KaraCooks
New member
This thread is prompted by another thread in the exercise forum. The misunderstanding about what a calorie is in that thread really threw me for a loop ... it also made me realize that there may be a lot of people who have the same confusion/misunderstanding. So I thought this might help.
What is a calorie?
At it's most basic a calorie is a measure of energy. Properly defined, 1 calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1deg Celsius.
So what does that really mean for weight loss?
Everyone's body needs energy to run. Simply by existing, we burn energy. The measurement that we as a society have chosen to document that energy we burn is a calorie.
In order to replenish that energy, we eat and we measure what we eat by calories as well.
It's just like fuel for a car: You put fuel in your car and it burns that fuel to run. You put calories in your body and your body burns those calories to run. If you have a bigger car, it needs more fuel to run. If you go faster, it needs more fuel to run. If you beef up the engine (add muscles), it needs more fuel to run. It's the same with your body: if you move around more, you need more calories. If you're bigger, you need more calories. If you have more muscles, you need more calories.
However, that's where the analogy ends. You can't give a car too much fuel. A car has a fuel tank and once it's full, it's full. Done.
The human body doesn't have a "full" mark. So if you give the human body too much fuel (calories), the body uses them. And if there's no outlet for that extra energy, it is stored as fat. If someone consistently eats more calories than they burn, they gain weight.
If they want to lose weight, then they must eat fewer calories than they burn.
Now keep in mind that calories ARE NOT nutrients. People get the two confused sometimes. Calories are ONLY the measure of energy in food.
No matter what anyone might tell you, the ONLY way to lose weight is to burn more energy than you take in. That means calories in vs. calories out. However you choose to do that is fine: if you count calories, if you eat less, if you eat different foods ... all of those can work. But no matter how you do it, if you're losing weight, you're eating less than you're burning.
It's that simple.
What is a calorie?
At it's most basic a calorie is a measure of energy. Properly defined, 1 calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1deg Celsius.
So what does that really mean for weight loss?
Everyone's body needs energy to run. Simply by existing, we burn energy. The measurement that we as a society have chosen to document that energy we burn is a calorie.
In order to replenish that energy, we eat and we measure what we eat by calories as well.
It's just like fuel for a car: You put fuel in your car and it burns that fuel to run. You put calories in your body and your body burns those calories to run. If you have a bigger car, it needs more fuel to run. If you go faster, it needs more fuel to run. If you beef up the engine (add muscles), it needs more fuel to run. It's the same with your body: if you move around more, you need more calories. If you're bigger, you need more calories. If you have more muscles, you need more calories.
However, that's where the analogy ends. You can't give a car too much fuel. A car has a fuel tank and once it's full, it's full. Done.
The human body doesn't have a "full" mark. So if you give the human body too much fuel (calories), the body uses them. And if there's no outlet for that extra energy, it is stored as fat. If someone consistently eats more calories than they burn, they gain weight.
If they want to lose weight, then they must eat fewer calories than they burn.
Now keep in mind that calories ARE NOT nutrients. People get the two confused sometimes. Calories are ONLY the measure of energy in food.
No matter what anyone might tell you, the ONLY way to lose weight is to burn more energy than you take in. That means calories in vs. calories out. However you choose to do that is fine: if you count calories, if you eat less, if you eat different foods ... all of those can work. But no matter how you do it, if you're losing weight, you're eating less than you're burning.
It's that simple.