did not differ significantly by group, but 9% of the variation in LDL cholesterol was directly related to blood ketone concentrations, and several participants following the KLC diet had marked increases in LDL cholesterol. It looks like the answer to your question is “yes.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-calories-equal-when-it-comes-to-weight-loss/766975.md?page=1)