9 Facts About Calories That You Should Know
Are calories those invisible evil creatures that hide in the closet in winter and make clothes feel tight?
Some are constantly counting, adding, subtracting… is this necessary?
Fact #1. A calorie is a measure of energy.
By definition, a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat one gram of water by 1ºC. One kilocalorie (kcal) contains 1000 calories.
Very often when we say “calories” colloquially, we mean exactly “kilocalories”.
A seemingly small, but significant error – in this case, we are talking about heating a kilogram of water, not a gram.
People striving for weight control, no matter what direction, use calories to measure the caloric deficit or surplus needed to meet their goals.
Fact #2. Calories measure the amount of food that allows us to survive, build or repair our tissues, provide us with energy for movement and life.
Every time we eat, our body allocates the received energy for different purposes. It mainly uses it for the vital functions: breathing, work of our internal organs, digestion, blood movement and others.
The sum of energy required for our survival is called “Basal Metabolism”. Basal metabolism is different for each person because it depends on many factors. If we are talking about people who lead a normal life for the average person – not particularly active, but are healthy and of normal weight, then for women the basic metabolism is around 1300-1400 kcal, and for men – 1600-2100 kcal.
Some of the calories above basal metabolism are used to build and repair tissue. Obviously, in order to build muscle mass, we need to supply our body with energy that is more than the basal metabolism.
Another part of the energy above the basal metabolism is used for our physical activity.
However, if we overdo the intake of calories from food, the energy with which we have exceeded the total necessary expenditure of calories accumulates in the form of fat.
By the same logic, in order to burn the accumulated fat, we need to take food with fewer calories than we spend for our current needs.
We usually think of fat as our enemy. In fact, they are our strategic reserve, a kind of “white money for rainy days”, part of our body’s survival mechanism.
They become our enemy when they are outside the necessary norms.
Fact #3: Using averages for the calories we need is not applicable.
The human body needs an average of 2000 kcal. But this number can’t really be used for anything. Each person is different and leads his own way of life. Individual energy needs depend on age, sex, current weight, current physical activity, health status and other factors. They also depend on the goals we have set for ourselves: to lose weight, gain muscle or simply maintain a healthy weight. To find out exactly what your energy needs are and how you can achieve your personal goals, it is best to participate in consultation with our coach, which will be absolutely free and without any commitments on your part.
Fact #4. The quantity and quality of calories are equally important.
Hey, here I feel, how immediately how immediately they will “jump on top of me”. They will say – it is important to have a deficit or an excess, it does not matter what products (or lack of products) are created.
Yes but no. And actually, it’s easy to explain. You can really lose weight if you only eat chocolate. As long as you eat enough of it. But how healthy will that be? And how long can you live like this?
Healthy goal achievement isn’t just about math. Not even with physics. Complex biological processes take place in our body, which require a large list of nutrients. And if any of these substances is missing, even if its norm is in negligible amounts, the body can go into “protective mode” and instead of losing weight, it can start accumulating fat.
Even if we count exactly the necessary macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats), we cannot count on a random intake of all micronutrients (random, because anyway, along with macronutrients, we also take micronutrients).
The amount of water, although it does not carry any calories, can be decisive in achieving our goals.
All this has been proven in my 6-year practice as a nutrition coach, and any arguments for me are a waste of time.
Fact #5. Negative calorie foods do not exist
It is believed that some fruits and vegetables are so low in calories that they require more energy to digest than they provide. Well, that can’t be done. Our body uses 10-15% of the calories we get with food to process that same food. All the remaining calories, however insignificant they may be, remain for us. Indeed, there are products with very few calories, but they cannot be negative.
Fact #6. Carbohydrate calories are not a “universal evil”
Some diets are based on limited carbohydrate intake.
But the weight is not increased because of the carbohydrates themselves, but because of the excess calories. Even if you only take protein, you can gain weight if you eat too much of it.
On the other hand, a large portion of carbohydrates goes to feed the brain. Do you want to starve your brain?
Although not universally evil, the calories from some carbohydrates can be called “empty” because they carry no other nutrients. So are the calories from alcohol. We can also call the calories from candy, carbonated and sweet drinks empty or harmful. Calories from simple carbohydrates aren’t the best thing we take in either. Calories from healthy foods like whole grains and fruits, which are rich in nutrients and fiber, are helpful.
But although they are useful, excessive eating them becomes harmful due to the accumulation of excess calories.
Fact #7. The 3500 kcal rule doesn’t work
Some experts claim that by reducing the weekly intake by 3500 kcal, we will lose weight by 0.5 kg per week (ie, if you consume 500 kcal less per day during the week, you will lose half a kilogram at the end of it).
Losing weight is strictly individual. It depends not only on the calories taken, but also on a person’s lifestyle, metabolism, health, water intake and many other factors.
Fact #8. “Counting” calories doesn’t work for everyone.
The obsession with calculating (“counting”) calories can harm your health not only emotionally.
The lack of a nutritious diet cannot be overcome by “counting” calories. It’s very easy to eat the same low-calorie foods instead of eating well according to your trainer’s recommendations, but it’s just as easy to ruin your health by eating like that.
Indeed, it is somewhat useful, but not for everyone. Trust your trainer, he will recommend the best way, personally tailored to you and your usual lifestyle.
Fact #9. You don’t need specialized products and superfoods to achieve your goals.
Of course, you can also achieve your goals with regular products.
At the beginning of our practice, we even made regimens for those who did not wish to use Herbalife Nutrition products.
But what happened each time?
People who were on a regimen of conventional products wanted to start using Herbalife Nutrition products themselves. With them, everything became much faster and easier, they did not need to search for hours for the usual products at farmers’ markets and stores. They did not spoil products in refrigerators and cabinets, because not every product can be bought only the amount you need for the day. After all, with Herbalife Nutrition products, nutrition came out even cheaper, although people’s expectations were not so.
Herbalife Nutrition products are designed by over 300 world-class scientists to not only be low-calorie, but also provide complete nutrition without having to worry so much about getting in your required caloric intake. It is not by chance that Formula 1 shake has been number 1 in the world for many years in the ranking of food substitutes.
If this interests you, contact our coach. He can certainly help you.
