CALORIES-WHAT ARE THEY? WHERE ARE THEY?

Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

By Dr. Judy Siegel

A reduced calorie diet for weight loss-Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? Of course a DIET to lose weight has fewer calories! Fewer that what? Fewer than whatever you’ve been eating and few calories than you burn in a day. Now we have a problem-how many calories do you burn in a day? I don’t know and probably neither do you. So, how can you decide how many calories to eat on your reduced calorie diet?

Calorie is a measure of energy, the amount need to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water 1 degree Celcius, from 14.5 to 15.5 C. It really is a kilo-calorie (kcal)-1000 calories. So whenever you read “calorie”, think kcal. All foods contain energy (kcals) and we use this energy from food to run our bodies, run to the store, run after kids, or just run-or walk. All movement requires that we spend calories to get it done. Most of the calories we burn are used for keeping the system going: the heart pumping, brain thinking, kidneys and liver working, etc. Below is a diagram of how your body spends calories.

TOTAL ENERGY EXPENDITURE

The taller you are, the higher that resting energy number will be. The more muscle you have the higher it will be. SO-if you are a short woman 5′4″ or less, it is likely you will lose weight on 1200 kcal a day. For a taller woman 1500 kcal a day will likely cause weight loss. For a male 5′10 or taller 1,800 kcals and for a male shorter than 5′10, with a slight build would use 1500 kcal.