(this page is in the process of being fixed)

The Energy Unit

 
This Page Covers:
 

• What are Calories?
• “Percentage of calories as…”
• Empty calories
• How many Calories do you need?
• Calorie counting and calculations
• Bibliography and further reading
• Summary

Note: All references will be included at the end of this article. I have referenced a proportion of the information for this page from “Nutrition for Dummies” and “Burn the Fat – Feed the muscle”. To obtain those pieces of work please click on the link provided. Most other information is standard higher education knowledge mostly associated with Biology.

What are Calories?

 
Calories are not a nutrient; they are a measurement. Food does not “contain” calories. It is merely a measurement of heat output.

First off we need to understand that there is much confusion where calorie measurements are concerned. In general, when anyone refers to a “Calorie” they are actually referring to a Kilocalorie (Kcal)… in other words; 1000 Calories. Even on food packaging you will see the word “Kcal”. The “Kcal” that you see is generally referred to as just a “calorie” in nutrition speak.

To confuse things even further, scientific circles use a different measurement; the joule, or rather, the KiloJoule (Kj); 1000 Joules. You will also see this on food packaging as well.

Mathematically:

1 Kcal is equal to 4.2 Kj.

Unfortunately there are a lot of “Ks” in the above text and therefore you may need to read through it carefully!

For the sake of this article I am going to refer to “Calories” OR just simply “Kcal”.


The definition of 1 Kcal is:

“The amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 Kilogram of water by 1 degree centigrade.”

It will help if you understand that when food is “burned” within the body it produces heat. If we imagine that our body is like a vehicle then this is the heat that “drives” us. That is the reason why we are given a recommended daily amount of calories as guidance. Just remember that; when things are broken down (proteins/ fats) heat and energy are released. When things are built up then energy is used.

We can live on a higher or lower amount of calories but our body will always use as much as it needs. Any excess is stored for later use… hence weight/ fat gain. Any shortage is made up for by using the body’s stores.

This is a complicated subject and is covered in the Fat-Loss section of this site. To avoid time wastage and suffering please do not go into any kind of “Fat-Loss Program” without a good knowledge of what the body does. People can have a tendency to talk about fat-loss when they really don’t understand it.

Note: Listen to “accurate” sources of information about fat-loss only… the chances are that your buddies and work colleagues are probably not Fat-loss experts! People pick up little rumours and “gems” of information that are often completely bogus. Even some of the most well known “facts” about fat-loss are complete nonsense.


Back to the subject at hand…

All of the Macro-nutrients have a certain measure of calories per gram. (If you need further information about the Macronutrients then please visit the “Basic Nutrition” page.)

Through scientific research the Kcal amounts have been found to be approximately:

1 gram/ Kcal

Carbohydrates 4*
Protein 4
Fat 9
Alcohol 7**

*Sometimes this is quoted as 3.75. It is normally best to stick with 4 for ease of calculations.

** I would not normally mention alcohol because it should really be considered a “poison” as opposed to a nutrient. I have included it merely for reference value.

Unless you wish to go into scientific research then all you need to do is concern yourself with your intake and not “how” those figures were obtained. Obviously the figures stated above do vary because not all food is identical. Also, unless you wish to do scientific tests on samples of all the food you buy then it is best to just take the food producers word for it! Most food will be marked with nutrition information on the packaging.

Food packaging (at present) will give you the overall amount of calories in the food. This is worked out from the figures given for Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat. If you were to just work out the figure by weight then you would get a very inaccurate figure! You can normally trust the food producer to give the right value. They would be breaking the law if they did not.

Where good (precise) dietary planning is concerned you need to pay attention to the percentage of calories of each individual food type. That is a big subject and will be covered in more detail in the “Fat-loss” section. For the moment however here is a brief overview.

 

“Percentage of Calories as…”

People who are new to nutrition often don’t understand what nutritionists mean when they say, for example; “we should aim for 20% of our daily calories as fat.” Unless you actually study nutrition in some detail you will more than likely have no idea what that means!

Just briefly… this is the process by which you find that out:

1. Calculate your daily intake of food
2. Once you have the total amount of food that you eat in a day on paper you have to work out the individual amounts of each type of nutrient i.e. protein, carbohydrate and fat.
3. The percentage of a certain type of food, like fat, is the proportion of the total calories that come from that food stuff.

The article on fat-loss will go into this is much more detail. Full working examples will also be given.

Empty Calories

You may have heard the strange term, empty calories. If you eat a well rounded diet and many whole/ natural foods then you will receive many different nutrients required by your body. That is what all good diets are about; balance. When a particular food is said to have empty calories then it quite simply means; it provides energy and no other nutrients. Two examples are most alcoholic drinks and high sugar/ fat content foods. Many things, like sugary cakes, provide you with little else other than a large amount of sugar and fat.

The main problem where empty calorie foods are concerned is the fact that you are filling yourself up with foods that do not provide anything like fibre or vitamins/ minerals. You can only have a certain amount of calories per day before you start to put on weight. You should think of that amount as a kind of “ration”. Ideally you should be consuming food that nourishes you in more ways than just providing energy. There is far more about this subject in the “Optimum Nutrition” section.

The crystallized sugar, as in refined, “table” sugar (sucrose) is not a substance that is needed in your diet. Your body requires glucose. Do not misquote what I have said there. Your body still requires sugar, but be advised; blood sugar comes about from the metabolism of carbohydrates. What I am saying here is that you do NOT need to “add” sugar to your diet. Examples would be:

• Putting a teaspoon of sugar into your tea/ coffee
• Drinking fizzy drinks like cola
• Eating cakes or chocolate bars

Yes, I know they are nice! As long as you keep the consumption of sugary foods to a minimum then you will generally be fine. If you wish to follow a Fat-loss program because you are overweight then you would definitely need to cut down on empty calorie food. If you wanted to follow a hardcore, Optimum Nutrition diet then chocolate bars would not be a part of it; nor would alcoholic drinks.

It is entirely up to you what you eat but it is important to know the facts. Empty calorie foods will jeopardise your Fat-loss efforts and will cause all manner of problems in the long run. The less you empty calorie foods you consume the better… that is a simple rule of thumb. Your body = your choice.

How many calories should a person consume?

This is a tricky subject! If you go by the standard RDA amount then you will get an inaccurate figure that is not based on the size of your body or the “composition” (as in fat, muscle etc). In UK the RDA of calories is set at:

Men 2500 Kcal per day
Women 2000 Kcal per day

Do you count your calories everyday? I dare say you probably do not and I doubt that many other people do either. It took me a very long time before I even considered sitting down and working out how many I consumed in an average day. People tend to eat until they are “satiated”; which basically translates to “full up” or “satisfied”.

Children and many other family members often eat what they are given. Most families have a habit of having a set number of meals per day (often 3). The individuals, including children, will then have snack breaks in-between.

What many people don’t understand is that these so called “snacks” often come up to around the same as a moderately sized meal. A snack consisting of an average sized chocolate bar and a packet of crisps (a.k.a. potato chips) can come up to around 400 to 500 Kcal! That is generally known as “junk” food due to the balance of nutrients being consumed (mostly fat, simple sugars and salt.) Add a can of cola or other fizzy drink to that and it comes up to even more… possibly more than 600 Kcal. That is not just a meal; that is a “large” meal. Some will even say it is not a meal at all due to the lack of good quality protein.

If you don’t have a weight problem and you don’t believe that you have any urgent need to count how many calories you consume then “maybe” you should not bother... If you are concerned with your health and your figure then you absolutely MUST pay attention to it. There is more on this subject in the “Fat-Loss” section of this site.

Too many nutrition guides say, “Don’t bother counting calories because it is tedious and time consuming!” Look, If you really want to stay on top of weight loss issues then, in all honesty, you are not going to get very far if you have no idea what your calorie consumption is. It would be like running a business without keep a close watch on ingoing and outgoing money.


The total amount of calories that you need is based upon about 6 factors:

1. Your rate of metabolism (the general “speed” that your body “works” at)
2. Weight
3. Body composition
4. Gender (male/ female)
5. Age
6. The level of physical activity that you engage in

It is hard to get perfect figures for any one individual. Often the basic calculations tend to work best for... people who are ideal! This is especially relevant where “weight” is concerned. Your body weight, as you see it on the scales, is just everything all bundled together; water, muscle, fat and everything else. It will do for a rough estimate unless you are very overweight or obese.  

Unfortunately, people often start to seek nutrition advice when they believe that they need to improve their health. Ironically this usually means that most people who use calorie calculations will be far from ideal!

Note: If you are exceedingly fat then please seek guidance from a doctor before making drastic changes to your diet! If you consider yourself obese then you should definitely seek professional council first. If you wish to see a dietitian then you would normally have to be referred. Health professionals will be able to tell you if there is anything specifically wrong with your body or not. It is up to you however.

Calorie Calculations

The quickest and dirtiest method of measuring your calorie requirements is to follow this very easy set of steps found in the renowned “Burn the Fat – Feed the Muscle” by Tom Venuto.

Fat loss = 12 - 13 calories per lb. of bodyweight
Maintenance (TDEE) = 15-16 calories per lb. of bodyweight
Weight gain = 18 to 20+ calories per lb. of bodyweight

Let me explain…

Essentially you just weigh yourself and find out your weight in pounds. Just multiply your body weight in pounds by the number shown above depending on what you want to achieve. Don’t forget 1 kg (kilo) = 2.2 lb (pounds). So for example:

Someone wishes to find out the amount of calories they need to maintain their size and weight.

They weigh in at 150 lb. (68kg… 150 divided by 2.2 or… 68 x 2.2 = 150 approx)

The calculation is therefore…

150 x 15 = 2250
150 x 16 = 2400

This means that the person can eat between 2250 Kcal and 2400 Kcal a day and will keep their weight roughly the same.

Calculations similar to this were used to create the RDAs. As you can see, if you “divide” the number 2000 (The RDA calories for women) by 15 you will get:

2000 / 15 = 133 lb

133 lb is a very average weight for a very average woman… but let’s think about this carefully; what about all the people who are not as average as this? You see average people walking down the street who range in height anywhere from 4 foot to 7 foot! People range in body shapes and sizes dramatically. People’s weight varies all the way through their life. Some people are carrying a lot of fat; some people have huge muscles.

The advice is… at least get a rough guide of your calorie requirements from your own weight. Set figures of 2000 for women and 2500 for men are not good enough as a gauge. You even see some food packaging that just says 2000 Kcal for everyone! Some large active men can have a calorie requirement of double that figure.

Please understand… I am not saying that the authorities don’t care about your health. The reason why they set these simple figures is in the hope that people will at least pay some attention to their diet! This guide, and the Zhuno site as a whole, is for people who wish to pay more attention. You will need to understand a bit of basic maths if you wish to gain good results.   
 

A more complicated approach…

The following figures are based on the “Modified Schofield equations”. You will also find these contained within “Nutrition for Dummies” which is one of the best all round guides to general nutrition. There a whole bunch of different and even more accurate types of calculations in “Burn the Fat – Feed the Muscle.”

Accurate measurements of your calorie requirements are based on two factors:

Your energy requirement at rest; REE (Resting Energy Expenditure) also known as BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

The amount of any activity you do in the day and the level by which you do it.


This will all become clearer when you see the results of the equations. An example will be given.

The first thing you should do is measure your REE (Resting Energy Expenditure). You will need your weight in kilos (kg):

(Apologies… the ages only start from 10 years)
Man’s age in years    BMR =
10-17    (17.7 x weight) +657
18-29    (15.1 x weight) +692
30-59    (11.5 x weight) +873
60-74    (11.9 x weight) +700
75+    (8.4 x weight) +821

 
 
Woman’s age in years    BMR =
10-17    (13.4 x weight) + 692
18-29    (14.8 x weight) + 487
30-59    (8.3 x weight) + 846
60-74    (9.2 x weight) + 687
75+    (9.8 x weight) + 624



These calculations are based on the modified Schofield equations and are produced for people in UK but obviously they apply in the same way to anyone, within reason. As I said before… they are only reference values and merely a guideline. Don’t worry about the fact that they have not changed since 1991. Evolution tends to take quite a bit longer than a few years... so you can trust that they are as accurate now as they were in 1991.

I understand that those calculations may seem complex… so here is an example:

Get yourself onto the scales and measure your weight in kg. I weigh in at 75kg, I am 33 years old and I am male. This means that I use the following equation:
 
( 11.5 x 75 )    +    873

=      862.5      +     873

My BMR =  1735.5

The above figure means that, if I do absolutely nothing at all during the day accept rest, I use up 1735.5 calories.

In reality then, I need to consume 1735.5 calories plus however much extra I need to compensate for any physical exercise I do. The following activity levels have been split into 6 varying degrees. This is a representation of approximately how many calories you burn participating in the following levels of activity PER HOUR.


Level of activity    Average Energy expenditure in calories for person weighing 60kg    Example of activity within this level
Resting    60-80    Eating, sleeping, sitting
 
Very light    90-140    Washing up, cooking, bowling, lying a musical instrument
Light    150-200    Very slow walk (2mph), washing and dressing yourself
Moderate    210-260    Normal walking (3mph), table tennis, light labouring work/ gardening
Heavy    270-350    Walking briskly (4mph), heavy labouring work, volleyball, swimming
Very heavy    360-600    Carrying a load uphill, football, Running uphill away from ravenous tiger that has just escaped from a zoo.

Check out “Nutrition for Dummies” on this link.

Summary

To summarize this article I must just say that calories should not be your only concern when it comes to healthy nutrition and Fat-loss. Those who follow good dietary principles should not need to keep a count of their calorie intake forever. At least give yourself an idea of the amount you are consuming each day and the amount you need. The more accurate the figures you get the greater will be any of your efforts to improve your overall health and figure.

I will expand upon this article in the future. For future reference it is highly advisable to bookmark this page. You could maybe “social bookmark” it as well just as a favour for others and for me.

Further reading:

Burn the Fat – Feed the Muscle
Nutrition for Dummies
Optimum Nutrition Bible (not so much about calories but great for everything else!)