Why You Need To Care About Calories In Food And Alcohol

Counting Those *#!* Calories.

Have you ever been confused by calories in food and alcohol ?

Try and think of them just as units of energy.

There are actually two types of calories, the small calorie and the large.

A large calorie is equivalent to the heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius and is referred to as either the kilogram calorie or the kilocalorie.[1]

The kilocalorie is actually equivalent to 1000 calories, but in popular media, the term "kilocalorie (kcal)" is often used interchangeably with the term "calorie" - which confuses a lot of people.

The preferred unit used by nutrition professionals is the joule which is equivalent to 1000 kilojoules (kJ). The joule is the energy expended when a force of one Newton (i.e. force giving a kilogram mass acceleration of one meter per second) acts through a distance of one meter.[2]

To convert kilocalories to kilojoules, you need to multiply the kilocalories by 4.2.

So when you're eating and you see on the food label that it has 200 calories, this is usually referring to kilocalories and you are actually consuming 840 kJ.

Do I Still Need To Count Calories If I Am On A Low-Carb Diet

The answer to this question is yes, you do need to count calories in your food and alcohol, even if you're eating a low-carb diet.

No matter what kind of diet you are on, you are still taking in energy. If you are eating lots of protein, you are taking in energy, if you are eating lots of fat, you are taking in energy.

The table below illustrates how much energy you take in with each kind of food.

When you take in more energy than you expend in exercise, you have a positive energy balance. The energy or calories in food and alcohol, that you have not used then gets stored as fat. So no matter what diet you're on, if you are eating food which has more energy than your body needs, you will most likely put weight on, not lose weight.

Why Low Fat Diets Are The Easiest Way To Cut Your Caloric Intake

As you can see in the above table. Fats have twice the amount of energy than the other macro-nutrients. Alcohol also has almost twice the amount of energy.

So it's pretty clear that if you want to lose weight, reducing fat and alcohol is the easiest way to adjust your caloric intake.

Do I Need To Count Calories ?

Counting calories is not much fun. It's boring, its tedious and sometimes confusing.

But keeping a track of what you're eating and how many calories in food and alcohol you're taking in, as well as how much energy you're "spending" in exercise, is going to show you in a tangible way how you are losing weight.

If you hate counting calories, and let's face it who doesn't, you need to take a short-cut.

You can have a dietitian or doctor make up a calorie controlled diet for you. You can go for one of the one-size-fits-all diets that recommend a set diet regime for all, or you can use a calorie controlled diet with your specific goals and dietary needs in mind. If you see the meal plans page, you'll find out why I get so excited about them. They are the only ones that I know of, that provides meal plans suited to specific real world situations.

For example, perhaps you're an older woman who is at risk of osteoporosis and needs to lose some weight. Well, these meal plans are the only ones that I know of that actually provide a 7 day eating plan full of a variety of food aimed at looking after bone health.

So while you're looking after your bones using this meal plan, you're also losing weight because it's already calorie controlled for you. You can read more about the meal plans here.

Sources:

[1] Wahlqvist, M. (2002) Food and Nutrition Allen & Unwin p. 173

[2] McArdle, Katch & Katch (1985) Exercise Physiology Lea Febiger p.69

[3] Saxelby, C. (2002) Nutrition For Life Hardie Grant Books p. 18

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