What are Calories?
Calories are contained in most of the foods we eat and it is something that many diets and ‘lose weight fast plans’ have focused on. It has only been in recent times that food producers have had to be more honest about the amount of calories in their foods. We are obsessed with calories and they are the one aspect of food that we count. We count how many we consume and less frequently we count how many we use. We talk quite confidently about calories but do we really know what they are all about?
What is a calorie?
A calorie is simply a unit measure of energy, also known as a joule. They are both used to measure the amount of energy in our food. 1 calorie is approximately equal to 4.2 kJ (kilo joules). The majority of times you see calories mentioned in the same breath as a food it is actually referring to kilocalories (kcal) which is actually a kilogram calorie which is (surprise surprise – Beeble) the equivalent of 1000 gram calories.
So from a scientific point of view a calorie or kcal is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius. Which in itself may not seem that useful but at least you have a bit more information on the meaning of a calorie.
Where do calories come from?
Calories are present in the majority of our foods. This is because they are present in carbohydrates, fibre, fats, proteins, organic acids (like citric acid), polyols (sugar alcohols that are used as sweeteners in products like chewing gum) and ethanol (pure alcohol to you and me). Nearly all foods are made up from these 6 ingredients and therefore calories are present in most foods. That said there are some ingredients of our daily diets that are calorie free. These are water, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, caffeine, spices, natural flavours, tea and coffee (without milk or sugar added). Of course a calorie free diet looks a little watery and boring and without calories our body will not be able to function properly.
Why does our body need calories?
Our body needs calories to use as an energy source fairly similar to the way a car needs petrol to function although with a lot less pollution. Although anyone who knows of someone on a high fibre diet may beg to differ. So, from any simple movement of our body to the playing of a sport – it all needs energy. Our brains need energy to day dream and work on the day-to-day problems we face. All of our organs need energy to do their jobs like the heart pumping the blood around the body which in turn passes the energy around to where it is needed. So before you try and omit all calories from your diet or go on a low calorie diet, please realise that your body does need the right amount.
What happens when you eat too many calories?
When you have more calories than your body requires (unlike when you put too much petrol in your car and you end up with it all over your legs) your body cleverly takes the excess and stores it for later use. Now if you’re trying to lose weight you may not consider this as the body being clever, but in this ingenious way the body helps to preserve life. Unfortunately these days the only hunting an average human in a developed country does is for the Golden Arches this means they are not taking part in physical activities therefore it is unlikely that the stored fat will be used later. In fact if the diet is particularly bad then you will more than likely just store more fat.
What’s the secret to reducing fat?
From this information I hope you can see that your body is a very clever machine, however don’t try and out smart your body. By having too few calories you won’t provide your body with enough immediate energy to help turn stored fat into energy and to function properly throughout the day. The trick is to have exactly the right amount that your body requires and to exercise regularly to help use up the excess energy. The transformation may take a while but it will be permanent and you will feel much better within yourself. This is a whole topic within itself so please check the rest of our blog for more advice on weight loss.
How to workout how many calories you consume
Of course you can read the packaging on your food, but hopefully you will be home cooking more often from fresh ingredients and these don’t always come with nutritional information. Don’t fret Beeble fans because we have already thought of this for you. Use our diet tools to find the foods you are looking for, enter the weight and it will tell you the exact amount of calories your food contains. You can then add these up throughout the day to find out your daily calorie intake. However this isn’t going to help much if you can’t tell how many calories your body needs per day.
How many calories do you need?
We are too good to you, we really are. We have this covered as well because if you go to our Fitness Tools section you will find a calculator called BMR which stands for Basal Metabolic Rate and this calculation works out how many calories your body uses whilst at complete rest. For a more accurate result you can use the BMR calculator with BF. This takes into consideration your body fat percentage which will give a more accurate calorie demand because if we know your body fat percentage then we have a better idea of the amount of lean muscle your body has. Muscle is the biggest user of energy and so by knowing this we get a much better reading.
Finally you can use our TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator which takes your BMR reading and then your lifestyle and works out how many calories you need to have to maintain, lose or gain weight. Much more accurate as even if you don’t do much in your day it is more than just being at stationary.
Summary
Enjoy using our calculators and learn to eat sensibly because your body doesn’t want to be starved, it just wants what it needs to live; nothing more nothing less.
