CALORIES
The energy stored in food is measured in terms of calories (Technically, 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Centigrade). The calorie measure used commonly to discuss the energy content of food is actually a kilocalorie or 1000 real calories. This is the amount of energy required to raise 1 kilogram of water (about 2.2 pounds) 1 degree Centigrade.
On gram of different foods contain different amounts of energy (Carbohydrates or starchy food contain 4, Proteins like meat contain 4 and fats such as oils contain 9) which is why a small piece of chocolate can have many more calories than a similarly sized piece of lettuce. However, since calories are a measure of energy, there cannot be, as some diet books claim, different types of calories. A fat calorie has the same amount of energy as a protein or carbohydrate calorie.
Calories - Calculating & Counting calories: The number of calories you need to eat each day to maintain your weight depends on your level of activity. If you want to lose weight you will either have to decrease your calorie intake, increase your level, of activity, or do both . To take off 1 pound per week, you need to create a "deficit" of 500 calories per day. You can do this by eating 250 fewer calories a day (for example, cut out a 20-ounce bottle of regular soda) and burning an extra 250 calories through physical activity (for example, walk for 2.5 miles). Another way to cut back on calories is to watch your portion sizes.
(Source: National Library of Medicine 2008)
The number of calories that a person needs to maintain their weight on daily basis can be determined using a variety of mathematical equations. Age, height, current weight and desired weight are all taken into account. Diet is what you eat. Dieting usually refers to eating less calories to lose weight. (Source: Medline Plus 2008)Calories - Calculating & Counting
Question: Some prepackaged foods list both "calories" and "fat calories." What is the difference between the two?
Answer: The nutrition labels on food products contain information about serving size, number of servings per package, calories, and nutrients. All of this information is provided to help you better understand the foods you eat.
The number of calories listed tells you how much total energy your body will get from eating one serving of that food. The number of fat calories listed tells you how many of those total calories come from fat. It also tells you how much of the fat is saturated fat.
Fats improve the taste and texture of foods and provide a feeling of fullness. Fats do contain a lot of calories: Every gram of fat contains 9 calories; carbohydrates and proteins contain only 4. Most doctors recommend limiting the number of fat calories (especially saturated fat) that you eat, both for general health and to lower your risk of certain diseases like heart disease and diabetes. The usual recommendation is to limit your fat calories to 30% of the total calories you consume per day, based on a diet of 2,000 calories per day.
One problem that people have when reading the nutrition labels on foods is that they ignore the information about serving size and number of servings per package. Most people will eat more than one serving of a given food (often up to two or three servings) without realizing it. To really understand what you are eating, read both the serving size and number of servings per package.
Question: Calories - Weight Loss
How many calories must be burned in order to burn one pound of fat?
Answer: One pound of fat contains about 3,500 calories of energy. The amount of fat stored in the body is the cumulative difference between your energy input (food that you eat) and your energy expenditure (physical activity and resting metabolism). The body is finely tuned to try and keep things in balance--to avoid losing or gaining too much weight. In fact, there are thousands of research studies looking at exactly how your body does this. This research has discovered a few things that may help you in your quest to burn off the pound of fat you mentioned.
First, all exercise is not created equal when it comes to burning fat. When you exercise, you can burn calories in the form of carbohydrate or fat (although if you're starving yourself, you start to burn protein from muscles). Most of the calories burned during exercise are actually from carbohydrate; only a small percentage is from fat. One thing you can do to increase the amount of fat calories you burn during exercise is by exercising for a longer time. For example, 60 minutes at once is better than 20 minutes 3 times per day. In addition, recent research shows that intermittent exercise (high intensity followed by low intensity) results in a greater reduction in weight and fat than continuous exercise that involves burning the same number of calories. Therefore, you might try the following aerobic exercise plan: Exercise for 60 minutes, mostly at low to moderate intensity, but mix in intervals of high intensity every 5 or 10 minutes.
Next, you should know that your body will do everything in its power to keep your weight constant. Research has shown that your body will make hundreds of chemical signals aimed at everything from changing the resting metabolic rate to increasing your hunger. So, it is possible that if this week you were to burn 3,500 extra calories in exercise, next week and next month your body will do everything in it's power to restore the weight that was lost. Therefore, you must recognize that weight loss is a lifetime decision and sustained efforts are required.
If you want to lose weight, it is helpful to know that one pound of fat holds about 3,500 calories in energy. This gives you an idea of what kind of sustained effort is required. From then on, planning a lifestyle change involving a healthier diet and a tailored exercise program will give you the best chance of losing weight and keeping it off.
Question: Calories - Daily intake
Is there any way I can figure out how many calories I should be eating daily if I want to lose weight ?
Answer: Calories add up to pounds. So one way to watch your weight is to determine how many calories you should eat each day.
The following formula is designed to produce weight loss of approximately 2 pounds per week--a safe amount that's most likely to stay off.
- Determine your goal weight (see the desirable weights table.)
- Multiply that figure by 9 if you are moderately active. (That is, if you bicycle, walk, swim, or participate in similar activities three or more times a week.) If you are more active than average, (that is, if you participate in aerobic dance, circuit weight training, racquetball, jogging, or other vigorous activities three or more times a week or work at a physically demanding job) multiply by 10. If you are fairly inactive, tend to lose weight slowly, or are over age 45, multiply by 8. (If you rarely, if ever, do anything more strenuous than sewing, reading, or playing cards, you are inactive.)
- Round off the total to the nearest 100 calories. For example: Desirable weight = 130 pounds; activity level = 9 (moderately active); 130 x 9 = 1,170 calories, which, when rounded off, equals 1,200 calories per day.
- To figure out how many calories a week you should be consuming, multiply the daily total by 7. It's more realistic and practical to try to average a certain number of calories per week than to try to hit an exact number per day, because we all have days when we eat more--or less--than average.
Note: Do not eat less than 1,000 calories per day. You need this many calories to avoid nutritional deficiencies or serious health consequences.
CALORIES – WINE
Question: I recently heard that white zinfandel wine has an enormous number of calories because of its high sugar content. What is the calorie count per glass?
Answer: Most table wines have about the same numbers of calories per 3.5-ounce glass. Red wine contains roughly 74 calories per glass; rose wine, 73 calories per glass; and white wine, 70 calories per glass. Dessert wines, on the other hand, do contain more calories. Dry dessert wines contain 130 calories per glass; sweet dessert wines contain 158 calories per glass.
White zinfandel is a light, fruity wine. Its flavor is created by the way the grapes are processed, rather than by added sugar and calories. It is a table wine, not a dessert wine; it should have the same number of calories per glass as other table wines--roughly 70.
