Food Calories

Food Calories and Energy Bites

A calorie is an energy unit of energy that is contained in food. As such, a "calorie" is a measurement of energy that is found within the food. Energy, essentially, is a form of heat. It takes one calorie to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water, which is why a calorie is often referred to as a "kilocalories," especially on foreign food packaging. It may also be referred to a "food calorie." One pound of body weight is equivalent to 3500 calories. So in order to lose one pound of weight, a deficit of 3500 calories would need to be created I order to start losing weight.

Calorie-counting, which is the first step most people take in losing weight, will not necessarily help reduce weight by itself. Calories literally need to be burned - through exercise.

The body's metabolism determines how fast calories are burned when at rest. Everybody's metabolism works at a different pace which is why some people can eat anything they want and gain nothing, while others will gain weight from eating even low calories foods.

Swapping high calorie foods for lower calories items of the same kind, such as drinking skim mile rather than whole mile, can help reduce the overall calorie intake. Over the course a year, simply replacing foods this way will help reduce the body's food calorie intake by a significant enough amount to see weight reduction.

The body does need a certain amount of calories taken in from specific food courses to function properly, so severely cutting out food calories will actually do the body more harm than good and can cause the body to overcompensate for the lack of nutrition by holding on to weight. Reducing calories can help weight loss, however if done properly and not to an extreme. The easiest way is food replacement.

Good vs. Bad

There are different types of food calories. Some are beneficial to the body and others are not. For example, calories from sugar and saturated fats are more likely to harm the health over time, where as calories from healthier fats are beneficial in some ways and are more easily processed by the body. However, anything that is eaten in large quantities can be harmful to the health, even if it is fruit or other healthy foods. Everything should be eaten in moderation or the food calories will add up and cause obesity.

Counting Calories

One way to count calories is to do it manually. By taking extra care to read labels and measure the amount of food eaten, it is possible to find out an almost exact count of how many calories are being consumed at each meal. However, there are easier ways to find out how many calories are being taken in. Utilizing the help of a calorie counter is the fastest and easiest way to count calories. There are many resources online like calorie counters and other weight loss tools available to help and they are often less time consuming than doing it manually.