Why does eating sweets or fatty foods make us fat?

I am a 24-year-old woman and have been grappling with weight loss issues for a long time now. Everyone tells me that I need to cut down on fatty foods and sweets if I want to lose weight. But I don’t understand why. Our body needs sugar/ glucose to function as well, right? Then why do sweets and fats lead to weight gain while other foods don’t? 

Weight loss is one of the most common issues that youngsters as well as adults are facing recently. And, the main reason for this is lack of proper awareness about the food that we eat on a daily basis. To start it off, everyone is aware of the fact that carbohydrates, proteins and fats constitute a major portion of our diet. But people mostly miscalculate the number of calories they consume.

What are calories?

It’s right that our body requires sugar or glucose to function but that doesn’t mean that you load your body with extra calories. Yes, calories – the energy in our body is stored in form of calories and one calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. One gram of carbohydrates and proteins contain approximately 4 calories, while 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories. So, when we consume 5 g of sugar present in any product, it means we have consumed 20 calories (5X4). And, when we say that 5 g of fat is present in any product it means that it actually has 45 calories (5X9).

Carbohydrates and weight gain

Whenever we consume carbohydrates our pancreas release insulin that removes glucose from the bloodstream and helps in blood sugar regulation by breaking complex carbohydrates into simpler forms namely glucose molecules. High circulating levels of insulin resulted from consumption of excess carbs help storage of carbohydrates and the excess unnecessary calories are stored as fat. With the quick removal of glucose from blood the blood stream by the insulin molecules people feel hungry and thus they end up eating more until they are not satiated, resulting in excess consumption of carbs and thus, weight gain.

Fats and weight gain

While, consumption of fatty foods (fried foods, oily items, etc) in excess causes the body to store the dietary fat as fat storage in the body and use them in time of emergency. Our body needs certain amount of oils for the various fat soluble vitamins and nutritionally essential fatty acids and thus, maintaining good health. Hence, we do require fats from diet but care should be taken to consume less as they are high in calories.

Calories – Your weight count

Weight gain or loss though is not dependent on how many calories you consume versus how many you burn; but the more calories you take in the more likely you are gaining weight. Sweets are loaded with sugars (carbohydrates) and fatty foods with fats (mainly saturated fats) both of which are high in calories as compared to other cereals, fruits, green veggies, etc. And, hence when people say to cut sweets and fatty foods from your diet they actually mean to cut down the calories that you take in or else burn the excess calories that you have consumed by workouts to restrict your body from gaining weight.

You may also like to read:

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• Diet Tip #2: Lose weight by drinking water

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