Most fattening junk-foods?

[Kyriakos]

Something like deep-fried icecream of something

KFC is always a contender here.

Strength in numbers.

 

[Borachio]

Dietary fat, despite the name, has very little to do with fattening. However, I fear it's a hopeless battle against this most frequent misconception.

Carbohydrates, especially sucrose and fructose (even more so), are the only things that matter as far as weight gain is concerned.

Saturated fats are implicated in heart disease, of course. But that's a different concern.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Dietary fat, despite the name, has very little to do with fattening. However, I fear it's a hopeless battle against this most frequent misconception.

Carbohydrates, especially sucrose and fructose (even more so), are the only things that matter as far as weight gain is concerned.

Saturated fats are implicated in heart disease, of course. But that's a different concern.

The only reason sugar matters is because it's so easy to over-consume without realizing how many calories you are taking in.

If we're ignoring all other health concerns and talking only about gaining weight, then it's a simple calories in - calories out equation. If the number is positive you will gain weight. If the number is negative you will lose weight. So in this regard the most fattening foods are those that have way more calories than you think they do, because you overeat the hell out of them. Restaurant food in a general sense is very bad about this, people almost always completely underestimate how many calories they consume when they eat out.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Still it will be harder to gain weight by eating stuff like yogurt or vegetables, than 2 kilograms of icecream

Infact even the small, readily-packed icecreams tend to have a huge number of calories, and (as you alluded to) they are more easy to just become addicted to or just over-eat in a few goes. And we are not meant to count individual metabolism (or exercise being more than 'average') else there can be not even a general view on foods having such effect

 

[Wolfbeckett]

^Still it will be harder to gain weight by eating stuff like yogurt or vegetables, than 2 kilograms of icecream

Infact even the small, readily-packed icecreams tend to have a huge number of calories. And we are not meant to count individual metabolism (or exercise being more than 'average') else there can be not even a general view on foods having such effect

Kind of depends on the type of yogurt and vegetable. Most of the big name brands of yogurt have a lot of added sugar. I mean like, "it might as well be candy" levels of added sugar. Vegetables are great for you without a doubt, but if you started eating nothing but avocados you'd end up gaining weight because avocados have a lot of calories.

But in a general sense you're right, and the reason again comes down straight up to calories. The reason it's hard to gain weight eating vegetables is because most vegetables contain a small amount of calories per unit of measurement (per ounce, per pound, whatever) meaning your stomach fills up before you get too many calories. But keep in mind that french fries are technically a vegetable too .

One thing I also forgot to mention in my last post that is absolutely terrible for weight gain is beverages. Drinking calories is absolutely one of the worst things you can do if you are trying to lose weight because it's so so easy to lose track of how many calories you're drinking. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, almost twice as much as sugar. Even "good" beverage alternatives, like juice, are still loaded with caloric energy. Check out the nutrition information on a package of orange juice one of these days. Ounce for ounce, it has just as much sugar as a Coke.

 

[Tee Kay]

I'm 75kg and should probs be 10kg lighter, so subscribing.

Also, Kozzo good tag

 

[uppi]

If we're ignoring all other health concerns and talking only about gaining weight, then it's a simple calories in - calories out equation. If the number is positive you will gain weight. If the number is negative you will lose weight. So in this regard the most fattening foods are those that have way more calories than you think they do, because you overeat the hell out of them. Restaurant food in a general sense is very bad about this, people almost always completely underestimate how many calories they consume when they eat out.

It's not that simple. It does matter what the body does with those calories and how efficiently it converts excess calories into fat. For example, there is some evidence that fructose is worse than other sugars, because a control mechanism does not work for fructose.

 

[El_Machinae]

I'm sure I've seen this thread before. Fat matters, especially when combined with insulogenic foods, because it's fat storage that can make you fat. As well, if you overwhelm your carbohydrate-storage system (liver glycogen), then additional calories are turned into fat. So, portion size matters.

I guess the goal in this thread is to find something that's not filling, but has lots of fat as well as an easy time delivering more than 400 cals of carbs.

 

[Kyriakos]

This can be a contender too:

Contains a huge amount of fattening stuff, and won't tend to make you feel you had enough either..

It's not a junk-food, though. But it can make you too obese to ever put on that balaclava again.

 

[Borachio]

I'm sure I've seen this thread before. Fat matters, especially when combined with insulogenic foods, because it's fat storage that can make you fat. As well, if you overwhelm your carbohydrate-storage system (liver glycogen), then additional calories are turned into fat. So, portion size matters.

I guess the goal in this thread is to find something that's not filling, but has lots of fat as well as an easy time delivering more than 400 cals of carbs.

Doesn't the intake of dietary fat produce a feeling of satiety really quickly? Something that's absent for carbohydrates.

Or have I imagined hearing about that?

 

[NetGear]

Kfc def is a contender lol. This is the place where they thought bread was overrated and replaced it with fried chicken cutlet...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Down_(sandwich)

 

[classical_hero]

Don't forget the Quad stacker from Burger King/Hungry Jack's as they are known here.

 

[warpus]

What about soda pop? Gram per gram it's got to be a contender for something that makes you fat.. right?

 

[shadowplay]

I'm pretty sure Popeye's is trying to kill me.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

It's not that simple. It does matter what the body does with those calories and how efficiently it converts excess calories into fat. For example, there is some evidence that fructose is worse than other sugars, because a control mechanism does not work for fructose.

For people who are already overweight and trying to lose weight, it IS that simple. It doesn't matter what form the calories take, if you eat 2500 calories a day when you only need 2000 you will gain weight. Everything else is minutia, it may or may not make a difference (the science is still out on a lot of this stuff) but any difference it makes is utterly overshadowed by the fact that people just eat too much food. There's a lot of contradictory diet plans out there that will tell you that their plan is proven by science to be the best way for humans to eat and be healthy. Low carb, high protein, paleo, vegan, low fat, etc. all of these are fine, but here's the real diet that helps you lose weight: exercise and eat less calories than you use every day. That's the only one that is 100% proven to work. How you get those calories is not nearly as important as making sure you don't eat too many.

There are a lot of other health issues to look at with food... micronutrients, omega6/omega3 ratios, glycemic index, all of that, but this thread was specifically about foods that will make you fat, not foods that will make you unhealthy in other ways, so I'm ignoring all of that. They key takeaway is that the human body stores excess calories as fat, it doesn't matter if those calories were originally other fats, proteins, or carbs, if you have excess your body will convert it into fats and store it thusly.

What about soda pop? Gram per gram it's got to be a contender for something that makes you fat.. right?

The big problem with soda is that is has almost no satiety, it doesn't fill you up so any soda you drink ends up being calories you consume in addition to whatever else you eat that day. Drinking calories as a meal replacement, like having a smoothie for breakfast, can be okay, but when you drink calories in addition to eating the foods you would have eaten anyway you quickly lose track of your intake. 2 cans of soda per day is almost 400 extra calories, that's 20-25% of your daily intake for most people.

 

[uppi]

For people who are already overweight and trying to lose weight, it IS that simple. It doesn't matter what form the calories take, if you eat 2500 calories a day when you only need 2000 you will gain weight. Everything else is minutia, it may or may not make a difference (the science is still out on a lot of this stuff) but any difference it makes is utterly overshadowed by the fact that people just eat too much food. There's a lot of contradictory diet plans out there that will tell you that their plan is proven by science to be the best way for humans to eat and be healthy. Low carb, high protein, paleo, vegan, low fat, etc. all of these are fine, but here's the real diet that helps you lose weight: exercise and eat less calories than you use every day. That's the only one that is 100% proven to work. How you get those calories is not nearly as important as making sure you don't eat too many.

If you need 8000 kJ, eat food worth 10000 kJ, but 2000 kJ of those are not digested and go down the toilet, you will not gain weight. If there was a (hypothetical) kind of food that could not be converted into fat, you could eat as much of it as you want and never get fat (but you still would need to limit your food intake to lose weight). So to get the most fattening food you would want a high energy content in a form that is very efficiently converted into fat and that the body cannot get rid of in other ways. What kind of food that is, might not be universal, but differ from one stomach to the next.

 

[nc-1701]

What about soda pop? Gram per gram it's got to be a contender for something that makes you fat.. right?

Ding. Ding. Ding.



Soda is the worst in every category, very low satiety and zero nutritional value per calorie.


It might seem counter-intuitive, but I'll bet that behemoth from BK is actually moderately healthy. If you ate it and just drank water you would be getting a pretty balanced meal. It's not the healthiest by a long shot, but I'de say it's pretty above average.

My rule of thumb is that you divide the sugar per serving by the protein per serving, if it's above 1 it's probably pretty bad, and if it's below 1 it's probably not terrible.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I guess the goal in this thread is to find something that's not filling, but has lots of fat as well as an easy time delivering more than 400 cals of carbs.

Donuts. They feel like you're eating air, but are nothing but fat and carbs.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I'm still, what, ~20 pounds from being a healthy but underweight weight.

I want to be fatter.

 

[Kyriakos]

For people who are already overweight and trying to lose weight, it IS that simple. It doesn't matter what form the calories take, if you eat 2500 calories a day when you only need 2000 you will gain weight. Everything else is minutia, it may or may not make a difference (the science is still out on a lot of this stuff) but any difference it makes is utterly overshadowed by the fact that people just eat too much food. There's a lot of contradictory diet plans out there that will tell you that their plan is proven by science to be the best way for humans to eat and be healthy. Low carb, high protein, paleo, vegan, low fat, etc. all of these are fine, but here's the real diet that helps you lose weight: exercise and eat less calories than you use every day. That's the only one that is 100% proven to work. How you get those calories is not nearly as important as making sure you don't eat too many.

There are a lot of other health issues to look at with food... micronutrients, omega6/omega3 ratios, glycemic index, all of that, but this thread was specifically about foods that will make you fat, not foods that will make you unhealthy in other ways, so I'm ignoring all of that. They key takeaway is that the human body stores excess calories as fat, it doesn't matter if those calories were originally other fats, proteins, or carbs, if you have excess your body will convert it into fats and store it thusly.



The big problem with soda is that is has almost no satiety, it doesn't fill you up so any soda you drink ends up being calories you consume in addition to whatever else you eat that day. Drinking calories as a meal replacement, like having a smoothie for breakfast, can be okay, but when you drink calories in addition to eating the foods you would have eaten anyway you quickly lose track of your intake. 2 cans of soda per day is almost 400 extra calories, that's 20-25% of your daily intake for most people.

mmm Takeaway