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Mention calories and some people faint at the even at though of consuming a few extra calories in their bodybuilding diet. Every food product that we buy consists of calories. People checking the calorie content of a product before they buy it is a fairly familiar sight. So, what does this calorie mean and how does it affect us? To be more precise, how does it affect our body?
Calorie acts as a source of energy. It can be said as a unit of energy. Normally we talk about calories in the context of food but it can be equated to any energy consuming factor like in the measurement of heat. Generally calories and kilocalories are used interchangeably. Suppose a pack of food item contains 400 calories, it means it contains 400 kilocalories. For every action that we perform we need energy. A small task like lifting your finger to playing a sport requires energy although the amount of energy require may vary. So every small or big action performed by the body requires some level of energy. The actions that we perform including the ones performed by the internal organs of the body derive energy from the food intake. Hence, the energy given by a specific food product is measured in terms of calories. Fats have the highest quantity of calories while carbohydrates and proteins contain equal amounts. These three are the main constituents of food. One gram of protein and carbohydrate contain four calories each while a gram of fat contains nine calories. If a food product contains 100 calories and we burn the entire contents of this food product an equivalent energy of 100 calories is obtained.
Now we know what a calorie is and the amount of calories various major nutrients contain. The question to be answered now is how many calories our body actually needs. Each and every cell in our body requires energy to perform its specified job. The calorie intake differs from one percent to another. One person may burn more calories at a faster rate than the other. On an average, a human being needs to consume two thousand calories on a daily basis. Factors like age, sex, height and metabolic activity also come into the picture to determine the daily calorie intake of a person. The extra calories that remain after the body completes the calorie burning process are converted into fat. It is the body’s way of storing energy. It is used when there is a deficiency in the daily calorie dose that our body requires.
A workout session also has effects on the calorie burning process. Routine workouts increase the speed of metabolism which leads the body to burn extra calories. This effect can last as long as two hours after a workout session. Contrary to popular belief there is no difference in calorie provided by proteins and a calorie obtained from fats. A calorie is only measure energy irrespective of where it comes from. From a nutritional point of view a calorie from protein is better than that from a fat. Burning calories helps in keeping the weight steady and excessive burning of calories helps in shedding those extra kilos you do not want.
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