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DEL.ICIO.USWhat is a Calorie anyway?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3500 calories = 1 pound of Fat
A calorie is a unit of energy contained in food that provides fuel for muscles, like gasoline provides fuel for an automobile. Think of muscle as the engine in your body, and think of fat as high-test fuel, providing more than twice the amount of calories or energy as a gram of glucose (a simple sugar that is the main source of energy for the body). You can go more than twice as far on a gram of fat as you can on a gram of carbohydrate. The catch is learning how to get the fat to the muscle so that it can be burned for energy.
The bottom line to losing fat weight is to burn more calories than you consume. If you eat 2,000 calories a day and only burn 1,500, you’re going to gain weight. On the other hand, if you consume 1,500 calories and burn 2,000, you’ll be in caloric deficit by 500 calories. Since it takes 3,500 excess calories to gain a pound, you’d lose one pound per week if you produced a 500-calorie deficit each day of the week. To do that, you could reduce your calorie intake by 250 per day and increase your physical activity by 250 calories per day (for a 150-pound person, a 2.5-mile walk is all it would take). Do that each and every day of the week and you’ll drop a pound per week.
Excess calories in any form will cause fat gain. It’s always best to strive for a slow and steady weight loss of about ¾ to 2 pounds per week and not more than 3 pounds per week (weight loss may be faster at the start of a program) Nothing does more to burn fat and improve your health than physical activity coupled with a healthy eating plan.
Comments
By Harold
August 23, 2006 09:00 AM | Link to this
“If you eat 2,000 calories a day and only burn 1,500, you’re going to gain weight.”
What about poop? Doesn’t poop contain any calories? It exists, so it must be made of something!
By Horton
August 23, 2006 04:34 PM | Link to this
Poop is mostly dead bacteria. You’re not likely to find any calories in there. And who really wants to take the time to find out?