*Pumps up Europe Jam*

First, we talked about what calories look like.

We also talked about how much of a role weighing and measuring can play in results.

Then, we talked about the role that restaurants take in being correct in their calorie amounts.

I want to bring it all together by going back to the beginning and giving you a little except from The Fat Loss Troubleshoot on what a calorie is. How many of you actually know what a calorie is and means?

Excerpt From The Fat Loss Troubleshoot:

A Calorie Is A What?

How many calories do you burn just trying to understand what a calorie is?

A calorie is a unit of energy. More specifically, it’s the amount of energy/heat it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). It is most often used to access the energy content of food, though it can measure other amounts of energy in chemistry. Food calories are represented by a capital C and are 1000 times bigger than one physicist’s calorie (spelled with a small c). On a nutrition label, it will appear as “cals” or “Kcal.”

Nutritionists measure the energy content of food in calories with an apparatus known as the calorimeter. It is a device that measures the heat of chemical reactions, physical changes, and heat capacity. Basically, some guys in a lab coat spends his time blowing up your food in a metal container mixed with water and powder. The higher the temperature of that water and metal, the more energy (calories) is in the food. This is as basic as it gets for an explanation, but the process isn’t that complicated. You can even find easy instructions online for making your own calorimeter.

All of this boiling has delivered to us the knowledge of the grams-to-calorie ratio based on different macronutrients. When 1 pound of water is raised 4 degrees Fahrenheit, the amount of heat used is chosen as the unit of heat, and is called the Calorie. How that energy burns in your body is the equivalent to this technique and from it we can derive this:

1 gram of Carbohydrates burned =4 Calories
1 gram of Protein burned =4 Calories
1 gram of Fat burned =9 calories
1 gram of Alcohol burned =7 Calories

Using this formula, if all you have is the gram amounts for your food item, you can figure up the caloric amount on your own.

For example 2 tbsp (30 grams) of Natural Peanut Butter has:

• 16 grams of Fat
• 6 grams of Carbohydrates
• 8 grams of Protein

This translates to this using our formula:

16 Grams of Fat =16 x 9 =144
6 Grams o Carb =6 x 4 =24
8 Grams of Protein =8 x 4 =32

Add those totals together and you get 144 + 24 + 32 =200 Calories for every 2 tbsp or (30 grams) of Peanut Butter.

What Your Body Does With Those Calories

I am going to provide you the case of the professor and the burning peanut.

Professor George Benedek burned a peanut. He stood in the front of a small class of 50 students, took out a peanut on a wire made from a paper clip and held it with pliers. In doing so he positioned the peanut under a test tube which contained ten grams of water.

Beneath the peanut was a large pan filled with water. Nearby, he had a fire extinguisher, just in case.

Benedek proceeded to set the peanut on fire. Drops of oil dripped from the nut and into the pan of water. The water in the test tube started to boil. When the peanut finally burned out, there were only eight grams of water left.

When you eat a peanut your body does the same sort of thing. It converts the energy stored in the peanut into the energy it needs to keep running. Different calories do different things and, as much as argued, a calorie isn’t just a calorie. Your body has certain processes and demands that require different supplies of calories. It’s important that you keep this in mind not just in fat loss but life in general. Look at food as a source of energy, a means to provide you with function and life. Sure, function and life can be tasty, but just make sure it’s tasty energy that you are going to put to use.

A question to my blog readers:

How important do you think calories are to your fat loss? How much “room” do we have to be wrong? What kind of “compliance” level do we have to reach?

Do you really have to count calories?

If you know the answer then why do you ignore the truth to that answer?

If you don’t know the answer then what are you waiting for, get some truth in your life!