CALORI

CALORI

A calorie is actually a unit of heat energy. We think of calories as just things that are in food and all foods have calories. But your body sees calories as energy and it's energy to produce heat. And heat energy is what really fuels our body just the same way that gasoline is what fuels your car's energy.

Now all foods have calories and different foods have different amounts of calories. Calories are provided by fat, carbohydrate, and protein. Fats have the highest concentration of calories. That's nine calories per gram of pure fat. Protein and carbohydrates each have four calories per gram of pure protein or pure carbohydrate. Alcohol, pure alcohol, has seven calories per gram. So understanding the role of calories in your diet can help you balance your calories in with your calories out, and help you achieve weight management goals.

We can find the calories in foods by looking at the calorie label or the nutrition facts panel on packages of processed foods. They will all have the number of calories per serving and the portion size per serving. And using these tools, we can help ourself estimate how many calories we're taking in per day and help us achieve our weight loss goals.

Calories are units of energy, contained within food, and used by the human body to maintain daily health and life. Calories are associated with energy that is contained in protein, carbohydrates and fat. Within each of these measures, calories will have a given amount of energy available.  Different foods will provide different amounts of calories. In addition to this, the other nutrients needed for the human body will also differ according to the foods being eaten.

The human body will burn calories in order to remain healthy and balanced. This is by the metabolism moving calories through our body. Our metabolism may also turn calories into proteins or amino acids if the body needs it. These calories then move into the bloodstream and turn into cells or become stored energy. The energy our body needs in order to stay healthy and alive is directly related to the number of calories you intake (eat). The inverse is also true, too many calories consumed can lead to weight problems and poor health.

We can determine how many calories we need through a variety of factors. Every individual will differ depending on what their body needs to stay balanced. There are several ways that we can find out how many calories we need each day. This can also help in determining the types of foods that we need to eat. These can then be balanced with the nutrients that our body needs, such as vitamins and minerals. These can provide an extra boost for our energy burning needs.

For high-energy activities, our body can burn twice the number of calories (or more) than what is needed at rest.  Intensive activities will require more calories, while sedentary activities will require less.  Please keep this in mind. Most people buy far fewer calories then they really need and utterly fail to take into account any intense activity where calories will be burned much faster.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is not a measure of calories.  The RDA is the recommendation of essential vitamins and minerals.  The RDA is defined as "the average daily dietary intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (approximately 98 percent) healthy individuals".  This amount will vary however, according to your age and level of activity.

Many so-called food storage plans are significantly lacking on the number of calories required in order for you to stay healthy. This means that we would actually eat the food contained within the plan considerably faster then it was claimed to last. This also means that these plans are not the 'good deal' that they appeared to be. We have found that many will not last 1/4 of the time they are advertised.

Insufficient calorie intake can lead to poor nutrition, low energy levels, and poor health. These can dramatically impair our ability to fight off disease, infection, perform work or even walk to a safe area.

Competition for food will be one of the most misunderstood 'events' of all. History shows that food is the #1 priority for all civilizations and society. We take this for granted at our own peril. Food is the dividing line between comfort and safety and all-out chaos.

A calorie is a measure of energy, just as a volt is a measure of electricity, a pound is a measure of weight and a mile is a measure of distance. Technically a calorie indicates how much energy it takes to change the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. This would make more sense if the body was made of ice, but none the less this is what a calorie means.

The body needs energy (“calories”) to do anything. Just how much depends on many factors including what you do during a day (sleep all day, exercising, whatever). The average adult male needs between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day. So if he eats this amount of energy a day he would neither gain nor lose weight. He would be consuming as much he uses. Of course the amount of calories needed per day varies from person to person and day to day.

The amount your body needs is the total amount of energy required for your heart to pump, your lungs to fill with air, your body to keep warm, your hair to grow, your stomach to digest food and all those things you generally don’t think about in a day. This is known as the basal metabolic rate. This is what your body would need regardless of what activities you do. Generally speaking the larger you are the higher your basal metabolic rate. Think about it: a 100 pound woman needs less energy to breath and pump her heart than a 300 pound man. This is no different than the amount of fuel a Mazda Miata needs to drive around town compared with an army tank.

The basal metabolic rate is usually pretty static, that is to say, it doesn’t change. If your body needs 1,000 calories of energy a day for your basal rate then it will need the same amount tomorrow and the day after that. It is also important to note that everybody’s basal metabolic rate is different.

The small calorie or gram calorie (symbol: cal) is the approximate amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celcius. The large calorie, kilogram calorie, dietary calorie, nutritionist's calorie or food calorie (symbol: Cal, equiv: kcal) is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. The large calorie is thus equal to 1000 small calories or one kilocalorie (symbol: kcal).

Although these units are part of the metric system, they now have been superseded in the International Syeste of Units  by the joule. One small calorie is approximately 4.2 joules (one large calorie or kilocalorie is therefore approximately 4.2 kilojoules). The factors used to convert calories to joules are numerically equivalent to expressions of the specific heat capacity of water in joules per gram or per kilogram. The conversion factor depends on the definition adopted.

In spite of its non-official status, the large calorie is still widely used as a unit of food energy in the US, UK and some other Western countries. The small calorie is also often used in chemistry as the method of measurement is fairly straightforward in most reactions, though the amounts involved are typically recorded in kilocalories, an equivalent unit to the large calorie.

The calorie was first defined by Nicolas Clement in 1824 as a unit of  heat, and entered French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. The word comes from Latin calor meaning "heat".

There are very scientific terms that define a calorie, but the precise definition is better replaced by a simpler standard for our discussion. A calorie is a unit of measure for energy, that our body uses for all of our vital process. You are constantly burning calories, even during sleep, although the rate at which calories are burned falls dramatically while at rest.

The rate at which calories are used is constantly changing to meet the energy requirements of our body. This varies from person to person and during the different stages of life. For this reason when we discuss how many calories we need on a daily basis, the numbers are approximate estimations.

Calories as a Measure of  Food Energy 

When we speak of calories in relation to a particular food, we actually mean the amount of energy that that food provides for our body to fuel its' metabolic processes.  So weight control actually comes down to a process of energy. If we take in more energy than we use, the rest gets stored as fat.  If we burn more energy than we consume, our body relies on our energy stores to make up the deficit.

How many Calories Do I Need to Maintain My Weight

The most accurate way of determining how many calories needed per day is based upon your basal metabolic rate. However, this calculation is quite complex and involves multiple steps. An easier way to estimate the number of calories you need is a day is as follows:

·         For sedentary people: Weight x 14 = estimated cal/day

·         For people who are moderately active: Weight x 17 = estimated cal/day

·         For active people: Weight x 20 = estimated cal/day

Between 20 and 50 percent of your body's energy requirements are determined by your activity level.  The rest of the body's energy use is devoted to vital processes such as breathing, heartbeat, digestion, and cell processes.

Bear in mind that these numbers are estimations and your actual body processes may require more or fewer calories. Also, these numbers are the number of calories needed to maintain your present weight. These calculations do not take into account weight loss or weight gain.

Note: "Moderately Active" is defined as someone who has 3-4 aerobic sessions per week. "Active" is defined as someone who has 5-7 aerobic sessions.

How Many Calories Do I Need to Lose Weight?

To achieve a weight loss of 1 pound per week, you need to take the above number that you arrived at and subtract 500. This is the needed calorie deficit that will achieve a healthy, slow, and moderate weight loss, while fostering lifelong changes in eating habits. This calorie deficit can best be achieved by shaving 250 calories off of your food intake, and then engaging in physical activity to burn 250 calories. One of the easiest ways to eliminate calories in the diet is to eat slightly smaller serving sizes.

Calculation of calorific value of food

To calculate the caloric value of food required several instruments, among others:

a.       Caloric value of foods:

·         1 gram of carbohydrates can produce 4 calories

·         1 gram of fat produces 9 calories

·         1 gram of protein produces 4 calories

b.      Composition list of groceries (DKBM)

DKBM a table (Appendix 2), which contains a variety of foods and their nutritional content. Readable content of nutrients in the womb every DKBM is 100 gram of food.   To determine the number of calories consumed by a person using the formula:

            For woman: 

            For man: