I've read that foods that are high in sugar and fat will more readily/easily turn into fat tissue in your body. Now, I understand that your typical cookie is calorie dense because of the large amounts of refined sugar, processed white flour, and saturated fat. And I know that your body uses fewer calories to burn fat than protein or carbohydrates.

But, is there something about the combination of sugar and fat that makes the calories from that food turn into fat tissue more readily, easier, or quicker than, say, a food that just has protein and carbohydrates?

The reason I'm asking is this--my weekly cheat meal at Subway includes two cookies (and a 20 oz. soda and a 6" turkey sub). It's a pretty high-calorie meal, and I compensate for that during the day so I still remain at my 20% calorie deficit. However...if the fat/sugar combination in the cookies means I'm more likely to add fat, then I would consider not eating them.

OR...is it simply calories in vs. calories out as I often read in these forums? At the end of the day, if I ate 500 calories less than my TDEE, does it matter that some of them were from cookies as opposed to carrots, a sweet potato, and some non-fat yogurt? (Obviously, the latter is healthier and I'm NOT looking for a rationale to eat cookies all the time.)

Thanks.

Sugar helps spike insulin which stores fat. And if you eat fat it's obviously not hard for your body to store it as there is very little processing needed. Turning carbs into fat does take a little bit of work though.

Thanks for the information.

Well...I just got back from Subway--I only got one cookie instead of two. I guess that's progress. Now I'm going to go mow the yard with the pushmower instead of the riding mower...penance. Maybe I'll have my cheat meal once every two weeks instead of once a week. I refuse to totally abstain from every pleasure in life. Although I'm liking the weight loss, so that gives me pleasure too. I wish I didn't have such a huge sweet tooth--this would be so much easier! (Or maybe I wish I had more will power...)

sugar and fat get stored as body fat much easier but your right in that the calorie in calorie out is more important for example if I were eating 500 cals over mantenance level and eating cookies and icecream the weight would be much less likely to get stored as muscle and most of it would be stored as fat, as apposed to 500 excess of protein or vegetables/complex carbs which most would get stored as muscle. However if your at a DEFICIT you wont store ANYTHING as excess fat because your at a deficit but you will slow your fat loss process because the insulin spike wont allow the breakdown of stored fat and you'll breakdown more muscle, the problem a lot of people run into is that even though they think there at a deficit either the weight they lost compensates or their bodies slow down there mbr to keep up w/ the defecit of calories so their really not at a deficit. So in conclusion its ok to have sweets once in while or your cheat meal once a week it just slows down your fat loss and makes it much more likely that you will lose muscle but one meal in a week as long as you get back on track wont make a difference, hope this helps

Is the soda diet or regular? In general soda is horrible for you, but if you drink diet for a few weeks it begins to taste normal and even tho it isn't healthy as far as a cancer standpoint, for weightloss it'll cut a lot (1 glass less a day over 3 weeks = 1 lb)

For most otherwise healthy gym rats, I'd say it is pretty much an issue of " calories in vs. calories out " - in other words, it's the excess calories beyond what your body needs that contributes to fat gain.

That aside, your sub itself is likely just under 300 calories, and each cookie by itself is just over 200 calories. And if that 20 oz soda isn't diet, you're looking about another 250 calories...so, just under 1,000 calories overall.

To the extent you can , you just want to make sure you keep the glucose load ( wrt to insulin ) of that meal as low as you can by opting for things like a whole grain bun, ask for tons of extra veggies on it, have milk with the meal instead of soda, have extra serving of turkey and or cheese ...stuff like that.

Boy....400 calories in just 2 cookies.

Hard to believe a good steady run of 30 - 45 minutes on the treadmill is all you'll need to burn those 2 cookies off.

those subway cookies are addicting I used to eat them all the time until i found out those things were 175cals a piece whoa

Rather then punish yourself by eating less, go for a longer run, add some more hills or just run harder to burn them off.

Speaking of cookies.. A few years ago I used to buy these big peanut butter cookies from a gas station for lunch. Until I actually looked at the nutrition info. 530 calories for one! And I was having one everyday, might as well of had a big greasy burger!