Weighing Food ...

[joko]

chatting to someone i know today who excitedly told me about her new plan to weigh her food - it became clear she believed that if she ate a gram of food, she would would on a gram of weight, a pound of food, equaled a pound of weight etc.
i explained it to her - as much as i could, i don't know much about it - and she seemed totally confused and dejected to hear

i also vaguely remember someone else telling me something similar when i was curious about the sugar content of a tablet i was taking - she said a pill weighs barely anything so you can only put that much weight on with it.

surely people don't really think this?

is this a common misunderstanding?


i get that weighing food is all about helping you correctly gauge the calories it contains for your portion size - instead of guessing.

but i wonder how many people are doing this 'weighing' diet and getting it all wrong?

any thoughts?

[woofgang]

well but its kind of true....If you eat a pound of sugar or a pound pure fat you don't put on a pound of weight, you put on a bit less.

[Old_Geezer]

Immediately that has to be true. Weight doesn't disappear because it goes down your gullet. But it doesn't stay permanently with the consumer. Energy is converted and used, and the body is not 100% efficient, it gets rid of stuff at the other end eventually. 1 gram eaten is not going to result in 1 gram heavier in the longer term. One gains weight longer term by eating more then one expels or uses during the same period.

[joko]

well yes temporarily your weight will increase by the weight of the food - but once its gone through your system it will be gone again

same as if you wear a coat that weighs 5 grams, you will weigh 5 grams more for the time the coat is on you - but its not the same thing as gaining or losing weight.

as you say weight gain works in a very different way than simple weights and measures

thats why i am amazed some people would think its that simple

[boxtops]

People are very misinformed about all sorts of things regarding weight loss. I used to work with a girl, several of us were dieting, and I always wee before weighing, in order to lose an extra few ounces of liquid from my body. She thought that was daft, because (she said) the air which went into my bladder to replace the urine would weigh as much as the liquid. And she was a nurse.....

[woofgang]

oh dear Boxy, had she never done continence management?

[boxtops]

Didn't sound like it!