01/31/2024
Education Time đâď¸
Calories. Another hot topic in the fitness world. From fad diets to miracle supplements, itâs all about calories.
Yes, thatâs right. No matter if youâre into Keto, intermittent fasting, paleo, or anything in between, weight management is all about calories. We get sucked into the FINE details because itâs trendy and sales. Itâs nearly impossible to market and sale a product when you educate people instead of pushing magic beansâŚ
So what do we need to learn?
Calories are just a unit of energy. The idea of calories through thermodynamics has been around since the 1800âsâŚmeaning itâs not new science.
-You need to eat X amount of calories to keep your body going at a certain weight.
-You eat âX +â or more than, youâll store that energy (calories). Typically as fat. Thatâs the bodyâs natural energy storage system- fat.
You eat âX -â or less energy than what you need, and your body will use its storage as energy, ie âfat lossâ or storage use.
Think of it like gas in a carâŚbut also imagine in this scenario that your car has some growth principles.
If you fill the tank everyday with exactly the volume it needs, it stays the same and runs as expected.
If you continuously every day, fill the tank with more gas than it needs the car finds other places to store it, and grows. It continues to store the extra more and more until your car is much larger. In time, the extra weight will start to wear on parts more and more and cause issues down the road.
On the other side of that, if you donât put in enough gas, the tank will get smaller. Continue that and the car will get smaller and smaller until there are also some serious wear and tear issues down the road.
A helpful analogy? Maybe not.
But it goes to show that there is a balance. The amount of energy we consume SHOULD be a direct correlation to what we intend to do with itâŚ
-Too much, it WILL go to storage. Not to worry, youâll probably use it with the energy boost.
-Way too, everyday, and it WILL get stored as fat. Period. Your body has limited options with chronic excess calories.
-Too little, your body will use up available storage, or fat.
-WAY too little, youâll starve.
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