Is 90 calories of beer going to have the same dietary impact, i.e. fat production, as 90 calories of whole wheat bread?
Is a mile a mile? Is an inch an inch? Is a gallon a gallon? Is an acre an acre? Yes. By definition, units of measurement HAVE to all be equal. A calorie is just a unit of energy measurement.
That being said, your body obviously has different uses for fats, protein, and carbs, just as an acre of swamp land has different uses than an acre of sand.
A better question would be, “what use does my body have for alcohol?” to which I’d say, “none.”
It depends on the context. If your goal is to lose weight, yes a calorie is a calorie. As long as you are consuming less calories than you burn, you will be in a caloric deficit and lose weight.
When it comes to making the most of the nutrients you absorb, not really. What I mean is, if your weight loss goal means you need to eat 1500 cals a day to be in a deficit, you could TECHNICALLY eat 1500 cals in junk food and still be in a deficit. But you’ll feel a hell of a lot better if your cals come from nutrient dense, whole foods.
Sorry if that doesn’t answer it or if you already knew all of that.
For weight loss perspective if you are in a calorie deficit you will lose weight regardless of the calorie source. But if you want healthy fat loss and preserving lean muscle tissue through resistance training you need quality calories to aid recovery and performance. Also quality calories such as good source of protein, quality carbohydrates, and healthy fats have specific dynamic action also called as thermogenic effect of food on the body with the protein having the highest TEF of all macros 20-30% of the energy ingested which aids in healthy fat loss journey.
On paper, with the maths, yes. You can lose weight on a diet of Twinkies as long as you’re in a deficit.
But foods have a wide-ranging impact on the body. Surprisingly, the serving size for Twinkies is two cakes, at 280 calories. So, if you’re in a 1800 calorie limit, you can eat 12. 12 Twinkies a day, even if you like them, sounds revolting. You will feel like shit. You will eventually suffer from malnutrition, and the health problems that come with it, because Twinkies don’t provide most of the nutrients the body needs. Nor does beer. Whole wheat bread is slightly better, depending on the bread.
Plus, you know, alcohol is poison and has no nutritive value whatsoever.
So the tl;dr is no, when you consider the full dietary impact.
From a personal standpoint, I went to college and added beer to my calorie intake. I tried to stay within a pound of my starting Point, after a month I had lost 4 pounds. So I geuss it really depends on the person.
There is a technical answer and there is a practical answer. The technical answer is the thermic effect of food, which is the amount of energy that is required to break down food, is different for every macro. (3%fat, 10% carb, 25% protein). So technically, eating a diet that only consists of protein will burn more calories than eating a diet only consistent with fat. However, and this is a BIG however, when this is shown in clinical trials, there does not seem to be a difference in weight loss between diets. A.k.a., calorie in calorie out holds true.
I think this article is one of the most insightful on this subject. it’s by Stephen Guyenet, an expert in the field. He does his best to fairly represent the debates around calories and steel man his opposition.
A calorie is a measure of energy but that doesn’t mean that everything that can be associated with an amount of calories can be converted into energy by the body.
Take wood for instance : it has a greater amount of calories than most food for the same mass. But it is obviously not an energy source for the human body, which can’t convert it into its own type of energy stock.
Alcohol per se is not at all an energy source for the body either : it is digested as a poisonous substance by your body and cannot be converted as body’s fuel (glycogen then glucose). The thing is that most alcoholic beverages have added sugar that gives them some calories on top of the “false” calories of the alcohol. So no, if you drink a 90 calories beer, you won’t store as much energy from it as you would with rice.