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What Are Calories and How Does it Affect Our Lives

What are calories? High calorie foods and low calorie foods, what effect these high and low calorie foods have on our health? Why we should not estimate calorie consumption. How we can use calories to assist us a weight loss program.

Author: Lawrence Dora
Date: Feb 1, 2010 - 9:52:30 AM

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Let me start by explaining the definition of a Calorie. What is a calorie? A calorie is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius, in another words a calorie is a measure of heat energy.
 When food is burned, it releases a certain amount of heat (energy), depending on the type of food, for example; Fat has more calories (9 calories per gram) than Carbohydrates (4 calories per gram) and Protein (4 calories per gram). The more calories that are in the food, the more energy will be released when it is burned and whatever surplus energy that is not used by the body will get stored as adipose tissue (body fat).

All foods that have a high fat content will be considered high calorie foods. There are some fats that are good and essential for the body (Unsaturated Fats) which need to be consumed in the right quantities like your omega 3 and omega 6, also known as your healthy fats. Although fats are high calorie foods and should be limited, there are also some lower calorie foods which are just as, if not more destructive to one’s health. What foods am I talking about? I am talking about the processed carbohydrates that are so readily available today, like your sugary foods. Any food that is not in its most natural form is considered harmful when over consumed, even though it has lower calorie content than your fatty foods. These foods cause a huge glucose (blood sugar) spike in the blood stream and continuous glucose spikes could lead to diabetes. These large spikes also means surplus glucose and whatever glucose is not used for energy will be stored has body fat (adipose tissue).

Most people do not worry about calories until they decide to go on a diet or weight loss program and even then they don’t know what a calorie really is or how much to consume. The first place to start for anybody who is looking at losing weight, gaining weight or even maintaining weight, is to first find out how many calories per day they require for maintenance and then adjust their calorie consumption accordingly.

Estimating your calorie consumption by the food you eat on a daily basis and then dropping your calories by eating less for weight loss does not have a very positive effect. If you cut your calories by too much which you will eventually do because every time you hit a plateau, you lower your calories even further to see results and that will send your body into starvation mode which will lower metabolism and a lower metabolism will make it much easier for you to put the weight that you lost back on and even more.
Therefore it is important to count calories when going on a weight loss program. This way you can monitor your weight loss and make small adjustments accordingly without lowering you metabolism and jeopardizing your health.

For more information, follow this link http://www.thefatterlimits.blogspot.com/

View all articles by Lawrence Dora

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