When gaining weight, is consuming "bad" calories worse than under consuming?

Col200sx

Was just thinking about this last night.

It's hard sometimes to whip up a proper dinner (chicken, veg, potatoes, milk etc), so is it better to intake bad calories rather than not consume the daily intake you're aiming for.

IE: Haven't got time to cook proper dinner so you pick up a Subway etc.

corkcomp

Col200sx wrote: »

Was just thinking about this last night.

It's hard sometimes to whip up a proper dinner (chicken, veg, potatoes, milk etc), so is it better to intake bad calories rather than not consume the daily intake you're aiming for.

IE: Haven't got time to cook proper dinner so you pick up a Subway etc.

its all relative! it depends what you mean by bad calories.. basically, i always try to pick the best alternative available and there is no reason why subway cant be healthy, especially if you are trying to gain weight. you dont need to eat 100% clean but lack of time is no excuse for eating total crap, most shops now have pretty good deli counters ..

Col200sx

Ya I see what you mean. I don't do it often, in fact I eat proper dinners every evening.

But sometimes, between work, gym, and things to do, it's easiest to pick up a quick takeaway, like a subway*

(*full of meat, plenty of salads and usally with a pint of milk).

TommyKnocker

Col200sx wrote: »

Was just thinking about this last night.

It's hard sometimes to whip up a proper dinner (chicken, veg, potatoes, milk etc), so is it better to intake bad calories rather than not consume the daily intake you're aiming for.

IE: Haven't got time to cook proper dinner so you pick up a Subway etc.

I workout in the evening and would usually get home from the gym at around 21:15. So spending ages cooking a decent dinner is no something I can afford.

What I did was to ditch the starchy carbs with dinner. Dinner now is a larger portion of veg and usually two pieces of meat.

Chicken breasts, steaks cut in half length ways, turkey steaks, salmon steaks can all be grilled in around 12-15 minutes and frozen veg can be cooked in the same time. So I can have a reasonably decent meal inside 20-25 minutes.

Just a thought.


Best Regards,

M

kevpants

Peoples idea of gaining weight differs and I want to limit my mindless rants on the subject.

Suffice to say crappy food is great for building muscles. Anyone who tells you it's not is full of asparagus.

kumate_champ07

crappy food and good food go well together for mass gain.

Roper

What's a good calorie and what's a bad calorie? At a level they're both the same thing so short answer- yes.

waffleman

total calorie count is king in my book - 500 cals a day above your maintenance level should gain you 1lb of body weight a week. This takes some time to get right as when you gain muscle your maintenance calorie level will go up also.

When gaining you can relax the type of foods you eat slightly but be strict on total calories or you will gain more fat no matter what you eat.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Col200sx wrote: »

Was just thinking about this last night.

It's hard sometimes to whip up a proper dinner (chicken, veg, potatoes, milk etc), so is it better to intake bad calories rather than not consume the daily intake you're aiming for.

IE: Haven't got time to cook proper dinner so you pick up a Subway etc.

Most people when talking about bad cals are talking about foods which are highly processed, cold cuts, curry sauces containing a lot of MSG's and the like.

Fizzy drinks & beers are good examples of bad or some say ''empty calories'', good for nothing but getting drunk and putting on a belly, even someone following a rigorous training programme will make little of these calories.

Even a half decent night out in the local you'll take in over a thousand calories of sugar's from beer.

You'll probably take in the same calories from a decent chicken curry & egg friend rice (if with its salts and sugars) but in those calories will be a decent about of protein, carbs (simple) and fats (non-essential).

So taking all that into account then not all calories are created equally (IMO).

kumate_champ07

altho I agree with a 'calorie is a calorie', I find that if I substitute good nuts for carbs and keep the calories the same I stay leaner, It must be the insulin regulation. I used to get mad cravings at night and wolf down chocolate or biscuits before I fell asleep, now I just have some nuts and Im losing body fat while night/bed eating!

At my biggest I'd eat anything. I was strong and had alot of muscle mass. if all you want to do is be as strong/big as possible you can eat anything. If you want to stay lean/drop bodyfat it gets more complicated with the quality of the macronutrients and timing

kumate_champ07

Andy Abundant Moon wrote: »

Even a half decent night out in the local you'll take in over a thousand calories of sugar's from beer.

Its low glycemic tho. guinness is actually good for someone on a diet, it has less calories than lager and fills you up more, and its good for you!

Mellor

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

Its low glycemic tho. guinness is actually good for someone on a diet, it has less calories than lager and fills you up more, and its good for you!

Ah come on, they stopped using that slogan years ago, around about the time advertising standards came in :D

corkcomp

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

Its low glycemic tho. guinness is actually good for someone on a diet, it has less calories than lager and fills you up more, and its good for you!

at best, it might be the best of a bad lot but I wouldnt go as far as saying it is good for somebody on a diet!!

rubadub

Roper wrote: »

What's a good calorie and what's a bad calorie? At a level they're both the same thing so short answer- yes.

At an engineering level they are both the same, when literally burnt as fuel (i.e. combusted) they are equal. When eaten by different humans they are not equally used. It is similar faulty logic as people trying to use basic physics forumla to calculate "work" done in weightlifting. With calories they are a fairly good estimate, far better than WW points IMO.

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

altho I agree with a 'calorie is a calorie', I find that if I substitute good nuts for carbs and keep the calories the same I stay leaner, It must be the insulin regulation.

Then you should not be agreeing that a "calorie is a calorie" for humans! You have empirically/anecdotally found this is not the case yourself. I have mentioned the study many times (and cannot find it) about 2 groups of people, one fed 500kcal extra as alcohol, the other 500kcal as sugar drinks -the sugar drinkers put on more fat. In one thread somebody dismissed it actually saying "ah sure thats the insulin response" -but that is EXACTLY the point, there will be differences.

In another study they were feeding rats at night the same calories and they put on more fat. This could be useful for people trying to put on weight, some people simply do not like eating a lot and could value being able to eat less to put on the same weight, both money wise and not having to eat as much.

Another article was comparing how food was cooked, if e.g. rice was overcooked it was more fully digested and you obtained more energy from it. So 500kcal of half cooked rice would make you less fat than 500kcal of overcooked rice.

Andy Abundant Moon wrote: »

Even a half decent night out in the local you'll take in over a thousand calories of sugar's from beer.

Most beer bellies are made in the chipper after the pub. The 4.3% irish heineken is 3.1% sugar. A 5L keg, (~9 pints) is ~155g sugar, which is the weight of about 3 chocolate bars and 155g of sugar is about 600kcal. Most vodkas would have no sugar at all, any sugars in distilled alcohol is added after distillation.

Personally I do not count alcohol calories like I do others, I know from past experience from myself and others that the numbers do not add up to the theoretical "3500kcal excess/less=1lb fat gain/loss"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_and_weight

It is uncertain whether alcohol leads to increase in body weight or if it does not. Some studies find an increase in body weight, some studies do not, and some find a small decrease among women who begin consuming alcohol. Some of these studies are very large; one involved nearly 80,000 and another included 140,000 subjects.

These findings are inconclusive because alcohol itself contains 7 calories per gram, and most alcoholic drinks also contain carbohydrates. The reason that alcohol may not increase weight is unclear, but research suggests that alcohol energy is not efficiently used. Alcohol also appears to increase metabolic rate significantly, thus causing more calories to be burned rather than stored in the body as fat (Klesges et al., 1994). Other research has found consumption of sugar to decrease as consumption of alcohol increases.[citation needed]

The research results do not necessarily mean that people who wish to lose weight should continue to consume alcohol because consumption is known to have an enhancing effect on appetite. The relationship between alcohol and weight remains unresolved and will remain so until more research is conducted that can clarify any apparent discrepancies in findings.

Alcohol is high in calories and makes an excellent fuel to run a car engine on, I find it not so great for adding fat to the human body, I expect petrol is not great either Both would be classed as poisons to the human body...

unreggd

I was thinkin abt this too, wanna do cardio n burn some fat til Jan, so was thinkin would it be ok to work back into a surplus with sweets etc

Roper

unreggd wrote: »

I was thinkin abt this too, wanna do cardio n burn some fat til Jan, so was thinkin would it be ok to work back into a surplus with sweets etc

The short answer, somewhat controversially in here, is yes. as long as you're doing the work in the gym to support muscle gain, you will have to fatten up a bit and chomping down the calories in any form is a big help. You just need to make sure you do the second half of the whole process which is getting rid of the excess fat afterwards. The important bit is managing the whole process and ensuring you're gaining and putting in the work under the bar.