What Does a Calorie Really Mean?
How many of you have actually considered what a calorie actually is? I know that by this point, you have all heard the phrase “calorie” numerous times. Not too many, probably. In the end, calories are what assist us to achieve our objectives of either losing weight or gaining weight, therefore it’s critical to comprehend what a calorie is and how it influences these objectives.
Let’s go over why it’s important to have a calorie deficit in order to lose weight and a calorie surplus in order to gain weight. The majority of you probably already know this.
In reality, a “calorie” is a type of energy. A calorie, in more precise terms, is the quantity of heat or energy required to increase the temperature of 1 gramme of water by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
The majority of us associate calories with food, yet they may be found in virtually anything that contains energy. Since it’s simpler for people to think of everything as a calorie, that’s the term we use. The calories we see in foods are actually kilocalories (1 kilocalorie = 1000 calories).
Do you now see how these calorie surpluses and shortfalls might benefit us? The body needs the energy to function and survive. Each and every single thing the body does require energy. Your body uses the 180 calories in a food that you eat to break it down through metabolic processes (you can read more about this in another post). These metabolic processes either continue the metabolic process to react with oxygen to release energy or break down the carbs, lipids, and proteins and send them through the bloodstream to cells.
To put it simply, when our body breaks down carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, the result is actual energy. In other words, 1 g of carbohydrate has 4 calories, 1 g of fat has 4, and 1 g of protein has 9. If you sum up the figures for a particular food, you’ll see that they roughly equal the number of calories listed on the label.
Most likely, you’re wondering how the hell this will impact your weight gain or loss. Well, think about this. My body must find a way to make up for the 600 calories it loses if my basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which represents the amount of energy my body needs to maintain its current state, is 2500 calories a day and I ingest 1900.
more frequently in the form of fat, resulting in fat loss. Similarly, if I eat 3000 calories, my body won’t require 500 of them, therefore it will store the remaining calories as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, which will result in weight gain.
Naturally, all of this depends on the kind of food you eat. I’ll probably lose a lot of muscle if I consume 1900 calories from fat and carbohydrates, but you can be sure I’ll also lose weight. Keeping a healthy Macronutrient ratio, which consists of Protein, Carbohydrates, and Healthy Fats, is crucial for this reason.
