Why is it all focussed on calories and not carbs?
Discussion
After a period of being a lazy git and letting myself go a bit, I recently started the couch to 5k programme (until my calf went pop a couple weeks ago, but that’s another story) and while I’m recovering from the calf I’m doing a bit on an exercise bike to stay at least somewhat active.
I also got a garmin watch which is really good, but as with all of these things everything is focussed around calories burned. So last night I had pasta, so did half an hour on the bike with the intention of getting rid of some of the carbs given how high they are in pastas. Problem is there’s nothing that tracks carbs burned, only calories, and with my (limited) understanding carbs are actually worse to have in excess than calories, but I have no way of tracking what is burned off.
There seems to be a lot of focus on calories and nothing in carbs, and I was wondering whether it’s just too difficult to calculate them in the way we can calories, or it’s just not a stat that people bother tracking for some reason.
I’d love to see a summary of calories and carbs burned in a day or during exercise so I can adjust my diet, especially now I can’t run and need to maintain what I’ve lost mainly though what I eat.
I also got a garmin watch which is really good, but as with all of these things everything is focussed around calories burned. So last night I had pasta, so did half an hour on the bike with the intention of getting rid of some of the carbs given how high they are in pastas. Problem is there’s nothing that tracks carbs burned, only calories, and with my (limited) understanding carbs are actually worse to have in excess than calories, but I have no way of tracking what is burned off.
There seems to be a lot of focus on calories and nothing in carbs, and I was wondering whether it’s just too difficult to calculate them in the way we can calories, or it’s just not a stat that people bother tracking for some reason.
I’d love to see a summary of calories and carbs burned in a day or during exercise so I can adjust my diet, especially now I can’t run and need to maintain what I’ve lost mainly though what I eat.
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
Burrow01 said:
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
I really don't get how people can use MyfitnessPal if they have home cooked meals from scratch. Am I expected to enter every single ingredient that goes into my dinner for it to be accurate? I can see how it would be great for someone who has ready meals and can scan a barcode each time, but there's too many variables with home cooked meals for it to be accurate. Sorry for the thread hijackIt does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
PositronicRay said:
JerseyRoyal said:
A carb isn’t a unit of measurement, it’s just a name.
If you’re exercising into a calorie deficit your body will be using those carbs as fuel.
So why is carbohydrate weight content listed on food? If you’re exercising into a calorie deficit your body will be using those carbs as fuel.
X grams of carbs or protein is irrelevant when talking about energy though. It’s the calorie burn that’s important.
It would probably help if you do a bit of reading on biology and exercise physiology.
The three macronutrients are carbohydrate, protein and fat. The body can use all three as fuel. It can only store a limited amount of carbohydrate (about 2 hours' supply) and limitless quantities of fat. Fat can only be used when there is a good supply of oxygen from the cardiorespiratory system. Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein provides 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram.
The reason diets have historically focussed on reducing fat is becuase it is much more energy dense than the other macros and dieticians assumed that cutting fat would give the best bang for buck. However this doesn't take into account other factors such as satiety and insulin spiking that can drive hunger so the focus has turned to refined carbohydrates as the 'enemy'
At low intensity of exercise eg walking, riding or running whilst still easily able to hold a conversation, fat can be used as fuel as there is enough oxygen to burn the fat. As intensity rises then there is insufficient oxygen to fully combust fat and carbohydrate begins to be used. At very high intensities carbohydrate is used solely. There are some organs eg. the brain that can only use carbohydrate. For most of us exercising outside a lab it's impossible to know what proportion of fat or carb the body is using. It's reasonable to infer that a very slow steady session will be mostly fat and a very intense session will be mostly carb. Body won't use protein for exercise or energy unless it has to and is the reason starvation diets (>1000 calorie net daily deficit) are not recommended.
Wearable devices are great tools for training and logging and the better ones can give a reasonable estimate of calories burned during an activity. However the device has no knowledge of how efficient you are and the estimate could be out by +/- 50%. If you are serious about logging calories then it's not a good idea to eat back all your exercise calories. Partly because your device will not be reliable but partly becuase the body has a sneaky way of recouping the exercise calories by resting other systems to compensate. Cinversely if you underfuel you'll find it difficult to exercise consistently.
So given that the devices are not wholly accurate and cannot know what you are using as fuel, that's why they don't tell you how many carbs you've burnt.
The three macronutrients are carbohydrate, protein and fat. The body can use all three as fuel. It can only store a limited amount of carbohydrate (about 2 hours' supply) and limitless quantities of fat. Fat can only be used when there is a good supply of oxygen from the cardiorespiratory system. Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein provides 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram.
The reason diets have historically focussed on reducing fat is becuase it is much more energy dense than the other macros and dieticians assumed that cutting fat would give the best bang for buck. However this doesn't take into account other factors such as satiety and insulin spiking that can drive hunger so the focus has turned to refined carbohydrates as the 'enemy'
At low intensity of exercise eg walking, riding or running whilst still easily able to hold a conversation, fat can be used as fuel as there is enough oxygen to burn the fat. As intensity rises then there is insufficient oxygen to fully combust fat and carbohydrate begins to be used. At very high intensities carbohydrate is used solely. There are some organs eg. the brain that can only use carbohydrate. For most of us exercising outside a lab it's impossible to know what proportion of fat or carb the body is using. It's reasonable to infer that a very slow steady session will be mostly fat and a very intense session will be mostly carb. Body won't use protein for exercise or energy unless it has to and is the reason starvation diets (>1000 calorie net daily deficit) are not recommended.
Wearable devices are great tools for training and logging and the better ones can give a reasonable estimate of calories burned during an activity. However the device has no knowledge of how efficient you are and the estimate could be out by +/- 50%. If you are serious about logging calories then it's not a good idea to eat back all your exercise calories. Partly because your device will not be reliable but partly becuase the body has a sneaky way of recouping the exercise calories by resting other systems to compensate. Cinversely if you underfuel you'll find it difficult to exercise consistently.
So given that the devices are not wholly accurate and cannot know what you are using as fuel, that's why they don't tell you how many carbs you've burnt.
Edited by oddman on Friday 26th April 08:38
Discendo Discimus said:
Burrow01 said:
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
I really don't get how people can use MyfitnessPal if they have home cooked meals from scratch. Am I expected to enter every single ingredient that goes into my dinner for it to be accurate? I can see how it would be great for someone who has ready meals and can scan a barcode each time, but there's too many variables with home cooked meals for it to be accurate. Sorry for the thread hijackIt does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
Discendo Discimus said:
Burrow01 said:
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
I really don't get how people can use MyfitnessPal if they have home cooked meals from scratch. Am I expected to enter every single ingredient that goes into my dinner for it to be accurate? I can see how it would be great for someone who has ready meals and can scan a barcode each time, but there's too many variables with home cooked meals for it to be accurate. Sorry for the thread hijackIt does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
JerseyRoyal said:
Discendo Discimus said:
Burrow01 said:
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
I really don't get how people can use MyfitnessPal if they have home cooked meals from scratch. Am I expected to enter every single ingredient that goes into my dinner for it to be accurate? I can see how it would be great for someone who has ready meals and can scan a barcode each time, but there's too many variables with home cooked meals for it to be accurate. Sorry for the thread hijackIt does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
Though I've no knowledge of the science involved I can say that my body loses weight rapidly by denying it carbs.
I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
Discendo Discimus said:
Burrow01 said:
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
I really don't get how people can use MyfitnessPal if they have home cooked meals from scratch. Am I expected to enter every single ingredient that goes into my dinner for it to be accurate? I can see how it would be great for someone who has ready meals and can scan a barcode each time, but there's too many variables with home cooked meals for it to be accurate. Sorry for the thread hijackIt does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
However there are a few useful shortcuts within MFP and things you can do to make life easier.
I tend to eat the same breakfast every day 60g oats 240g milk 10g honey 80g berries .I don't weigh the berries or honey but weigh the oats and milk so it cooks OK in the microwave. So I just use the 'copy yesterday' function.
You can also save a meal or manually enter or scan in recipes. Most of us are pretty repetetive in what we eat so after a while you can just enter a previous recipe. I usually only measure the high calorie items such at meat, cheese, oils, refined carbs, nuts and seeds when I'm repeating a meal as a bit of variation on the veg is negligible.
I tend to forget about herbs and spices.
I tend to weigh rather than use volumetric measures. Weighing liquids and fats I do by weighing the whole bottle or piece of butter or cheese, taring the scales and reweighing after I've taken what I need, entering the negative value.
oddman said:
It would probably help if you do a bit of reading on biology and exercise physiology.
The three macronutrients are carbohydrate, protein and fat. The body can use all three as fuel. It can only store a limited amount of carbohydrate (about 2 hours' supply) and limitless quantities of fat. Fat can only be used when there is a good supply of oxygen from the cardiorespiratory system. Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein provides 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram.
The reason diets have historically focussed on reducing fat is becuase it is much more energy dense than the other macros and dieticians assumed that cutting fat would give the best bang for buck. However this doesn't take into account other factors such as satiety and insulin spiking that can drive hunger so the focus has turned to refined carbohydrates as the 'enemy'
At low intensity of exercise eg walking, riding or running whilst still easily able to hold a conversation, fat can be used as fuel as there is enough oxygen to burn the fat. As intensity rises then there is insufficient oxygen to fully combust fat and carbohydrate begins to be used. At very high intensities carbohydrate is used solely. There are some organs eg. the brain that can only use carbohydrate. For most of us exercising outside a lab it's impossible to know what proportion of fat or carb the body is using. It's reasonable to infer that a very slow steady session will be mostly fat and a very intense session will be mostly carb. Body won't use protein for exercise or energy unless it has to and is the reason starvation diets (>1000 calorie net daily deficit) are not recommended.
Wearable devices are great tools for training and logging and the better ones can give a reasonable estimate of calories burned during an activity. However the device has no knowledge of how efficient you are and the estimate could be out by +/- 50%. If you are serious about logging calories then it's not a good idea to eat back all your exercise calories. Partly because your device will not be reliable but partly becuase the body has a sneaky way of recouping the exercise calories by resting other systems to compensate. Cinversely if you underfuel you'll find it difficult to exercise consistently.
So given that the devices are not wholly accurate and cannot know what you are using as fuel, that's why they don't tell you how many carbs you've burnt.
Thank you, good explanation.The three macronutrients are carbohydrate, protein and fat. The body can use all three as fuel. It can only store a limited amount of carbohydrate (about 2 hours' supply) and limitless quantities of fat. Fat can only be used when there is a good supply of oxygen from the cardiorespiratory system. Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein provides 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram.
The reason diets have historically focussed on reducing fat is becuase it is much more energy dense than the other macros and dieticians assumed that cutting fat would give the best bang for buck. However this doesn't take into account other factors such as satiety and insulin spiking that can drive hunger so the focus has turned to refined carbohydrates as the 'enemy'
At low intensity of exercise eg walking, riding or running whilst still easily able to hold a conversation, fat can be used as fuel as there is enough oxygen to burn the fat. As intensity rises then there is insufficient oxygen to fully combust fat and carbohydrate begins to be used. At very high intensities carbohydrate is used solely. There are some organs eg. the brain that can only use carbohydrate. For most of us exercising outside a lab it's impossible to know what proportion of fat or carb the body is using. It's reasonable to infer that a very slow steady session will be mostly fat and a very intense session will be mostly carb. Body won't use protein for exercise or energy unless it has to and is the reason starvation diets (>1000 calorie net daily deficit) are not recommended.
Wearable devices are great tools for training and logging and the better ones can give a reasonable estimate of calories burned during an activity. However the device has no knowledge of how efficient you are and the estimate could be out by +/- 50%. If you are serious about logging calories then it's not a good idea to eat back all your exercise calories. Partly because your device will not be reliable but partly becuase the body has a sneaky way of recouping the exercise calories by resting other systems to compensate. Cinversely if you underfuel you'll find it difficult to exercise consistently.
So given that the devices are not wholly accurate and cannot know what you are using as fuel, that's why they don't tell you how many carbs you've burnt.
Edited by oddman on Friday 26th April 08:38
heebeegeetee said:
JerseyRoyal said:
Discendo Discimus said:
Burrow01 said:
The heart rate zones will give you a guide on whether your exercise is using carbs or fat for energy. Lower heart rates use fat, higher uses stored carbs (although the pasta you had eaten would not have been absorbed by the time you did your exercise)
It does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
I really don't get how people can use MyfitnessPal if they have home cooked meals from scratch. Am I expected to enter every single ingredient that goes into my dinner for it to be accurate? I can see how it would be great for someone who has ready meals and can scan a barcode each time, but there's too many variables with home cooked meals for it to be accurate. Sorry for the thread hijackIt does not really matter if the exercise itself uses fat or carbs, the energy will be replaced using what you have eaten, hence the focus on calories.
If you want to track your carb intake, the MyfitnessPal app will do this.
Next time so long as you make it the same (as per the recipe), you can then just select it as a meal again. You don’t have to enter all the ingredients every time you make a meal (so long as you follow a recipe and make it the same obviously.
Tye Green said:
Though I've no knowledge of the science involved I can say that my body loses weight rapidly by denying it carbs.
I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
It’s called ketosis, by denying your body new energy sources you force it to burn stored. It’s ok for a short period but it’s not particularly healthy to do all the time.I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
Tye Green said:
Though I've no knowledge of the science involved I can say that my body loses weight rapidly by denying it carbs.
I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
That will just be the glycogen depletion and water retention coming down as a result.I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
9kg in fat loss would require your body to burn just shy of 70k calories.
JerseyRoyal said:
Tye Green said:
Though I've no knowledge of the science involved I can say that my body loses weight rapidly by denying it carbs.
I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
It’s called ketosis, by denying your body new energy sources you force it to burn stored. It’s ok for a short period but it’s not particularly healthy to do all the time.I do this maybe once a year and give it zero carbs for 2 weeks and will lose 8-9kg.
Mild headache at about day 3 for a short time (don't even bother with pain relief) and stools get to about 1-2 on Bristol scale.
After 2 weeks anything with sugar tastes gross for a couple of days then rinse and repeat next year.
Simple & effective
The brain requires glucose to function so all the stored carbohydrate will be used before the body starts synthesising usable fuel from fat (ketosis).
Carbohydrate is stored as glycogen which is a glucose polymer similar to starch (the plant equivalent). For every gram of glycogen stored in muscle or the liver, the body has to store three grams of water. When the glycogen stores are depleted, the water is released and if not required is excreted. Hence for every 1g of glycogen you lose in initial calorie restriction you'll lose 4g in total.
This is the reason why all diets relying on, particularly dramatic, calorie restriction 'work' and why seasoned dieters refer to 'water weight'. This isn't only true on intitial restriction it will happen whenever the body is replete with glycogen and exposes to a colorie deficit. It also works the other way too. If you've been restricting or exercising and have relatively depleted glycogen stores, when you top them up you store loads of water too.
This is PH so carbs are bad! Seriously though the amount of people that go on a low or zero carb diet then get very excited that they have lost a ton of weight then re introduce carbs and lose their s
t cos the scales are giving them a different reading, as mentioned it’s only water, I can do a week on low carbs look absolutely shredded, just one day of carbs and I look softer and weigh slightly more thanks to the increased amount of water but my bf % is exactly the same.
t cos the scales are giving them a different reading, as mentioned it’s only water, I can do a week on low carbs look absolutely shredded, just one day of carbs and I look softer and weigh slightly more thanks to the increased amount of water but my bf % is exactly the same.Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff