How do Calories Work?

If you envision calories as tiny little drops of fat, perhaps something you burn when you sweat or get your heart rate up, then you do not really understand how calories work.

A calorie is actually a measure of energy, like a volt is a measure of electricity. Rather than picturing a little pat of butter that you are “melting” away as you jog on a treadmill, you need to recognize that calories are not that simple.

How Do Calories Work?

The body constantly needs energy. The average adult male needs somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day just to function. If he consumes that amount of energy a day through food he would maintain his weight.

There are thousands factors that contribute to the amount of energy you use and consume each day, and so it is nearly impossible to determine what the ‘average’ is. It fluctuates daily. However, the actual amount of energy consumed per day is a very simple formula:

Daily Energy needed = “Amount your body needs” + “Amount your body needs to do extra things”

The amount your body needs is the amount of energy required to do those things that you don’t typically control – what is needed for your heart to pump, your lungs to fill with air, your body to keep warm, your hair to grow, your stomach to digest food, etc.

This is known as the basal metabolic rate. Generally, the larger you are, the higher your basal metabolic rate is. The basal metabolic rate doesn’t change and everybody’s basal metabolic rate is different.

The amount your body needs to do extra things is equal to the amount of work you do in a day.

The formula is: Daily Energy needed = Basal Rate + Work

How Can Calories Help Me Lose Weight?

Let’s assume that that your basal rate is 1,800 calories a day and that on this particular day you only use an additional 200 calories throughout the day (getting up to pay the pizza guy, change the channel, open the chips, etc.) then our formula is:

Energy Needed = Basal Rate + Work

2,000 = 1,800 + 200

This means that if you keep your calorie intake to 2,000 or lower, you will maintain your weight and possibly lose weight. However, assuming that you consume:

1200 calories (pizza) + 450 calories (chips) + 480 calories (Coke) = 2,130 calories

This means that you have consumed 130 more calories than you needed for the energy you were expending. These 130 calories are still in the body and will be stored as fat storage. There are ways to make sure that you consume fewer calories. The best diet pills are proven to suppress your appetite, ensuring that you are able to burn more calories than you eat.

Conclusion

The only sure way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you can consume. This can be done with diet and exercise or by keeping track of how much you eat.

If you have trouble controlling your craving and are thinking about trying a weight loss supplement, the best one that we have found is called LipoFuze. It not only suppresses your appetite, but it also boosts your metabolism, gives you energy, and burns fat.