Ikofit Personal Fitness Consultancy

Calorie Consumption and You  

Nowadays we are hearing about calories all the time. As soon as someone speaks about health, weight loss or weight gain the word calorie is never far away! Counting calories is for some people a major part of their life, decisions of what to eat based on that little word. Various slimming clubs around the world successfully and not so successfully use calorie counting as their strategy for “weight loss”. Often food consumption is immediately linked with calorie consumption. This is happening everywhere, but have you ever wondered what a calorie really is?   

A calorie is simply put is a unit of energy. We tend to associate calories with food, but they apply to anything that contains energy. For example 4 litres of petrol has about 31,000,000 calories. Now just like a car needs a source of fuel to move and function so does the human body and we get this energy from food. The calories listed on foods in a supermarket are a measure of the potential energy we can harness from any given food. These food groups are Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat and any thing we eat is basically a combination of all three.

A gram of Carbohydrates has 4 calories, a gram of Protein has 4 calories and a gram of Fat has 9 calories. For example an 8oz/160g chicken breast has 1 gram of fat x 9 calories = 9 calories, 35 grams of protein x 4 calories = 140 calories so the chicken breast contains 149 calories.        

Now the burning question how many calories do I need? The number really is different for every person. Food standards agencies estimate in the region of 2000 calories a day for adults, but this really is a rough estimate as any individual may need more or less calories for basic daily function. Normal factors which determine your requirement for calories (remember energy) are your height, weight, gender, age and very importantly activity level. Sorry there is no set answer there for you, but this is where many individuals get things confused. No one is the same, I think you will agree, and no one leads the exact same lifestyle? Correct! So why would everyone need the exact same amount of calories? Your energy consumption (calories) should relate to your goals, whether it is losing weight, gaining weight, maintaining weight, having a baby, or running a marathon.

Generally the more active you are on a daily basis the more energy/calories you will need. When dieting 1200 calories is often around the number of calories women are advised to eat. Men sometimes follow suit dropping their calorie consumption to 1200, not taking into account that as a man you naturally burn calories at a faster rate! This is not really a good idea for long term “weight loss” as this is probably the minimum amount for any women to live, by this I mean breathe and pump blood! Massively dropping calories will definitely work in the short term, losing a combination of water, carbohydrates, fat, and eating away at muscle!

In the long term this is a very dangerous way to live. Now this may sound great to some of you thinking well who cares if I lose fat that’s all that maters? Well, tell that to your heart which is also a muscle. The more muscle you lose the slower the rate at which your body will lose fat. As muscle is the most metabolically active tissue, losing muscle makes it harder for your body to lose fat! When your body realises its calories are being reduced and thinking you are starving, it puts the brakes on the fat loss! And starts to be more efficient at storing as much fat as possible! In short don’t restrict your calories too much, whatever your goals are! Eat better calories which are less fatty in content as this is generally healthier. Remember the chicken breast, filling but low in fat!  Eat nutrient dense foods high in vitamins minerals and fibre. Try to also eat smaller meals, try 4 – 6 meals a day rather than 2 or 3!        

 Do your best to raise your metabolism so your body is more efficient at using the calories/energy you consume, consider combining aerobic exercise with resistance exercise. After an aerobic workout your metabolism is raised for around 30 minutes and after weight training it is raised somewhere in the region of 2 hours. Increasing lean muscle will also mean you burn more calories when you are awake or asleep and used more actively and not as likely to be stored as fat! We all need calories just try and make them the good kind.        

ReferencesAmerican council on exercise” Lift Weight to lose weight”

Calories how high can you go? 2002

Body building .com

Weightwatchers.com