sugar, alcohol and starch calorie questions

So I read somewhere that if you eat something like.. oh say a slice of german chocolate cake (which i did the other night) you should count it as twice the amount of calories. I was wondering also the same thing about alcohol - should i count it as more? If i eat a piece of cake and drink a couple drinks but am still within my 1200 calorie diet boundary - what will happen?

also - what is the truth about potatoes and things like white bread and rice? is brown rice and rye bread ok??

THANKS for looking at these loaded questions. THought I might as well cram them all into one!

-b

It would make sense to double the calories for the cake, but then again I have no truth behind that opinion.  Just remember, even if you remain within 1200 calories, it does not mean you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight.  You need to keep track of the grams of fat in your diet.  Cake, obviously, has a lot, there for it will be turned into fat unless you do something to burn it off.  Imagine if you had 500 calories of carrots instead of 500 calories of cake.  The difference in grams of fat is HUGE.

However, I would assume that if you remained within your calories, you'd be alright.  Just don't make a habit of it! 

I have heard from a friend who is a personal trainer that calories consumed from drinking alcohol are completely useless, and for some reason cannot be subtracted regardless of exercise.  This would make sense why my father, who rarely eats much of anything, is still overweight.  The alcohol does not burn off.

I know that white breads and white rice have little nutrients and should be replaced as often as possible with whole grains and brown rice.  So, if the rye is made with whole grains, that's the ticket.

Hope this helped at least a little...just remember...I'm no dietician.

I'm confused Why would you double the amount of calories? Surely the number of calories is there because that's what the content is?!  If it was worth double, then it would be twice as many calories?!

Also, I don't buy the "alcohol doesn't burn off" thing. I know far too many people who outdrink me by far and are skinnier than me.

Plus, if alcohol didn't burn off at all.... umm... well, let's just say that you'd have some serious issues. Its simply not true.

why do you need to double the calories of cake? i freaking love cake. and 500 cal is 500 cal no matter what you eat i thought. as long as you end up burning off 500 extra cal at the end of the day...

and why doesnt alcohol burn off? maybe cuz it just passes right thru hehe... im still lost haha