Kilocalorie

Food energy, and the energy needs of your body, are measured by units of energy called Kilocalories. The number of kilocalories is measured in a food by burning a weighed portion of that food and measuring how much heat it produces. A Kilocalorie is also known as what we all call it: a Calorie. The media shortened Kilocalorie to Calorie but it’s not correctly stated. When you say that your steak has 300 Calories, you really mean 300 Kilocalories. It takes 1 Calorie to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water.

How To Count Calories in Food

Carbohydrates have 4 Calories per gram
Proteins have 4 Calories per gram
Alcohol has 9 Calories per gram and
Lipids(Fat) have 7 Calories per gram

Next time you look at a label pay attention to how many grams of each of these 4 categories there are, multiply each category for either 4,7, or 9 depending on what it is and whoa la- there is your overall Calories.
So lets say your have a food that has 2 grams of protein and 3 grams of fat. 2×4= 8 Calories for protein. 3×7= 21 Calories of fat. So 29 Calories are altogether in this food. It’s quite simple really.

When it comes to dieting, it matters upon how many Calories you take in and burn back off. It doesn’t completely matter what these Calories come from, of course too much fat will go to your buns so it does have it’s limits. But the idea is Calorie counting. In order for your body to function (Kind of like a car needing gas) your body’s energy comes from the foods you eat- Calories. So those no carb diets and taking in hardly any Calories is hurting you more than it’s helping.

How Does Your Body Use Energy

Your body ‘burns’ energy (Calories) broken down like so:
60% basal metabolism
30% physical activity
10% digestion of food and absorption of nutrients
= 100% For each day.

Basal Metabolism(BMR)

Basal metabolism(BMR) is the energy that your body needs at rest and awake. More physical activity, the more energy needed to digest and absorb food. Your own BMR depends on several factors including:

• Gender -Men have a higher BMR than women because of muscle mass.
• Age - Young ones tend to be higher active and have growing bodies that need more energy. And older you get the more fat tissue you gain and more muscle loss occurs. BMRs declines about 2% per decade after 30.
• Growth- Pregnant women and children have higher BMRs
• Height- Tell people have higher BMRs than shorter people due to more body mass  and lose body heater faster.
• Temperature- BMRs change due to weather to keep up with cooling down and warming up your body temperature, this also is true to having fevers, which raise your BMR by 7% for each 1 degree Fahrenheit above normal- stress can affect your BMR also from the secreting if hormones.
• Exercise- BMR is increased for several hours after exercising. Things like smoking and caffeine can increase energy expediture.
• Sleep- BMRs are lowest during sleep.

Your level of activity (Moderate physical activity VS Vigorous) will influence your BMR. The more energy you burn (More calories burn) the more calories that you need. (BMR is higher) Like a bed ridden person VS an athletic person in training will have a HUGE difference.

Gaining and Losing 1 pound

To lose or gain weight you have to consume or burn 3500 calories- which helps to explain why our weights alter a pound or two back and forth so easily. 1 pound of body fat equals 3500. To understand more clearly- say your BMR is 1500 Calories a day and you take in an extra 250 calories a day in any 14 days (Or longer if these Calories slowly add up and are not burned back off) which equals 3500. Now lets say that you start working out more and you burn an extra 100 Calories a day that you don’t usually burn (from that 1500 Calories you take in a day) in 7 weeks (500 calories a week- saying you work out 5 days a week) you would have lost 1 pound. Of course to lose more than that you have to burn more than that, which is why exercise is so important. Physical Activity is the best way to burn Calories. Of course you burn Calories by doing every little thing you do, by moving, talking, sleeping, anything you burn Calories. So next time you have to park so far away, think of it as a gift to walk that extra few steps is to burn that extra little bit more. It also takes more exercise for someone of a small weight like 120lbs VS someone who weights 170lbs. Lets say both of these two people and their two different weights go swimming for an hour. 120lbs would burn about 380 Calories in the time period, while the 170lbs body weight would burn 540 Calories within an hour.

Calculating your BMR

There are several ways to calculate your BMR or to see how many calories you should be consuming a day. If you consume too many- you will gain weight. If you consume too little you can gain also from your body thinking that it’s starving and holding onto that energy.

One way to calculate your BMR is: taking your weight and multiplying it by 10 Calories per pound for women, 11 for men. So 150lb women’s BMR would be (150 pounds x 10 calories per pound(or 11 for men)) 1500. To lose weight, eat a little below that range like 1300-1400 a day instead. To gain weight, eat more than 1500 a day.

Of course there is more ways to calculate your BMR and each will give you a different answer, one way to figure out your range is to average your answers together.

Another way:
1) Take your weight and multiply by 10.9 for males by 9.8 for females. (These numbers are based on a BMR factor of 1 kilocalorie of body weight per hour for men and .9 for women.) 150lb women x 9.8= 1470 kcalories.
2)Next determine what your level of activity is:

• Very light activity- spend most of your day seated or standing.
• Light activity- spend most of your day up and about moving around such as cleaning house.
• Moderate activity- You exercise in physical activity for at least an hour ever other day or if your job requires some physical work.
• Heavy activity- If you work in manual labor, like construction.

When you have picked your level of activity multiply it by the following:
Very Light(male & female): Multiply by 1.3
Light(male): by 1.6
Light(female): by 1.5
Moderate(male): by 1.7
Moderate(female): by 1.6
Heavy(male): by 2.1
Heavy(female): by 1.9

So the 150 pound women was 1470 x (light activity) 1.5= 2205 kcalories needed daily.

This one seems a little high for the average person women. Women are usually closer to 1500 while men are closer to 2000 or more.

Here is another way to calculate your BMR:

Step one is to calculate your BMR with the following formula:
For Adults only:
Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

Then: If you are…

• Sedentary : BMR x 20 percent
• Lightly active: BMR x 30 percent
• Moderately active: BMR x 40 percent
• Very active: BMR x 50 percent
• Extra active: BMR x 60 percent

Add this number to your BMR.

—————————————————

Remember all of these calcluations will tell you around about how calories a day to take in to maintain your current weight, you will need to adjust your calorie intake depending on wanting to lose or gain weight. It is not recommended for women to eat less than 1400 calories a day or 2000 for men.

Sources:
Brefere, Lisa M. and Karen Eich Drummon. (2007) Nutrition for Foodservice and Culinary Professionals. (6th ed.) New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Duyff, Roberta Larson MS, RD, FADA, CFCS (2006) Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. (3rd ed.) New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Posted under Food Talk, Health/Fitness