The word calorie comes from the Latin calor meaning “heat”. It is a keyword in many diets that is a source of fear among people who are slimming. A “calorie” is actually a unit of energy and it is used mainly in the context of eaten food. Calories eaten at the appropriate level are necessary for life, but their excess causes weight gain and related numerous civilization diseases.
Caloric carving
All vital functions require energy exertion. So the “Metabolic energy requirement” is nothing more than a dose of energy that enables proper daily functioning of our organism.
The way we live, the age we are, the gender, how much we weigh and how much muscle tissue we have will have the impact on determining the optimal value of energy demand. Food provides calories, the level of which can be checked on the packaging. Manufacturers are required to include information about the calorific value per 100g of product and other nutrients appearing in it. Typically, this description is in the form of a table. Calories are found in the distinction of fat, protein, carbohydrates and alcohol.
Are the calories from fat harmful?
This question has no clear answer. The fact is that calories from fat are the easiest ones to transform into your own body fat. However, completely abandoning them will not be beneficial to health. Fats are necessary for the proper functioning of the body, participate in numerous processes, enable the absorption of certain vitamins and positively affect the condition of the skin. However, you should consume them in reasonable quantities and reach for those from the healthy sources such as fish, nuts, olive oil and various types of oils. Avoid fatty animal products and the preparation of dishes fried in deep oil or lard.
Calories are uneven
Not all calories provided with food are treated the same way by the body. If we provide, for example, 100 kcal derived from carbohydrates, then the body will need only 10 kcal to digest them. This is even lower for fats. The leading product in this regard is protein. For every 100 kcal delivered, the body needs about 25 kcal to digest proteins from food. Therefore, it should be the primary source of energy.
Calories and their minimum level
Due to the large diversity of individual characteristics (already mentioned), there’s no one universal caloric need for everybody ceratinly. To calculate your own calories, it’s worth using a simplified scheme that assumes that basic life functions - from hormone production through oxygen transport, wound healing and digestion, etc., require a load of 22 kcal for each kilogram of body. Of course, this is the daily caloric dose. Therefore, a person weighing e.g. 60 kg needs 1320 kcal to satisfy JUST basic metabolism. All activities above this require an additional energy charge, so you will need additional calories.
Calories and diet
The number of calories consumed and their expenditure in the right proportions are two basic assumptions of a reasonable and healthy diet. If we do not want to drastically reduce the amount of food on our plate, let’s show greater initiative in the field of physical activity. Let’s play sports, give up the elevator for stairs, let’s walk more often, don’t lie on the couch and relax actively. The more calories you burn, the more you mobilize your body to get rid of fat reserves - your dream figure is closer than you think!
