What is a calorie? We all know that people count them and that the consumption of them affects our weight. But do you really know what a Calorie is and how it interacts with the body?

The Calorie

Despite its bad reputation, the calorie is an essential part of our existence. We need calories in order to survive and thrive. But, like all other things in life, calories come with an optimal level. Too many or too few calories can put your health at risk.

While most of us have an intellectual and emotional connection to the word calorie, it is important to remember that calories are neither good nor bad. They are simply energy.

The calorie is equal to 4.18 Joules. In simple terms, a Joule is a measurement of energy; that which is defined as the amount of energy required to exert a force.

Calories are little packets of energy that use heat to exert a force on something. Calories are not only found in food, but in other substances as well. Gasoline is a perfect example. Gasoline can be measured in calories. This type of calorie is used to fuel the engine of a car. The engine then allows the car to travel.

Food contains calories so that when we consume it, our body can tap the energy in the calories to perform some action. When you exercise, you need the calories from food in order to move, to breathe, and for your heart to beat. Without calories, our bodies would not function.

Next time you pick up a can of soup, read the label. Those calories listed on the back represent the potential each food component in the soup has for providing you with energy. But, not all food contains the same amount of potential.

Carbohydrates, proteins and fats each have their own caloric measurements. One gram of carbohydrate does not have the same caloric count as a gram of fat. A fat gram has 9 calories while a carbohydrate gram has 4 calories. The energy potential is greater in a fat gram than in a carbohydrate gram.

A GOOD REASON TO EXERCISE

Many people consume more energy than they expend. When energy potential is not tapped and converted by the body, the energy is stored. This energy storage is what causes us to gain weight. This is why, if you are trying to lose weight, it is essential that you exercise.

Exercise is the expenditure of energy. The body converts the calorie's potential energy into used energy when it moves. That energy is transferred from the storage "houses" in your body into a movement. The common phrase for this is "burning calories", and it is a very accurate way to understand how stored energy in the form of a calorie is converted into heat and expended by the body.

To maintain your weight, you need to burn as many calories as you consume. This is an easy concept to understand, but not as easy to practice. That's why Nutrispot has created its Nutrition & Exercise trackers. When you sign up for a membership, you will have access to tracking systems that compare your intake of energy (what you eat) to your output of energy (exercise).

Using our reporting methods, you can easily and quickly identify areas for improvement and adjust your lifestyle according to your weight and health goals.

For more information, visit our Learn More page. Or, log in today and start tracking your way to your ideal weight!

Now that you understand calories, we can move on to metabolism.

Metabolism

Your body's metabolism is a measurement of how efficiently your body taps the energy potential in the food you consume and converts it into expended energy.

You probably have heard people say, "I have a slow metabolism". What they mean to say is that their bodies are not very efficient at converting food into energy that is expended. This is a very simplistic way to represent metabolism.

It is better to understand metabolism as a flexible, complex and multi-step process that adapts to changes based on your input and output of energy.

So what creates an efficient metabolism? Well, there are a number of factors that affect the rate of your metabolism.

Factors That Affect Metabolism

• Appropriate Expenditure of Energy
• Appropriate Input of Energy
• Metabolic Disorders

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

When your body is hard at work exercising, your body revs up its metabolic pathways in order to provide the necessary energy to your muscles, your heart and your lungs. If the body has an adequate supply of energy for all necessary life-sustaining functions in addition to physical exertion, such as jogging or running, it is very efficient at processing that energy. This efficiency equals an ability to maintain one's weight.

On the other hand, if a person is consuming drastically too few calories but forcing the body to expend a large amount of energy through physical exertion, then the metabolism becomes less efficient. Eventually, it becomes more and more difficult for this person to lose weight.

This is because the body is very smart, and its first order of business is to keep itself alive. Available energy goes to life-sustaining processes (providing blood to your heart) first and to additional physical exertion second. A long period of consuming too few calories for the amount of energy needed to perform all the activities your impose on your body can lead to very noticeable side effects.

Energy Crisis:

Why Starvation Isn't The Solution For Long-Term Weight Loss

Perhaps you have experienced severe weakness or fatigue when attempting a diet that drastically restricted your caloric intake yet required you to increase your level of physical exercise? The weakness and fatigue were the result of your body going into what is known as "starvation mode". "Starvation mode" occurs when the body recognizes that you have reduced its access to energy and begins to divert the incoming and stored energy towards life-sustaining organs and processes and away from your muscles and even your brain! You will notice that the longer you keep this up, the harder and harder it becomes to lose weight. This is because your body is using every last resource it has to keep itself alive.

Putting your metabolism into a state of crisis is why many diets fail and people end up gaining more weight back after they have stopped dieting. By drastically cutting your input of energy you told your body to respond to an "energy crisis" and to start storing up as much extra energy as possible. After you go back to normal levels of energy input (you stopped dieting) your body is not immediately convinced that the crisis is over and continues to store as much energy as possible just in case another "energy crisis" occurs.

Why is the body designed like this? Well, because before mass production of food and technology, shortages of food and potential starvation were a reality. To keep itself alive during lean times, the body evolved to manipulate its metabolic pathways to adapt to how much food was available. Unfortunately, for most of us who have direct access to food, imposed starvation is not a reality, but self-starvation is.

To keep your metabolism in good shape, avoid starving yourself and avoid diets that are very restrictive. When you use these diets or implement drastic weight loss methods on yourself, you are causing long-term damage to your metabolism. You are actually causing it to slow down and to increase its potential to store energy in the form of weight. The diet that allowed you to lose 20 lbs in the short-term may cause your to gain 30 lbs in the long run. This is referred to as "yoyo-ing".

The solution to this is to learn how to keep a close eye on the energy you are putting into your body and the energy you are releasing from your body. To achieve permanent weight loss, eat the right foods in the right quantities and expend an appropriate amount of energy.

How do you do this? Create a baseline for yourself. Start tracking what you eat and how much exercise you are getting. When you feel like invoking a change in your body, slowly start to alter your consumption of food and levels of exercise. Give your body time to adjust! Don't do too much, too fast! During this first adjustment phase, start tracking your body's response to food and exercise over a period of time, for example a few months.

The Nutrispot Exercise and Nutrition Trackers were specifically designed for people who are tired of damaging their bodies through dieting and over-exercise, and who are more interesting in getting to know their metabolisms by keeping an eye on subtle changes that occur over time. Tracking your changing body over time can reveal just how much progress you have made and help you sustain permanent changes that allowed you to achieve your ideal weight and meet your health goals!

Not only can you witness the changes in your body, but you also have a record of which food and exercise combinations were the most effective at getting you to where you want to be - Permanently!

For more information, visit our Learn More page. Or, sign up today and start tracking your way to your ideal weight!

Also, don't forget that we have created a committed community that will help you permanently change your lifestyle and approach to food and exercise. This community was formed and founded by individuals like you, not by the diet industry. There is no pressure to conform to a diet or to compete with other people. Our community is founded on the principle that if we all share our knowledge, we can help each other achieve our goals!