Calories and energy balance
Calories (abbr cal ) is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1°C. Kilocalories (short for cal or often in English literature as well Cal , as the so-called A large calorie ) is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C. In addition to all this, we know that one calorie is equal to some 4.184 joules m ( J ) and one kilocalorie logically 4.184 kilojoules m ( kJ ). Are you already lost in it? I totally understand you! So let's simplify everything.
Every food (and drink – except water) has its energy value, which should provide our body with an adequate amount of energy to cover all the basic functions that our body performs during the day. This energy value is precisely expressed in nutrition calories or joules . If we want to be precise, it is almost always more about kilocalories , referred to as kcal , which you may have already noticed on food packaging, or perhaps with us, when choosing a calorie program. So if you want to find out the value of today's lunch, which our chef Radek prepared for you, you should correctly get the answer that it was exactly xxx kilocalories . However, this usually does not happen because the generic term has already been adopted calorie and so it is easiest to learn to live with it. At the same time, you will also occasionally come across the amount of energy in kilojoules , so be careful when counting calories!
In a simplified way, we can say that calorie is a unit of received and released energy .
But why are we talking about calories at all? Well, 99% of the time it's because caloric intake (and expenditure) largely affects how our bodies change over time. This is where connections come in energy balance . So we already know that every food contains (or at least should have) some nutrients. These nutrients are divided into micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and macronutrients, which we already wrote about last time. We also told ourselves that each macronutrient contains a given amount of calories. Once we have a detailed overview of how much we ate during the day, we get our energy intake. If we can also determine how much energy we have consumed in a given day, we get the caloric expenditure. It includes all the functions and activities that our body performs. So, for example, sleep or the actual consumption of food. Thanks to these two factors, we then
simply able to calculate our energy balance. So we can be in caloric surplus (we take in more calories from food than we burn), in a state of balance (energy intake more or less corresponds to expenditure), or in caloric deficit . We get into a caloric deficit if we burn significantly more calories per day than we take in. And a caloric deficit is an important prerequisite for successful weight loss. Of course, other things also play a role here, such as how long you are in a caloric deficit and how many quality foods you consume calories from. But this basic lesson is something that can be enough for us for the moment and from which we can bounce back to other, more complex topics.
Counting the calories you take in is definitely easier than counting the calories you burn. Various mobile applications will suffice for the calories you have taken. You can also save time and effort, and when you order one of our programs, you will always be sure of how many calories you are taking in daily. In the case of finding out how much energy you have burned in a day, you will need some more advanced accessories, whether they are watches, bracelets or even rings. And even those may not always be accurate. At least indicative data is important, as how many calories your body actually absorbs may not be a clear-cut matter either. But more about that next time! 🙂
