Q: When can Oreos cause weight loss?
A: When they’re the new zero sugar Oreos.
Q: Is this because (as we know from asking the omniscient AI) sugar and carbs are evil, and inherently fattening, and that avoiding them will lead to magical weight loss?
A: No, it’s the diarrhea that makes the difference. Here’s what I mean:
- Diarrhea is one of the fastest ways to lose weight.
- Each serving of zero sugar Oreos has 6 grams of sorbitol, which is a powerful laxative.
- For some people, 6 grams is enough to have them sitting pretty. Eventually, everyone responds. In the words of drugs.com, “Alternative Adult Dose: 15 mL (70% solution) every 2 hours until diarrhea occurs.”
Q: So, carbohydrates and sugar are not inherently fattening?
A: No, they’re not. Fat is the most fattening macronutrient of them all.
Excess calorie intake leads to weight gain, however, if your diet is low in fat and high in sugar (not a recommendation) you will not gain much fat. Low carb and keto “experts” like to scare people by saying “sugar just turns into fat in the liver,” but this is mostly false.
What’s true is that the liver is the site of de novo lipogenesis (making of new fat), but what is grossly misleading is that your liver can only make 10 grams (or much less) of fat per day from carbohydrates. There are 453 grams in a pound, so it would take at least 45 days of stuffing yourself with rice and lollipops (but no fat) to gain even 1 pound of fat.
The fat that we eat arrives in the body as fat, so it doesn’t need to have it’s carbons and hydrogens rearranged into fat. Carbohydrates arrive in the digestive system as carbohydrates, and require much work to be converted into fat. This is why there is no upper limit to how much dietary fat that can be stored as fat, while only 10 grams (usually much less) of the excess carbs you eat can be stored as fat.
As, I’ve written about before, low-fat diets are 40% more effective for fat loss than low-carb diets with the same number of calories. 40% is a big deal for the same calorie deficit.
Bottom Line
A great tag line for the zero sugar Oreos would be “bet you can’t eat 10!” In all seriousness, my wife did buy these (and she also got us a massive case of toilet paper… it was on the grocery list), and this is the first time I have ever been afraid to eat more than 2 Oreos.