Does popcorn after a fattening meal reduce fat?

JohnR41

I seriously doubt that your theory will work. It may be good to have some added fiber from popcorn but I don't think it will bond with the fat and thereby remove it unabsorbed. And, don't forget, you will be adding extra calories and sodium from the popcorn.

Fitman40

Thank you for the reply!
Well, at least it was a nice theory.

JohnR41

Fitman40,

Your theory may have some validity after all. What threw me off was when you stated you thought the fiber would mix with the fat so the fat would pass through the system unabsorbed. And I had never heard of that.

However, after looking through some of my notes, I found that it is calories that get eliminated. The fiber doesn't target fat but, for some reason, just calories in general. I'm not sure why it works that way but that's how it works, according to a reputable source.

Here's the rule, which is an average: About 7 calories will be eliminated (in the stool) for every gram of fiber consumed.

But it's not of much help with the pizza and popcorn example, and here's why. Let's say a person eats two or three large slices of pizza and one serving of popcorn. All of that might provide about 6 to 8 grams of fiber at most. 8 times 7 = 56 calories eliminated.

One serving of popcorn alone has about 135 calories and 3 grams of fiber. 135 - (3X7) = 114 calories gained over and above the calories in the pizza.

MyCat55

I think you want proven theories like foods full of fibre fill you up so you end up eating less.

So if you have a choice between eating a bag of 12 oranges or drinking 2 litres of orange juice you should eat the oranges as you would only be able to eat about 3 of them before feeling full up due to the fibre in them. There as you will probably be able to drink the 2 whole litres of orange juice.

In the case of the pizza and popcorn example it would only work if you eat the popcorn first. So you eat the popcorn and because you are slightly full when you eat the pizza you eat slightly less.

In practice you are better of eating the pizza after you have eaten a salad containing high fibre vegetables like beans, sweetcorn and baby spinach.

Another proven theory is that if you eat soup preferably a vegetable based one rather than a cream based one before a meal you will eat less. Simply because the fluid in the soup fills you. Vegetable based soups are lower in calories than cream based ones.

Fitman40

Now I see! So there is some help, but not very much. I was originally under the impression that fiber helped fat loss by sweeping fat molecules out of the body before digestion, but in fact it's actually by making us want to eat less by making us feel fuller. Makes sense that way.