Calories
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Before you start counting calories and planning how to lose those last 10 pounds of stubborn belly fat, first you should understand a little more about what calories are and how the effect our bodies.
Calories are a measurement of the amount of energy provided by the food or beverages you consume. The more calories you consume, the more energy you are giving your body. If you give your body more energy than it needs or can use, whatever you don’t use will be stored as fat.
Here is the generally accepted calorie guide:
Fat: 1 gram = 9 calories
Protein: 1 gram = 4 calories
Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 4 calories
Alcohol: 1 gram = 7 calories
The traditional school of thought has always been that weight loss came down to simple math. If you are burning more calories that you are consuming in the day, you are putting your self in the mode to lose weight, and conversely if you are consuming more calories that you are burning you will begin to gain weight.
One of the most widely accepting methodologies on managing your calories for weight loss or weight gain is to measure your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and apply a formula such as the Harris-Benedict equation which accounts for variables such as gender, age, height, and general activity level.
This premise is based on the idea that “a calorie is a calorie.” In other words, a calorie of protein provides the same amount of energy to the body as a calorie of fat or carbohydrate.
However, not all calories affect our bodies in the same way and there are many variables that effect how our bodies deal with calories. For example, the amount of lean muscle mass you have, how the particular nutrient sources effect your hormones, your resting metabolism, what is your activity level, the thermogenic effect of the particular calories you are consuming, etc, all have an effect on how our bodies utilize calories.
Without going too far into the science of calories, here is quick example I’m sure you can relate to so you can more clearly understand how different types of calories will effect your body differently:
1,000 calories worth of pure sugar, will have a different affect on your body than 1,000 calories or celery, or 1,000 calories of lean chicken breast.
Though, the topic of calories will always be as controversial as the debate on the various fad diets out there, there is a lot of exciting new research on the science of dieting and the role calories play that is just now being better understood.
Be sure to join the Juicing For Weight Loss newsletter to be up to speed on the latest in calorie research and science based weight loss strategies.
