I'm fat. Not morbidly obese by today's American standards, but I am carrying around more of me than I should. Though, it's not entirely bad: when I donate platelets I can donate up to two units based on my heft. (Three is the maximum. Sorry, I don't know what a unit is for platelets. Maybe some other Thursday, eh.)
Today's exploration: How do calories work?
A calorie as a unit of energy--not limited to food energy. But to complicate matters, there are two types of calories: small and large. Shamelessly borrowed from Wikipedia:
- the small calorie or gram calorie (symbol: cal) which is the approximate amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
- large calorie, kilocalorie, kilogram calorie, dietary calorie, nutritionist's calorie or food calorie (symbol: kcal or Cal), equal to 1000 small calories.
Scientists have done the caloric breakdown homework for us:
Caloric Breakdown
- 1 g Protein: 4 calories
- 1 g Fat: 9 calories
- 1 g Carbohydrates: 4 calories
The key to losing weight is to take in fewer calories than we burn. However, we need certain nutrients daily, which is why we can't just stop eating until we reach our goal weight. Instead, if I really want to drop this extra thirty-or-so pounds I'm lugging about, I need to practice portion control and exercise more. And probably stop eating dinner right before bedtime. Ya think?
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