What Is a Calorie?
At the moment we are confronted with the word calorie on all our foods and even drinks, but how many people know what it actually means and why is it important? A calorie is a unit of measurement just like a centimetre, a litre, a kilogram etc. A calorie measures the amount of energy in one gram of a given substance.
Now that you know what a calorie is, what do you do with it or how does it help you out. Every type of food and drink ? except the new zero calorie drinks ? contain calories, therefore everything we eat or drink increases the amount of calories we are entering into our bodies. To balance this equation everything we do requires energy (calories) some things we do require more energy for example walking for five minutes uses more calories than sitting down for five minutes.
Looking at the bigger picture we have a balancing act setup on one side we have the energy consumed in a day (food and drinks) and on the other side the energy utilized in a day. We all have a certain amount of calories or energy that we need in order to perform basic everyday activities (also known as metabolism) and if we consume more calories than we need in a day our weight increases on the other hand if we consume less calories than we need we lose weight.
Taking all this into account on a basic level the most effective way to lose weight is a combination of diet (to lower the amount of calories we consume in a day) and exercise (so that the amount of calories we require in a day increases).
Yours in good health and fitness.
Craig Wyllie Personal Trainer (B.Exsc) | |
