Nutrition basics-Calories

Most of the times when you ask for advice in order to achieve a physique goal some regular answers are eat less or eat more.But what are the reasons for an answer like that?The main reason is the role of calories.You surely have heard the phrase calories in-calories out The next very good question that comes up in mind is what is a calorie.Well the calorie is a metric unit of energy.There are two definitions for it: the small or gram calorie and the large calorie or kilocalorie (kcal).The kilocalorie is used in nutritional contexts . In such context calorie and kilocalorie are equivalent.

If you look at the nutrition label of a food product,you will notice that ,most of the times,the energy content of the food is written.That number can be measured by using a method called calorimetry.This method is burning the dried food in a calorimeter and the heat produced ,results in the calories of the food.But this method is not reliable because it can burn the indigestible dietary fiber.So standardized chemical tests or an analysis of the recipe using reference tables for common ingredients are used to estimate the product's digestible constituents.So the calorie number you see at the label usually comes from the simple math of adding together the calories from the nutrients contained into the food.

The human body?Not really.

One may argue what all these things have to do with the human body,it isn't a furnace.This is a very  good argument.Our body is not literally a furnace .The human body produces and converts energy differently than just producing and absorbing heat.But even with this in mind the calorie remains a  good way to measure what is going into your body in terms of energy but this isnt all.That's only one part of the equation.The other part is calories out or how much energy you spend.I will leave that for next time.

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