Energy balance is the difference between energy intake, which is calories in or your
food intake and energy expenditure, which is calories out.
When the energy intake is more than the energy expenditure, you gain weight.
The body stores the extra calories as body fat.
When the energy intake is less than the energy expenditure, you lose weight.
This is the first law of thermodynamics.
Now let’s define what a calorie is.
A calorie is a unit of energy as well as we use meter for length and kilo for weight.
The correct term for calorie is kilocalories or better 1000 calories.
The kilocalories is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of
water from zero to one degree Celsius.
Food in the form of macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins and fats have calories in them, whereas
micronutrients like vitamins and minerals have no calories in them.
One gram of carbohydrates has four calories.
One gram of protein also has four calories, one gram of fat has nine calories and one gram of alcohol
has seven calories.
Every cell in our body requires energy to function in its optimal state.
Now, when we talk about junk or fast food, they also have calories in them as they are also made up
of carbs, proteins and fats.
But those calories are termed as empty calories.
The term empty means that these calories have little or no nutrients in them.
For example, pizza contain foods like cheese, which has calcium and protein.
But other foods like candies and soft drinks contains only empty calories and no nutrients.
The carbohydrates in them are refined and processed.
Proteins are denatured.
Fats are unhealthy like trans fats because these junk foods are refined and processed and it results
in significant losses in vitamins, minerals, fiber or any other vital nutrients.
Furthermore, they’re loaded with sugars, which is disguised under different names and excess sugar
in the body creates havoc inside us and causes ill health.
That’s why it’s very important for most of the calories to come from unprocessed foods like complex
carbohydrates, high quality proteins from grass fed meets, or perhaps from vegetarian sources like
lentils or beans, and healthy fat sources like even extra virgin olive oil, GI or coconut oil.
Now in the new article let’s define energy expenditure.
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