Most times,you might be confused about what to eat and what you shouldn’t eat on your journey of fat loss and weight loss.
Also the concept of calories can be confusing, but that confusion has ended today.You will understand everything you need to know about calories and how it affects the body weight.
CALORIE is a unit of energy,it is a term used to measure the amount of energy.Each kind of food has its own particular amount of calories,so when we talk about the calories present in a particular food,it means the amount of energy that the food supplies the body for metabolism(a process of energy breakdown).For instance protein and carbohydrate contain 4 calories per gram while fat contains 9 calories per gram.
When it comes to food,what you need to know is that if you take excess calories ,you will gain weight and if you consume too little calories, you will be underweight.
All processes in the body require certain amounts of calories,so all your activities burn calories,including the ones you don’t notice.For instance walking,running,dancing,singing,talking,sleeping , all burn certain amounts of calories.
Infact you are burning calories as you are reading this.As long as you are alive,you are continuously burning calories.Of course the amount of calories for running will be more than that of talking, even if you are a parrot.
When you involve yourself in any form of activity,an amount of calorie will be used for that activity.That is why you hear people say that “you are burning calories”which means that you are using up calories.
The amount of calories that you burn depends on your activity level and your present stage in life.
If you want to lose weight,you need to burn more calories than the amount you consume daily.
If you want to maintain your weight,you need to create a balance between the amount of calories you consume and burn daily.
For those that want to gain weight,all you have to do is increase the amount of calories you take daily and make sure it is more than what you burn.
So let us see how the calorie concept works,let’s call the calories entering your body “ENTRY CALORIES”
and the Calories you burn “EXIT CALORIES”
Take a look at the illustration of the pretty lady below
This Lady consumed 2500 calories and all her body activities used up 2000 calories.This means that her body will store the remaining 500 calories as fat,thereby causing an increase in weight
Here is another illustration,
In this situation,the Lady consumed 2500 calories and all her activities used up 2500,therefore there is no weight change.She will maintain her current body weight.
Lastly,let’s see what happens when she consumes less than the amount used up in her activities
She consumed 2500 calories and used up 3000 calories,which means that she burnt 500 more calories than she consumed.
This implies that she will lose the kilogram equivalent of 500 calories.
About 7700 calories is equivalent to 1kg.This means that if you burn about 7700 calories,you will lose 1kg of your body weight.So,assuming that someone burns 500 calories daily for a duration of 6 months,the person will lose about 12kg.This is just an example,it is possible to burn more than 500 calories daily.
You should be very careful as regards the amount of calories you cut from your food,do not cut out too much calories and don’t cut calories suddenly as well.If you cut out too much calories,your body might become deficient of nutrition and you may start experiencing sluggishness and fatigue because your body muscles will be broken down for energy,which is a process known as catabolism.Also,if you go back to your eating pattern,you will regain fat.Therefore,you should lower your calorie intake gradually in little amounts.
Now,you can see that the amount of ENTRY CALORIES can be manipulated by the amount of calories you consume in form of food and drinks. This is where dieting is introduced.
Also,the amount of EXIT CALORIES can be controlled by the kinds of activities you perform.This is where exercise is introduced because it burns calories.
So,you can lose,maintain or gain weight by calculating and adjusting the amount of calories you consume and the kinds of physical exercise you perform.
Definitely,a smart move will be to combine both strategies(calories and exercise).
Check CALORIE FORMULA post to know how you can calculate the amount of calories your body needs and factors to consider.
Cheers.
Babajide Adediran