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- Joined: 5/26/2003
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What the hell is a calorie, anyway?
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Wednesday, May 17, 2006 5:42 PM
( #1 )
A couple of people have been asking about this lately- I wrote a short explanation in reply, and figured it might help to address it again here where it’s easier to find, for those of us who are curious- Most people don’t really know much about what calories really are or why they’re so important- Most people just get a hold of a diet, see the number of calories, and try to stick to it every day, without really knowing why. Which is fine- It works. But, for those of you who are curious as to how it works, here’s a simplified version.
What are calories exactly?
A calorie, strictly speaking, is nothing more than a measurement of heat. To be specific, one calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise one gram of pure water at atmospheric pressure one degree Celsius. The calorie we’re all familiar with is actually the Kilocalorie- One thousand small calories. The actual scientific use of the calorie uses the lower case “c” for the unit that raises one gram of water one degree Celsius- The kilocalorie, as it’s properly named, is normally referred to as Calorie, with an upper case C. One Calorie, or kilocalorie, will raise one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.
So, if you had two kilograms of water, and you wanted to raise it’s temperature by five degrees, you’d need ten thousand calories, or ten Calories- But, to keep things simple, we’ll ignore the whole uppercase/lowercase distinction for those who don’t want to be bothered with details.
What does heat have to do with my body?
Every machine needs fuel of some sort to work. Calories are your body’s fuel source. Heat is really nothing more than molecular motion- There are many heat different heat measurements, but basically they all simply put a number to the amount of molecular motion contained within a substance, or it’s potential energy. Heat moves from where there’s more molecular motion to where there’s less- From where it’s warmer to where it’s colder. Picture an overcrowded elevator. A fight breaks out- That’s the molecular motion. As soon as the elevator doors open, people will rush to leave the elevator- From where there’s more molecular motion to where there’s less. This is how heat behaves. That motion, when harnessed, can be used as fuel to perform many different tasks.
Your body has countless tasks to perform every day, for which it needs a certain amount of calories in order to do properly. Everything your body does requires energy- Things we never even think about, like breathing, growing new hair, fingernails and skin, moving our eyeballs, maintaining our body temperature, even digesting our food. Think about any function your body performs, it takes calories.
How do calories help me gain mass?
Adding mass to our bodies requires quite a large number of calories, because it’s a hell of a lot of work for our bodies- It takes a long time, and a lot of fuel. Same as constructing a building- You can have all the materials lying around- But without the workers, it’ll never get built. Protein is one of our building blocks- Calories are the fuel that lets our body put the protein to use. Also, once we’ve built our new muscle, it’ll take more calories to support it, since more mass requires more fuel to work. You can’t expect a nine volt battery to run a jackhammer.
What about fat loss?
Fat, simply stated, is stored energy. When bears go into hibernation, they eat enough to store plenty of fat for the long sleep- This gives their bodies the fuel needed to perform all the functions that still go on while they rest. Bears are extremely inactive during this period, but when they come out of hibernation, they’ve lost weight- How? The fuel was burned off, simple as that. Of course, our bodies don’t quite work the same way- We’re not set up for hibernation, and if we tried to sleep off the fat, we’d eventually wake up starving. What a shame.
We already know why our bodies need fuel, and we can at this point understand that we all need a certain amount of fuel every day. In order to tap into our fat stores, we have to create a calorie deficit in our systems- By not putting quite enough calories in, our bodies will turn to it’s stored energy to burn off- The fat. By creating a calorie deficit of three to five hundred calories a day, we’re persuading our systems to make up that difference with what it has stored for a rainy day in order to properly continue all of it’s functions.
Each pound of fat contains 3500 stored calories. If we reduce our daily intake and/or burn calories through exercise to the point where our bodies have a 3500 calorie deficit in one week, we’ll lose one pound of fat in one week. Create a deficit of 7000 calories in a week, and we’ll lose two pounds- Which is a good rate of healthy fat loss within that time. Why only cut out that many in a week? Why not cut out more, so we can burn more fat faster? Because again, our bodies don’t work like that. If you create too much of a calorie deficit, our bodies will think they’re being starved. You might not feel hungry, but your body will feel threatened, and as a result will slow or even shut down the fat burning process. It’ll want to hold on to that fat for when it really needs it- This is why you often run into people who hardly seem to eat, but can’t lose weight. Their bodies are scared of dying, and are doing what they have to in order to prevent that from happening. The body will also slow or shut down other processes, and try it’s best to convert much of what you eat into more fat to stall death. We all know it takes a hell of a lot to actually starve to death, but our bodies react remarkably quickly to preserve themselves.
How many calories do I need for my goals?
Depends on a few factors. Everyone’s different- Age, sex, height, weight, bodyfat percentage- All sorts of things come into play when trying to get a hold of a specific number. There are various ways to calculate your individual caloric needs- Check out this collection of calculators.
http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/How_Many_Calories_Do_You_Need_Calorie_Calculators_Includes_Quick_Spreadsheet_Too/m_45013/tm.htm
Use your info and the instructions provided here, and you’ll come up with a number. This number is the amount of calories your body needs to healthily maintain it’s current size- To add muscle, you’ll need to add three to five hundred calories or so. To lose fat, you’ll need to lower that number by the same amount.
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