Not all calories are created equal when it comes to weight loss.

Researchers have found that not all calories are created equal and that the types of calories you eat, particularly after losing weight, can have a profound effect on how efficiently your body burns calories and keeps off unwanted pounds.

The ideal diet that promotes a fast metabolism — that is, your body’s ability to quickly burn off calories — as well as promotes long-term health in terms of disease-free organs appears to be (surprise!) fresh vegetables and whole grains or any foods that reduce the surge of blood sugar after a meal.

Foods which are low glycemic seem to promote the best chances for weight loss and overall good health.

The glycemic index is the rate at which blood sugar spikes after a meal.

High glycemic foods cause a blood sugar surge and abrupt decline resulting in fatigue and hunger, where as food which measure low on the glycemic index produce a low steady supply of energy to the body and a less rapid decline thus no surge of hunger.

Unprocessed, whole foods offer the best results.

Clean and lean proteins such as nuts, beans, legumes, fish and egg whites can promote weight loss and provide the body with energy and satiety for long periods of time.

Does fat make us Fat?

Everyday in the news is some information about the fat.

We all need it, we all eat it.

What are the facts?

Here’s a simple guide to fats, the good, the bad and the ugly.

First realize that fats are a necessary part of any diet. We need fats to make hormones, build and repair tissues, and for energy. Gram per gram, fat provides about more than twice the energy of carbohydrates (9 calories per gram vs 4 calories per gram for carbs). Fats also help us absorb certain vitamins and satiates our appetite more than carbs or protein.

But there really are good fats and bad fats and the Cliff notes version of this column is this — if a fat is solid or semi-solid at room temperature, you should avoid it.

Most dietary fats fall in to three categories: Saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and mono unsaturated fats.

Its not just a matter of calories in versus calories out to lose weight. This theory is simplistic and archaic with no basis in science. Fortunately, I sort through the evidence and break it down to an understandable no-nonsense approach in this final installment of a three part series.

Part I
Part II

All calories are not created equal, as discussed in Part II of this series. Most dieticians, nutritionists and doctors will disagree. If a calorie is a calorie, why doesn’t the percent of increased caloric intake match the percent of increase in overweight or obese individuals? The calorie consumption in men and women has increased 7 percent and 9 percent respectively, since the ?70s. The increase in the percentage of individuals who are overweight or obese has increased almost 20 percent in each category. And remember, this increase literally occurred in less than 30 years, which is less than a generation. Why such a discrepancy between calories consumed and weight gained? Because there’s more to this epidemic than the amount of calories people are consuming.

The problem we Americans face is that most of the foods we eat are not only lacking any nutritional value, they are made with ingredients that can have serious health consequences. So let’s get right down to business. You want to get healthier and leaner? The following are some of the worst foods and ingredients we consume, and we need to stay away from them (listed in no particular order). When it comes to the following, there is no moderation. If these foods are eaten regularly — you will pay the price.

For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates are good, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. With seven years of research, Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) ?via their dramatic effect on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation?and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the numbers. There are good calories, and bad ones. Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960’s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then?wrongly?were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

Good Calories Bad Calories is the end of the debate about the foods we consume and their effects on us.