Expanding on the thermodynamic diet

I fear I may have fallen into the same trap as many of those I don't respect: I have been glib. I have oversimplified things and that is patronising and unfair.

I apologise.

Let's expand on the last post and make things a bit more clear. A bit less glib.

Expanding on the thermodynamic diet

Right then, the key thing I've talked about in this 'thermodynamic diet' is the fact that if you consume fewer calories than you use, you'll lose weight. I absolutely stand by that and believe it to be 100% true. It's been the basis of my diet for a little over the last month, and I've lost 7 1/2 pounds.

With all this talk of efficiency and things in the last post though, we possibly need to revisit the word 'consume'...

A calorie is a calorie; there is no getting around that. It is the amount of energy required to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Whether it's a calorie of carbohydrate, or a calorie of protein, it's the amount of energy to do that.

However, that's all lab and textbook stuff, and we're not trying to heat water, we're trying to make ATP and, as we mentioned in the last post, that's not 100% efficient.

What we're really looking at then, is the net number of ATP molecules made from 1 calorie of carbohydrate may not be equal to the net number of ATP molecules we can make from 1 calorie of protein, 1 calorie of fat, 1 calorie of alcohol... Well, you get the idea.

A calorie is a calorie?

Yes. That doesn't change. The issue comes down to efficiency - for a given calorie, how much ATP can we generate and how much work are we able to do. 

Now, a lot of this is the driver behind many diets you might see out there; low carbohydrate, high protein diets for example. But I think the discussion of all of that sort of thing can wait until another day. It’s certainly enough of topic on its own.

That said though, I cam across one paper the other day that said, at least for a very specific set of circumstances, the conversion of protein into sugars carried an overhead of 33%. So, to process the energy in say 100 calories of protein required 33 calories, so you could infer that the net calorie gain from 100 calories protein was 67 calories.

Like I said though, that was under a very specific set of physiological conditions, and a set you may not enjoy getting to.

Does that mean a calories isn’t a calorie? Of course it doesn’t, it just reminds us that various processes in the body use energy, and that is something we might have to account for.

I am not even going to bother worrying about it.

I base my calorie figure on the number that is on the packet and do my rounding up. The numbers might be off by a few percent, the portion size might be off by a few percent, so I’ll round up, eat within my daily calorie goal, and, I expect, continue to lose weight.

Worrying about the little changes in efficiency of conversion just takes too much time. I see people who seem to spend far too long in front of their macronutrient calculator app, trying to make sure that they are getting the right amount of calories from their various macronutrients.

Life’s too short and time’s too precious!

If you struggle so much with perpetual hunger that you have to squeeze every last calorie you can out of your diet somehow, then maybe that’s what you just have to do, and good luck to you, but for the few percent difference it makes, I’d rather have that time back and go for a walk...

Day 37 - 2150 calories

Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)

Lunch
Ham sandwich (200)
Chicken sandwich (300)

Snack
Chicken sandwich (300)

Dinner
Lentil soup (400)
Chicken sandwich (200)
Weetabix, milk and raisins (250)
Beer (200)

Exercise
70m walking

Day 38 - 4050 calories

Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (100)
Plum (50)

Lunch
5x Double chocolate cookies (1100)
Ham sandwich (150)
Lentil soup (400)

Dinner
Smoked haddock, poached egg and spinach (250)
Bottle of wine (700)

Extended evening eating...
Cereal bar (200)
2x Protein bar (400)
4x Weetabix, milk and raisins (600)

Exercise
100 press ups
1x 2m plank
30m walking

Day 39 - 300 calories

Breakfast
Milk (50)

Dinner
Wine (250)

Exercise
80m walking

Day 40 - 4200 calories

Breakfast
Milk (300)
Croissant with 3 scrambled eggs (650)
Almond croissant (350)

Snack
Toast with butter and jam (200)

Lunch
2x slices fruit pudding, 2x slices black pudding, 2x slices lorne sausage (750)
Plum (50)

Snack
1x Weetabix, milk and raisins (200)
1/2 slice of toast and jam (100)
Chocolate coins (100)

Dinner
Fish and vegetables (150)
Wine (500)

Snack
Beer (200)
Bread, butter and jam (200)
3x cereal bars (450)

Exercise
Walking (20m)