Fat vs Lean, or Ode to the Mighty Calorie

My friend and I live a few streets apart and most mornings meet in the middle of the neighborhood, usually right around 6:30, walking about 45 minutes, winding through the streets.
This morning's walk was just lovely, we had many clouds, it was below 80, (YAY, I think we get to start opening our windows at night again!) and there was a wonderful breeze. (We usually have to plan our route to find as much shade as possible - not everyone can be Shawna Jones and go out at 4 am to truly beat the heat!)

But if you had seen us out walking this morning, you might have thought it pitiful - we both were carrying FOOD as we walked! As I approached Nichole, I laughed as I realized that besides a bottle of water, she was carrying a little plate, some goodie for me to try. Because in MY hands I also had a bottle of water, and a baggie with 3 homemade rolls.

She and I keep experimenting with wheat recipes.... how much wheat flour in conjunction with all-purpose flour? How much Gluten should we add to bread and rolls? So we keep adjusting, and then sharing our finished products.
She brought me some very fresh pancakes she'd just made for her men's breakfast - pure whole wheat, but you whip up the egg whites to give them lightness. It's a recipe she got from Helen Butler, a former neighbor. And as we walked, I HAD to nibble and taste. YUM! No syrup, but she'd put a little butter on them, just like I like them.

And she plucked tastes out of the baggy of rolls; last night I'd made whole wheat rolls to go with soup for dinner, and I'd used 2 cups ground red wheat flour, and 1 cup all purpose flour, along with dough conditioner and some gluten she'd given me. These were savory, with herbs and garlic and parmesan cheese. I was really pleased with how they turned out.

At the end of our walk we compared recipe notes before departing, and some golfers drove by... and I'm pretty sure they were thinking, "What, they can't manage a morning walk without sustenance?"

So we walk every day to stay in shape and hopefully keep our weight in check - eating while doing so would seem counter intuitive... calories going in while calories are expended sort of defeats the purpose, right?

23 yrs ago a med student said to me, "If you just cut out 2 cookies a day, you would lose 2 pounds a month," something logical like that (according the math,) but so illogical 'cus we have too many things in our body's metabolism that will make this work or fail. Are we sick, or sedentary this week? Do we have a lot on our plate and super stressed and going here and there in a dither? I know a (thin) man that just plain burns calories like crazy, his speed is always a little faster than everyone else and he just never really relaxes. I had one friend who couldn't eat while stressed, but her husband handled it the opposite, he ate way more when really under stress.

It appears some people just are more efficient at burning calories, on top of the other components like what kind of calories we're ingesting. Why is it you can eat a lot of meat and fat and leave out carbs, and yet still lose weight? Does food mixing really effect this process? It would seem so. And what about eating 5 small meals thru the day? They say that also keeps the metabolism up and running a little 'faster,' and therefore you effectively burn more fat.

So they say.

And then after my walk this morning, in my email I received, (as part of a daily digest discussing weight-maintenance,) this discussion of just how many calories really are in fat and protein.

Tracy said: //I just read in my Livestrong.com newsletter that science is now
discovering that one pound of fat is not necessarily 3500 calories, as we
all have been taught//

Jessie's answer (Jessie is a nurse, and other things too. She has like 40 letters after her name when you add up all her little titles and degrees. She's worked with doctors in helping people manage their weight loss through a variety of ways, including surgery.)

"That hasn't made any sense for a long time. A pound is 454 grams (453.59237 to be exact).
If fat is 9 calories per gram then a pound of fat is 4,086 calories.
If protein and carbohydrates are 4 calories per gram then a pound of protein or CHO is 2,180 calories - so why do they say you have to eat 3500 calories more or less to gain or lose a pound?
It's never made sense to me. I've been doing those calorie calculations and basal metabolic rate
estimates for over 20 years and the only consistency is that it never adds up.

As you point out, the control of appetite, food intake, weight, satiety, and
body composition is way more complicated than any of the current explanations. "

I'll leave you with this fascinating article to read - it is about some starvation experiments done with people, to see how they handled having very few calories - but one group was allowed mostly carbs, and the other allowed 3 times the fat calories.
Why a calorie isn't always a calorie

And then hopefully in a subsequent post, I'll find the video Nichole once watched in Japan where they stuffed people with their favorite foods, they were SO FULL. But then they announced they could have some of their favorite dessert if they wished. Their stomachs literally PUSHED the food through a bit, to make room for dessert! They have it on x-ray, they played it over and over again... the stomach made room for the treats! Seriously?
That would be my stomach. I like food far too much.