The Calorie Effect
What should I be doing? Studying for my upcoming biochemistry tests, preparing my presentation on fat substitutes in alfredo sauce, writing my paper on the psychological effects from eating disorders on both men and women, or finishing up my research proposal for the university.
But I am doing none of those things. Why? Because my brain cannot possibly take in any more things at the moment.
So I will entertain you with yet another sarcastic article about the joys of nutrition.
It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I have not discussed an extremely important principle yet in my blog: Calories. No, these are not little creatures that come and tighten your clothes at night; they are symbols for the amount of energy a food will provide for us. The scientific definition of a Calorie is the energy needed to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. You will notice that 'Calorie' has been capitalized so far. This is because the Calories you see on nutrition labels actually aren't Calories at all: they are calories.
No, that was not a capitalization error; calories are, in fact, different from Calories (don't you just love it when science makes everything more confusing than in needs to be). The calories we eat are kilo-Calories (also seen as kCals); this means that 1,000 Calories are equal to one of our food calories. If you are following this logic, and eating a diet of approximately 2,000 kcals every day, then you are actually eating 2,000,000 Calories every day.
I have a few different ideas as to why kcals are used as opposed to the much easier to understand Calorie. One: writing 2,000,000 calories as opposed to 2,000 (and adjusting to other caloric values on a food label) will eventually save manufacturers a lot of money. Two: it is much easier to count calories in terms of thousands rather than millions. And Three: let's be real...2,000,000 feels like a scary number to reach, right? So who knows that amount of dietary consequences that would be seen simply because of a unit change.
Now that you all know more about the thoughts that run through my head everyday, let's dive into the real facts behind calories
Many of you have probably heard doctor's and health professional's favorite equation: calories in = calories out. They then go into this huge long list of foods you 'should eat' and foods you 'shouldn't eat' because certain foods help you lose weight and blah blah blah blah blah.
That, my friends, is one of the biggest lies known to man. Because (spoiler alert!) there are no foods that help you lose weight. There are no 'fat-burning' foods.
I'm just going to let that sink in for a second.
But if you think about this logically, it totally makes sense! If foods provide calories...then how in the world will certain foods help you lose weight over others?! How the heck will a food burn fat if you are...eating food...? Sure, there are some foods that are definitely a better use of your calories and provide much more nutritional value, but that doesn't mean that cake calories are meaner than vegetables calories and will make you gain weight. Cake calories still raise one gram of water one degree Celsius, just like lettuce calories.
Now is a good time to delve into the subject of weight gain. To gain a pound of fat you have to eat 3,500 extra calories. This can trick people up sometimes, because they think one of two things upon hearing this fact, both of which are false: 1) If you eat 3,500 calories in a day then you will gain a pound. 2) The only way this rule applies is if you eat 3,500 calories on top of your normal calorie count in one day.
Though both of these are false in their entirety, they have elements of truth to them. By the phrase '3,500 extra calories', we mean on top of what you would normally eat (i.e. if you eat 2,000 calories in a day, then you would have to eat 5,500 to gain a pound that day). Therefore, this is what makes statement #2 true. However, this can happen at any time. If you eat 100 extra calories than you burn every single day for 35 days, then you will gain a pound of fat. If at the end of your week you ate 200 calories more than you burned, and this is a consistent pattern, then you will gain a pound of fat at the end of approximately 4-5 months. And if you go the opposite way, if you want to lose a pound of fat, you need to burn an excess of 3,500 calories.
It all goes back to that equation: calories in = calories out. If you choose to eat your entire day's worth of calories in cake, then so be it! You will not gain or lose weight as long as you burn those calories off. It does not matter whether you are only eating cake or only eating salads...calories are calories, and your body will treat a deficit in calories the same way it will treat an excess of calories.
The problem with eating all of your calories as chocolate cake lies in one simple fact: all of those nutrients I spent almost a year talking about? Yeah. Chocolate cake has none of those. Therefore, all of those consequences of not eating those nutrients that I talked about? Yeah. A lot of those will happen. In conclusion, consistently eating a day's worth of calories in chocolate cake is great for your taste-buds, but not so great when it comes to the general function of your body.
Once again, what it all comes down to is balance. In my nutrition classes they stress the importance of the 90/10 rule. This means that 90% of your calories should come from foods with a lot of nutrients in them, and 10% of your calories should come from foods that have literally no purpose besides keeping us psychologically sane amidst all of the spinach and chia seeds in the world (both of which are yummy in smoothies, I might add). Not to mention they are delicious. This way, you get all of the nutrients you need with those healthy delicious foods as well as the chocolate we always need to function normally (my dad and I keep Dove dark chocolate next to our beds for our daily chocolate-therapy). Have I mentioned how much I love chocolate?
Anyways, it is important to note that calories are not an enemy. They are simply a way to quantify how much energy a specific food will give us. Calories do not sabotage. They cannot make us feel guilty. Our self-worth is not decided by what we do with our calories. I have spent a good portion of my life figuring this last little bit out, and I can promise that once you do, your life becomes so much brighter!
So eat well. Eat smart. And always save a few extra calories for a bit of chocolate.
But I am doing none of those things. Why? Because my brain cannot possibly take in any more things at the moment.
So I will entertain you with yet another sarcastic article about the joys of nutrition.
It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I have not discussed an extremely important principle yet in my blog: Calories. No, these are not little creatures that come and tighten your clothes at night; they are symbols for the amount of energy a food will provide for us. The scientific definition of a Calorie is the energy needed to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. You will notice that 'Calorie' has been capitalized so far. This is because the Calories you see on nutrition labels actually aren't Calories at all: they are calories.
No, that was not a capitalization error; calories are, in fact, different from Calories (don't you just love it when science makes everything more confusing than in needs to be). The calories we eat are kilo-Calories (also seen as kCals); this means that 1,000 Calories are equal to one of our food calories. If you are following this logic, and eating a diet of approximately 2,000 kcals every day, then you are actually eating 2,000,000 Calories every day.
I have a few different ideas as to why kcals are used as opposed to the much easier to understand Calorie. One: writing 2,000,000 calories as opposed to 2,000 (and adjusting to other caloric values on a food label) will eventually save manufacturers a lot of money. Two: it is much easier to count calories in terms of thousands rather than millions. And Three: let's be real...2,000,000 feels like a scary number to reach, right? So who knows that amount of dietary consequences that would be seen simply because of a unit change.
Now that you all know more about the thoughts that run through my head everyday, let's dive into the real facts behind calories
Many of you have probably heard doctor's and health professional's favorite equation: calories in = calories out. They then go into this huge long list of foods you 'should eat' and foods you 'shouldn't eat' because certain foods help you lose weight and blah blah blah blah blah.
That, my friends, is one of the biggest lies known to man. Because (spoiler alert!) there are no foods that help you lose weight. There are no 'fat-burning' foods.
I'm just going to let that sink in for a second.
But if you think about this logically, it totally makes sense! If foods provide calories...then how in the world will certain foods help you lose weight over others?! How the heck will a food burn fat if you are...eating food...? Sure, there are some foods that are definitely a better use of your calories and provide much more nutritional value, but that doesn't mean that cake calories are meaner than vegetables calories and will make you gain weight. Cake calories still raise one gram of water one degree Celsius, just like lettuce calories.
Now is a good time to delve into the subject of weight gain. To gain a pound of fat you have to eat 3,500 extra calories. This can trick people up sometimes, because they think one of two things upon hearing this fact, both of which are false: 1) If you eat 3,500 calories in a day then you will gain a pound. 2) The only way this rule applies is if you eat 3,500 calories on top of your normal calorie count in one day.
Though both of these are false in their entirety, they have elements of truth to them. By the phrase '3,500 extra calories', we mean on top of what you would normally eat (i.e. if you eat 2,000 calories in a day, then you would have to eat 5,500 to gain a pound that day). Therefore, this is what makes statement #2 true. However, this can happen at any time. If you eat 100 extra calories than you burn every single day for 35 days, then you will gain a pound of fat. If at the end of your week you ate 200 calories more than you burned, and this is a consistent pattern, then you will gain a pound of fat at the end of approximately 4-5 months. And if you go the opposite way, if you want to lose a pound of fat, you need to burn an excess of 3,500 calories.It all goes back to that equation: calories in = calories out. If you choose to eat your entire day's worth of calories in cake, then so be it! You will not gain or lose weight as long as you burn those calories off. It does not matter whether you are only eating cake or only eating salads...calories are calories, and your body will treat a deficit in calories the same way it will treat an excess of calories.
The problem with eating all of your calories as chocolate cake lies in one simple fact: all of those nutrients I spent almost a year talking about? Yeah. Chocolate cake has none of those. Therefore, all of those consequences of not eating those nutrients that I talked about? Yeah. A lot of those will happen. In conclusion, consistently eating a day's worth of calories in chocolate cake is great for your taste-buds, but not so great when it comes to the general function of your body.
Once again, what it all comes down to is balance. In my nutrition classes they stress the importance of the 90/10 rule. This means that 90% of your calories should come from foods with a lot of nutrients in them, and 10% of your calories should come from foods that have literally no purpose besides keeping us psychologically sane amidst all of the spinach and chia seeds in the world (both of which are yummy in smoothies, I might add). Not to mention they are delicious. This way, you get all of the nutrients you need with those healthy delicious foods as well as the chocolate we always need to function normally (my dad and I keep Dove dark chocolate next to our beds for our daily chocolate-therapy). Have I mentioned how much I love chocolate?
Anyways, it is important to note that calories are not an enemy. They are simply a way to quantify how much energy a specific food will give us. Calories do not sabotage. They cannot make us feel guilty. Our self-worth is not decided by what we do with our calories. I have spent a good portion of my life figuring this last little bit out, and I can promise that once you do, your life becomes so much brighter!
So eat well. Eat smart. And always save a few extra calories for a bit of chocolate.
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