A calorie is a unit of energy. Scientifically a calorie is the amount of energy or heat it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. But for this article let’s just think of calories as units of energy.
Our bodies need energy to breathe, move, and pump blood; energy just to keep all of our organs and systems functioning. We also need energy to complete all of the activities required of us in a day; make the bed, go to work, walk the dog, weed the garden, and chase the kids. We acquire energy from food. The average person needs about 2000 calories per day. In order to get a more accurate picture of the calories or energy units you need to get through a day go to the calculator on our web site for the Daily Calorie Expenditure. You will find it at www.healstatus.com – calculators – Daily Calorie Expenditure. Our calculator will give you specific calorie requirements by taking into account your height, weight, age and activity level. If you burn MORE calories than your body needs you will lose weight. If you burn FEWER calories than your body needs you will gain weight. If you burn the SAME number of calories than your body needs you will maintain your weight. It takes 3500 calories to gain a pound of fat. Fat is the body’s way of storing energy to use when you run out of energy at a later date. If you want to lose 1 pound of fat than you need to take in 3500 fewer calories than your body needs whether it is by exercising or eating less. Check out our calculator that lists over 100 activities and the calories each activity will burn, www.healthstatus.com – calculators – Calories Burned. When looking at weight, calories are simply units of energy that explain energy needed, energy used and energy stored. When examining the complexity of our bodies we also need to consider nutrition not all foods are as beneficial for helping our body to function at its best. But that is a topic for a future article.
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