Calorie Intake Above Body’s Needs Will Be Stored As Fat

With Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon, you can practically smell the holiday desserts popping out of ovens.

Whether it’s pumpkin pie, apple crisp or shortbread cookies, desserts put smiles on faces and temporarily make us feel as if we didn’t have a care in the world. That’s one of the reasons we look forward to eating them: instant pleasure.

Desserts, unfortunately, tend to come with a high-calorie price tag - even if they are low-fat, or fat-free.

Most Americans know that it’s important to keep fat intake below 30 percent of total calories. And most of us know that fat has nine calories per gram, adding up faster than protein or carbohydrates at four calories per gram.

But while fat has been labeled the enemy, excess refined carbohydrates - primarily high-calorie, low-fat desserts - have infiltrated our cupboards, freezers and secret hiding places.

We’ve falsely been led to believe that fat-free and low-fat desserts miraculously don’t count as calories. Goodbye, Benedict “FatFree” Arnold! I’m sorry to tell you that even though those calories are fat-free or low-fat, they still can be stored as body fat.

Our bodies are designed for survival. In the days when humans lived as hunter-gatherers, food was often scarce and our bodies adapted to the infrequent eating by storing fat from all dietary sources. It doesn’t matter whether the excess calories come from carbohydrate, protein or fat, if they’re more than our body needs, they’ll be stored as fat.

For example, after eating a dinner that meets your caloric needs for the next three to five hours, you guiltlessly consume a fat-free, 400-calorie dessert. Any calories that are above your body’s needs will be destined for hips, thighs or belly. It takes 3,500 calories to produce a pound of stored body fat; frequently eating above your day’s quota sends those extra calories into your body-fat savings account.

Occasionally you’ll meet someone who can eat anything and everything and still not put on extra body fat. Those people are by far the exception, and have a genetic metabolic component that most of us don’t.

An intriguing example of an extraordinary metabolism is the 125-pound Spokane woman who won $1,200 by eating about 8-1/2 pounds of high-calorie food at the Thadeus T. Thudpucker’s restaurant in 1992. Hundreds of men had tried and failed to eat the 4-1/2 pounds of chicken-fried steak, mounds of whipped potatoes and greasy gravy. The winner regularly eats 7,000 calories per day - more than three times the normal amount for a woman her size.

Ironically, fat storing can also occur when people eat too few calories. When faced with a calorie shortage, the body begins storing even more fat as insurance - and starts breaking down muscle tissue, which consumes lots of calories, and using it for immediate energy.

When people get frustrated and impatient with trying to lose weight by proper food balance and exercise, they often resort to starvation techniques. But that actually increases their percentage of body fat, and only puts off taking responsibility for managing their caloric intake and lifestyle.

Many people have fairly sedentary jobs. They (myself included) sit at desks most of the day, which slows metabolism. A slow metabolism tends to store those extra dessert calories as fat. If we hand-tilled a field all day or walked five miles to work, then the metabolism would speed up and we could eat larger portion sizes all day - including dessert.

But even aerobics instructors who exercise frequently throughout the day need to be careful how much they eat. Says Jennifer Crutcher, a local aerobics instructor and personal trainer for Sta-Fit: “Calories above your body’s needs, even though someone may be very active, will be stored as body fat.”

Adding exercise to your daily routine can help, but consult your doctor before beginning a program. A qualified personal trainer or physical therapist can help you set up an exercise program to boost your metabolism.

So is the answer to simply avoid desserts if you’re not running marathons? I don’t think that would work for very long. A better approach is to exert control over dessert by being assertive about how much you do, or don’t, want.

Here’s one of my favorite desserts, which has only 124 calories per serving. I like using Rome Beauty apples from Green Bluff; leave the peels on for extra fiber.

Apple Crisp

4 cups apples, sliced

4 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup oats

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon canola oil

Combine apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and lemon juice and mix well. Place mixture in an 8-inch-square baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray. Combine oats, sugar and oil and sprinkle over apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until apples are tender and topping is browned.

Yield: 5 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 124 calories, 3.7 grams fat (25 percent fat calories), no cholesterol, 23 grams carbohydrate, 3.5 grams fiber, 2 milligrams sodium.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Craig T. Hunt The Spokesman-Review