Calories
A "Calorie" is "the pound " of nutrition... and diet, and weight control...

What is a calorie?:

A calorie is a measure of energy, the capacity to do work.

Science defines the calorie as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.
In the laboratory, the calories in a food are determined by measuring the amount in 1,000-calorie units called kilocalories. But in everyday language this term has been shortened to just "calorie" when the amount of energy in food is described. Thus, a 165-calorie sandwich is really 165 kilocalories.

How many calories do you need?:

Your body needs energy for maintenance, growth, and physical activity:

The number of calories you need depends on your height and weight as well as your age, body size, physical condition, and physical activity. Younger adults require more calories than older adults. Active people require more calories than inactive people.

When the food you eat provides more calories than your body needs, the excess calories are stored as fat and you gain weight.
    For example:

• If you need 3,000 calories and you eat 2,000, you will lose 1,000 calories, about 100 grams (a little more!, because a gram of fat has 9 calories).
• If you eat 1,000 calories more, you will gain 100 grams of weight stored as fat (a little more!).
                      1 pound is 454 grams.

Calories of Foods:

    Some foods have more calories than others. Most foods are mixtures of water, protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, enzymes... The number of calories in a food depends on how much of each of these is present.
    - Carbohydrates: 4 calories per gram: Bread, cereals, sugars...
    - Proteins: 4 calories per gram: Meat, fish, eggs...
    - Fats: 9 calories per gram: Fats, oils...
    - Alcohol also provides calories, about 7 per gram.
    - Water, vitamins, minerals, enzymes... have practically no calories

More detailed tables are found in section 2 of this guide.

© LEV