Definition of Calories in Food
When people talk about losing weight and dieting, an issue that is often discussed is calorie counting. It is easy to think that a calorie is a very small unit of weight, since consuming more of them tends to lead to weight gain, but a calorie is actually a unit of heat energy. More specifically, one calorie is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of one gram of water by one degree centigrade.
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Energy in Food
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Food contains various substances that the body can break down and burn as fuel. The number of calories in food can be thought of as the amount of energy the food can provide to the body. Foods may contain different amounts of fats, carbohydrates and proteins, which contain different amounts of calories. Fats contain 9 calories per gram, while carbs and protein contain 4 calories per gram.
Fatty Foods
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Since fat contains more than twice as many calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates, it is much easier to consume a large quantity of calories by eating fatty foods. Since the weight of one's body is ultimately determined by the intake of calories versus calorie usage, eating fatty foods tends to increase one's weight more than eating protein or carbohydrates. Another problem with fatty foods is that the body tends to burn carbohydrates first and stores fat in reserve, so fats consumed tend not to be burned off immediately during physical activity.
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Sugars
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Sugars are a type of carbohydrate that the body can process quickly, giving it fast access to energy. This is why consuming large quantities of sugar can lead to a sugar rush: the body suddenly finds itself with an overflow of energy, which can make a person jumpy or over energetic. Basic sugars are useful to consume during physical activity because they provide energy that the body can readily access and burn. Consuming sugars when the body is not working is considered unhealthy, because most of the sugar calories go unused and are then stored in the body as fat.
Calorie Balance
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While calorie counting may be helpful to limit the amount of calories taken into the body which can be stored as fat, calorie intake is only one part of the health equation. Calorie burning is often more important than calorie intake, since aerobic activities that burn calories not only tend to decrease weight, but also bolster the strength of the respiratory and circulatory systems. It is quite possible for an overweight person who works out regularly to be more healthy than a skinny person who eats little but never exercises. It is best to maintain a balance between the two: to exercise enough to keep the body at a healthy weight, while taking in enough calories to fuel to body for its exercise, but not so much that one puts on weight in the form of fat.
Recommended Intake
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Different governments and health associations recommend different levels of daily calorie intake. A basic recommendation is that men should consume around 2,000 to 2,500 calories daily, and women should consume 1,500 to 2,000 calories. The problem with such general recommendations is that they do not take into account the significant variation in mass and exercise habits between individuals. Using a calorie calculator that allows you to enter age, weight, height and other criteria can better judge how many calories you should consume.
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