Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 78 posts

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#11

Post by firecall »

l33t2328 wrote: post #9
Beaver117 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, you're summoning the CICO cult

Why is understanding that it’s impossible to gain wright without eating above your TDEE a cult? It’s basic thermodynamics.

I think because it's a poor message to provide people who struggle with their weight and nutrition.

In fact, CICO completely neglects the nutrition aspect of what you eat.

So people tend to be somewhat cavalier and claim it's easy to lose weight, it's just CICO.

But that really isn't the whole story. As any actual qualified scientist in the field of nutrition will tell you.

Of course you absolutely would lose weight eating under your daily calorie requirements of anything at all.

However if you just ate sugar you'd probably began to lose even more weight in all the wrong ways as your body began to shut down and fail due to malnutrition!

FWIW: I've been a participant on food studies with actual scientists at my local Uni :-)

So the above is just what they share with me :-)

YMMV :-)

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#12

Post by nradov »

uninstantiated wrote: post #6

It's not surprising that merely counting calories has no effect. The idea that all calories are the same is flawed. In fact, obesity is the result of the wrong types of foods i.e. sugars which are metabolised differently by the body than other types. Sugar triggers the insulin response which leads to overeating and detrimental fluctuations in cognitive capacity and concentration. What would be more beneficial than ca…

In clinical terms what you're describing is the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity. This remains controversial in the field and hasn't been completely proven, but there is some experimental evidence to support it.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-020-0658-8

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#13

Post by knaik94 »

uninstantiated wrote: post #6

It's not surprising that merely counting calories has no effect. The idea that all calories are the same is flawed. In fact, obesity is the result of the wrong types of foods i.e. sugars which are metabolised differently by the body than other types. Sugar triggers the insulin response which leads to overeating and detrimental fluctuations in cognitive capacity and concentration. What would be more beneficial than ca…

I think this would be too nuanced to think about while you're shopping at a grocery store, but every absorbed calorie is a calorie. Sugar is a very direct and easy source of energy that does not take much additional energy to be made into a usable form by the body. There's no additional food slowing or stopping the absorption of sugars. On the other hand, if you look at some complex fats and proteins, the body takes some energy to break it down or convert it into something usable. In addition, if you look at the complex make up actual foods like fruit, your body isn't able to exact every single calorie a nutrition label states. Ingesting 100 calories of sugar is going to give you pretty close to a net of 100 calories. If you ingest a fruit, your body has to break down the plant cells by chewing, the fibers have to be broken down, the stomach has to digest and crush and humans still aren't able to extract all of the nutrition in food. As you age, your ability to absorb or breakdown nutrients might even change. You probably won't be getting much energy from lactose if you're intolerant. But if you just read a nutrition label, it will say it's 100 calories of energy. Every absorbed calorie is a calorie and at the end of the day it is calories in vs calories out if you can control the psychological urges to eat or not eat. Humans aren't that simple, but CICO does work. Dietary education needs to have a foundation of CICO.

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#14

Post by caaqil »

beebmam wrote: post #10

This title is incorrect and inaccurate. Please rename to: "Introducing Dietary Self-Monitoring to Undergraduate Women via a Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial"

Title is from the conclusion of the study, your suggested title exceeds the character limit or I would have already used it.

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#15

Post by armchairhacker »

This may be a hot take, but I think the obesity crisis and that most people are overweight actually increases the prevalence of eating disorders.

People don't know what a genuinely healthy body and diet/fitness regimen look like, and thinness (even extreme, unhealthy thinness) is popularized and praised as a sign of beauty and willpower because so many people are trying to lose weight and so few are trying to gain.

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#16

Post by jjoonathan »

firecall wrote: post #11
l33t2328 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is understanding that it’s impossible to gain wright without eating above your TDEE a cult? It’s basic thermodynamics.

I think because it's a poor message to provide people who struggle with their weight and nutrition. In fact, CICO completely neglects the nutrition aspect of what you eat. So people tend to be somewhat cavalier and claim it's easy to lose weight, it's just CICO. But that really isn't the whole story. As any actual qualified scientist in the field of nutrition will tell you. Of course you absolutely would lose weight…

CICO != "Neglect Nutrition"

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#17

Post by katzgrau »

uninstantiated wrote: post #6

It's not surprising that merely counting calories has no effect. The idea that all calories are the same is flawed. In fact, obesity is the result of the wrong types of foods i.e. sugars which are metabolised differently by the body than other types. Sugar triggers the insulin response which leads to overeating and detrimental fluctuations in cognitive capacity and concentration. What would be more beneficial than ca…

> What would be more beneficial than calorie counting would be dietary education.

Not sure I agree. I think only some basic education is really required. Once you start getting into the weeds about how not all calories are equal, it's easy to get overwhelmed and give up.

Generally, refined sugar is to be avoided. Not too many other carbs. That's about all the education the average person needs to be an effective calorie counter.

With calorie counting, you typically stay aware of your caloric intake before each meal, which is the biggest battle - not mindlessly eating. Better choices tend to naturally follow.

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#19

Post by ericmcer »

I feel like you almost need some kind of eating disorder these days. Our Bread, milk, meat is all unnatural and mass produced, there is a massive amount of sugar in everything. If you aren’t actively monitoring your food intake and making deliberate decisions to not eat your gonna be unhealthy.

I like the quote: “keep whatever addictions kill you the slowest”. I think a minor eating disorder is preferable to eating 100s of grams of sugar every day.

Re: Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors

#20

Post by knaik94 »

armchairhacker wrote: post #15

This may be a hot take, but I think the obesity crisis and that most people are overweight actually increases the prevalence of eating disorders. People don't know what a genuinely healthy body and diet/fitness regimen look like, and thinness (even extreme, unhealthy thinness) is popularized and praised as a sign of beauty and willpower because so many people are trying to lose weight and so few are trying to gain.

I believe obesity is also type of eating disorder, just towards the opposite direction to something like anorexia. Binge-eating disorder is the term used in academic studies to understand some of the underlying psychology for a part of the obesity crisis.
Post reply on HN