I want to lose weight, but don’t really know what to look for. Should I be counting calories or fat?
You’re on the right track — being mindful of calories and fat is a key part of maintaining a balanced diet. Counting calories is more important than counting fat when you’re watching your weight. Fat is not tallied as diligently as calories because the numbers serve different purposes. If weight management is your goal, counting calories is what matters. To maintain optimal health, you’ll have to watch the amount and type of fat in your daily diet.
Calories measure the amount of energy your body creates from food. Whether you eat a low- or high-fat diet, the only thing that influences your weight is the total number of calories you consume versus how many you burn. Daily caloric needs vary depending on activity levels, current weight, age and gender. To lose 1kg of fat a week, you must burn 1,100 calories more than you consume a day, which means that you must determine your optimal daily calories and your level of exercise and then start counting calories. Essentially, if you’re looking to lose weight you should start exercising as well as eating healthily. Also, remember that everyone needs to include fat in their diet. Dietary fats are essential for growth, development and nerve functionality.
Is it true that diet soda can be bad for you as it can spike insulin levels when your body expects sugar and does not get it?
Researchers still don’t fully understand the influence of artificial sweeteners on the body’s blood sugar and insulin responses. The evidence that connects artificial sweeteners to insulin spiking is limited. In-vitro studies (test-tube studies of cells living outside the body) have shown that cells release more insulin when exposed to some artificial sweeteners. Increased insulin sends a signal to cells to store more energy as fat (rather than use it as fuel), so this might partially explain the correlation between weight gain and artificial sweeteners. However, much more research on this is still needed, so it’s difficult to say if eating a meal with your diet soda makes a difference either way.
Now regarding your question if diet soda might make your body expect sugar when it’s really getting a calorie-free substitute, studies on humans have shown mixed results. Scientists think that it could be because animals predict the calorie content of a food based on how sweet it tastes, while humans have sweet taste receptors in places other than their tongue, such as the brain, pancreas and gut.
