Do you gain weight from eating bread ?

[Jase]

I am having a huge argument with my sister, she thinks if you eat bread you gain weight.. I am against it. I am telling her Bread does not help you gain weight.

Who is right?.. I know I heard about eating bread with other foods does not help you with your weight gain.

[Hum]

As with everything, how many carbohydrates you eat in the day counts towards gaining weight.

Plain bread alone, is probably not going to cause weight gain.

But it's what you put ON the bread that racks up the pounds.

Peanutbutter, butter, cheese, fatty meats, etc. will do it.

How active you are and your metabolism will have an effect on weight gain, too.

Few people are going to eat enuff plain bread to gain weight.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I can tell you from experience that yes - I gain weight from eating bread.

Bread is part of the "Carbohydrates" food group, and as such gives me a bloated feeling and then after a while makes me gain.

[MytMowse]

Yes, as it will turn into sugar and help you gain weight.

[XerXis]

ofcourse it will, but it also contains some essential nutricians

[shakey_snake]

Your sister sounds like she's read/heard one too many Adkins-like diet promos.

Your body has three classes of fuels it runs on: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

In that order they are burnt, easiest to hardest. That is, your body has to "work harder" to turn fat into energy, than it has to work to turn carbs into energy. So carbs, when available, are burnt by the body first. If you deprive your body of carbs (the idea behind Adkins diets), it will be forced to burn protein or fats, which should in theory, cause you to lose weight.

So, will eating a lot of bread cause you to put on weight? Well, yeah, eating too much of anything will cause your body to preserve the energy you've eaten by converting it to fat and storing it for later. However, because carbs are your body's primary fuel, you have to eat a lot more of them to eat too much (because they are so readily burnt), than you do fat sources or protein sources. Hence their importance on the food pyramid, at the bottom level:

So, you're both right. Eating too much bread will cause you to gain weight.

Eating a balanced diet that includes bread won't.

(BTW, This is all grade 5 health class stuff)

Edited December 8, 2007 by shakey_snake

[Colin-uk Veteran]

In short, yes.

[azz0r_wugg]

I eat quite alot of local organic brown bread each day, I've noticed since I replaced cereal for bread I've put on some weight - but not really bad weight, general bulk instead of straight to the stomach.

[Twistyd-Morticia]

Calories! One word "calories", est too many you put on weight, eat to little and you loose weight, that simple (and i've been obsessed with them for 20 odd years, long story) however people who find it hard to put on weight are advised to eat bread (wholemeal), nuts, grains etc, as it does bulk up, apparently (my naturally skinny friend can eat and eat without putting anything on).

However health guidelines recommend to watch our salt and fat intake, balanced diet, make sure BMI is in the healthy zone. Exercise too, when I used to walk 5 miles a day I could eat pretty much what I wanted too.

It is not the food but the amount / calories. Buy a calorie counter book or their are some free sites on the web. I worry about some of the things they say though, nobody needs to "detox" or any of the other weird stuff they do. Excuse the ramble, eating disorder ruled my life, I'm a walking calorie book.

[Dave Diller]

"Do you gain weight from eating c0ckroaches?" (hah, can't believe it blocks out ****)

Perhaps a ridiculous question, but the answer is of course. Everything you eat has some mass to it and so therefore you are going to gain weight from it. It depends on how you work off those calories you intake that truly determines if you gain weight over time or not - you could eat 10lbs of junk food but if you do enough work to burn the calories off, you won't gain weight from that food splurge alone.

[GrimReeper]

I think it would depend on the amount of activity you were getting. By eating lots of carbohydrates you are indeed giving your body its primary source of energy. Doing this will allow you to have more energy when you are active but if you are less active your body will burn less and what is not burnt will be helping you to gain weight.

Its not a simple "Will X or Y make me gain weight?" its about what you need and what your getting.

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

depends how much you eat

[Pretend]

Yeah, I think whatever you eat, makes you gain weight.

[metallithrax]

Yeah, I think whatever you eat, makes you gain weight.

Not quite everything ;)

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

No. It's not like one day I'll eat bread and gain 10 pounds. She's probably just got that idea because of that stupid Atkins diet.

Edit: guess I'm not the only one that thinks this:

Your sister sounds like she's read/heard one too many Adkins-like diet promos.

[Flae_qui]

it's not bread it's the sugars... try finding bread that doesn't have high fructoses corn syrup in it.... it's out there but had to find. over 90% of the bread isle will be taken off the list.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Not quite everything ;)

like dust? ....dust anyone? no? dust....anyone? no? dust.... :p

:shiftyninja:

[WooSH]

in theory everything should make you gain weight. since you are adding more mass to your body. all mass has some sort of weight. si even drinking a glass of water, would technically make your weight more. however certain materials, such as water, is spent really easily by the body without leaving much mass in your body as waste. water just leaves your body through sweat and the remains go to your bladder, with all the minerals being sent to their appropriate places.

HOWEVER white bread, and rice are high in carbs and low in protein. if you want a lean body you want to consume as less carbs as possible and the more proteins the better. if you want bulk, you need carbs then.