Show reveals a morning of housework burns as many calories as workout

Do you slavishly count calories and examine nutrition labels - but never lose any weight?

It might actually the calorie counting that's to blame, experts warn.

A new TV programme aired tomorrow night sets out to explain why it's the type of calories we consume - and not necessarily the number - that's important.

While eating the 'right' kind of calories can fill you up and stave off hunger pangs, consuming the 'wrong' type will leave you hungry - and, ultimately, fatter.

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It's the type of calories we consume - and not necessarily the number - that's important

THE GOLDEN RULES TO FOLLOW WHEN EATING OUT TO PREVENT WEIGHT GAIN * Eat rare steak. Undercooked meat is harder to digest than well-cooked meat - so will be less calorific. * Leave half the chips on your plate and mop the oil off those you do eat. * Even better, replace some of them with a vegetable such as broccoli. * In fact, wherever possible, add bulky, indigestible foods such as kale and broccoli. These take a long time to digest, so you'll feel fuller for longer. You will also burn more calories just trying to digest these foods. * Eat soup. All the salty water it contains fills you up more than just eating the ingredients on their own. * Go for items on the menu that contain the most satisfying types of food, which are high in protein and therefore very filling - such as eggs, cheese and beans. * Avoid sweetened yogurts (and similar products). 'Many of them are just sugar and flavour and won't fill you up.' Advertisement

The show, called The Truth About Calories, sets out to educate us that the key to being trim - and full - is so-called 'smart eating'.

In a nutshell, it's all about making small tweaks wherever you can to shave 100 calories off here and there - and learning which foods will keep you fuller for longer.

But it's not all about we eat, but how much we move.

The programme, presented by TV doctor Chris van Tulleken, also lays bare the stark difference in men and women's ability to burn calories (and it's bad news for us, ladies).

However there is good news, too.

A morning of light housework consumed just as many calories as one involving a strenuous workout, the show reveals.

Speaking about the findings on ITV's This Morning, Dr van Tulleken explained the perils of consuming even a few extra calories a day.

Guidelines state that men should aim for no more than 2,500 calories and day and women 2,000.

'If you eat even 100 calories over this a day, over 10 years you will put on about 10 stone,' he told presenters Phillip Schofield and Amanda Holden.

'And you can easily get 100 calories from just 1.5 digestive biscuits,' he added.

However what's key is not calorie counting, but being calorie aware, he said.

'For example, four digestives have the same calorie content as a medium-sized hamburger, he said.

'It's very easy to polish off four with a cup of tea as they're so tasty - but unfortunately, in this case, tasty means fattening.'

BECOMING CALORIE SMART

The most important thing to remember is not all calories are equal, Dr van Tulleken said.

While some are hard to digest and will therefore boost feelings of fullness and stave off hunger pangs, others are liquid calories that will have little impact in terms of nutrition.

'You can obviously eat what you like - but bear in mind that foods such as chocolate and fizzy drinks contain empty calories that do not leave you satisfied or quench your thirst,' he explained.

Dr van Tulleken recommends eating 'bulky, indigestible foods' such as kale and broccoli

'Even yogurts aren't great - many of them are just sugar and flavour and won't fill you up.'

Instead, the best, most satisfying types of food are protein and GI foods which is 'really really filling', such as eggs, cheese and beans.

Dr van Tulleken also recommended 'bulky, indigestible foods' such as kale and broccoli.

'They take a long time to digest - and meaning you won't want as much cake afterwards.

'You will also burn more calories just trying to digest these foods,' he added.

Soup is an easy habit to get into. 'It's a good lunch and fills you up more than just eating the ingredients on their own.

'This is because it has the added ingredient of salty water, which fills you up.'

This 'smartness' even extends to the way food is cooked.

For example, a rare steak is harder to digest than a well-done one - so will be less calorific.

And whereas a steak and chips - depending on the cut of steak and how the chips are cooked - can tot up to around 1,000 calories, this can be easily reduced, he says.

But by shaking off the oil from he chips and replacing some of them with broccoli, you will easy be full up.

FOOD TEXTURE IS KEY IN HOW THE BODY PROCESSES FOOD Calories work differently in the body depending on which food they come from. Protein foods such as chicken are estimated to use ten to 20 times as much energy to digest as fats. And many highly processed or sugary foods like honey seem to barely tax the digestive system at all, meaning no extra calories are needed to eat them, writes PETA BEE. But this isn’t accounted for on food packaging. So while a lemon muffin and a flapjack may contain the same calories, the body uses more calories to break down the flapjack, so you’ve notched up fewer after eating it. The texture and consistency of a food influences the amount of energy you need to digest it. Soft and highly processed foods require less effort to chew, so you use fewer calories Similarly, a sandwich of wholemeal bread and peanut butter might have the same calories as one with white bread and smooth peanut butter, but it takes more energy to eat so the calorie count from your meal will be lower. Rick Miller, a clinical dietitian and spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, says: ‘The texture and consistency of a food influences the amount of energy you need to digest it. 'Soft and highly processed foods require less effort to chew, so you use fewer calories. High-fibre foods require more chewing and are more difficult to digest, so you use up more calories eating them.’ There is plenty of evidence that cooking makes food easier and less time-consuming to digest by altering its structure, meaning you take on board more calories. Fast food and microwave meals - which take no calories at all to digest but are proportionately high in the most ‘fattening’ types of calories, sugar and fat - are partly to blame for the obesity epidemic, experts say In her book The Obesity Epidemic, obesity researcher Zoe Harcombe reported that despite the UK National Food Survey confirming that we ended the last century eating 25 per cent fewer calories than in the Seventies, the obesity rate has increased six-fold since then. ‘It is insane that we ignore these facts and stick resolutely to calorie counting,’ Harcombe says. ‘There is a lot seriously wrong with calorie advice.’ So how can we be eating fewer calories yet be getting fatter? It’s probably down to our love of fast food and microwave meals — which take no calories at all to digest but are proportionately high in the most ‘fattening’ types of calories, sugar and fat. Dr Matthew Capehorn, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, says: ‘We should view calories as a useful tool, and the 2,000-a-day figure as a general guideline, but nothing more. ‘Overall, calories should not be the only focus in weight loss.’ Advertisement

AND BAD NEWS, LADIES... MEN BURN WAY MORE CALORIES EVEN WHEN THEY'RE DOING NOTHING

When it comes to staying slim women can’t afford to put their feet up.

For they burn far fewer calories watching TV on the sofa than their partners do, the programme revealed.

Doctors who measured how much energy three couples expended during day-to-day activities found large differences between the amounts men and women used.

All six ate a 600-calorie fry-up before each couple was assigned a different activity: an hour in the gym, three hours of cleaning, or lounging about. Their energy use was then assessed.

However the programme also revealed that women burn far fewer calories watching TV on the sofa than men do. Dr van Tulleken is pictured right with fitness experts Jason Gill and Stella Bartram

Patrick and Roma Burn were lucky enough to spend the morning on the sofa.

But while Patrick burned up 640 calories just by being a couch potato, Roma used only 292.

Dr van Tulleken said women tended to burn fewer calories at rest than men because they did not weigh as much and had less energy-hungry muscle mass.

‘Bigger people burn more calories than smaller ones,’ he said.

WHAT IS A CALORIE? Dr van Tulleken likened a calorie to miles per gallon. 'It's basically how long you can you run your body for on that bit of food. 'The higher the number, the longer you can run it for. 'But unlike a car, it has an infinite fuel tank - so the more fuel you put in, the more you just store as fat.' Advertisement

But Patrick and Roma were extreme examples, he noted, as Mr Burn was ‘100kg of lean muscle’ and his wife ‘probably weighed half that’.

The programme also found a morning of light housework consumed just as many calories as one involving a strenuous workout, which left the couple exhausted.

Jim Norris got through 834 calories and his wife Elaine 729 during the morning, in which they spent an hour in the gym lifting weights.

Meanwhile, Nick and Margaret Shenkin burnt 862 and 629 calories respectively cleaning the house.

Dr van Tulleken said: 'Moderate continuous activity uses more calories, and body size and lifestyle - what you do with your day - also play a much more important part than you might think when it comes to calorie consumption.'

The Truth About Calories is on BBC1 tomorrow (Thursday 26th) at 9pm.