Information About Counting Calories
Calories have long been the main indicator of a food's value. One calorie is one unit of food energy, which is determined by the amount of energy that can be obtained through digestion. When your energy intake (calories from food) exceeds your energy expenditure (calories burned from activity), the unused energy is stored in the body as fat to be used for a time of extensive energy expenditure.
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History
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A calorie has been historically defined as "the measure of the amount of energy required to heat one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius." Wilbur O. Atwater is the man credited with coining the term "calorie" in 1860, but it did not find a relevant application in a discussion of nutrition until the early-1900s. Since then, it has almost exclusively been used to refer to food energy and used in nutrition evaluations.
General Information
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Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, organic acids, polyols and ethanol all contain food energy, or calories. All other food components have no calories (ex. water, caffeine, spices and vitamins, among other things.) Fats have the most calories per gram at 9, while organic acids and polyols (sugar alcohol and sweeteners) have the least at 2.5-3 calories per gram.
Misconceptions
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Nutrition labels can be deceiving. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows for a 20 percent margin of error when documenting nutritional information on food labels. This can result in inaccurate calorie-counting since food labels are the only resources available to the average person. Scientists use a calorimeter and percentage calculations to determine caloric value, but even this has been shown to produce a similar margin of error.
Ways to Monitor
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Read nutrition labels while taking into account the margin of error allowed. For restaurant foods or recipes you follow that do not provide nutritional information, there are several calorie calculators and nutrition data bases available online and in health stores. These calculators can make a recommendation for how many calories you should consume daily given factors such as age, height, current weight and level of activity. Once you find out this information, you can track your daily caloric intake and expenditure in a food journal to help keep you on track.
Portions and Proportions
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Some calories are healthier than others. While considering food labels, pay close attention to where calories are coming from. Most labels include a measurement of calories from fat, or fat calories, but they don't break down how many calories are coming from carbohydrates, proteins and other sources. Look for a balance: you don't want to get all your calories, especially fat, from one place.
Benefits
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Once you understand how to count calories and track where they are coming from, and how you are expending them through activity, you can really control your weight. If you think of it as budgeting, you can set goals to consume a certain amount of food energy, expend a certain amount and reach your desired weight. Maintaining a healthy weight has been shown to decrease your susceptibility to many diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Warnings
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Prior to starting any diet or calorie counting plan, ask your physician about your personal nutrition needs according to your current health, body mass index and exercise abilities. The effects of calorie- counting will be different for each individual since we all have different metabolic rates and nutritional needs. Experimenting is often the best way to determine what is going to work best with your lifestyle and yield the desired results.
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