What Is a Calorie?

A calorie is the amount of energy in food as well as the amount of energy stored in your body as fat and glycogen (carbohydrate). Eating foods will deposit calories into your body while walking and exercising will burn those calories from your body's energy stores. Body fat is like a reserve storage tank for energy. When you are burning body fat, you are actually releasing calories from your storage tank and using them to fuel your activities. Fat contains a high amount of calories, which is a good thing from a survival point of view. However, when famine is no longer the concern, excess body fat can be an annoying cosmetic problem and high body fat can put your health at risk.

Understanding the law of energy balance.

According to the law of energy balance, you must burn more calories than you consume to lose weight or you must consume more calories than you burn to gain weight. There are two corollaries to the law of energy balance. One of the corollaries states that too much of anything, including healthy food will get stored as body fat. Some foods are healthier than others because they are nutrient dense. However, regardless of how healthy the food are, if you eat too much and consume more calories than you burn, you will still gain weight and body fat. Even if you cut carbohydrates, but if you eat more calories from protein and fat than you burned in a day, you will still gain body fat.

The second corollary to the law of energy balance says that if you eat fewer calories that you burn each day, even if you eat junk food, you will not store it as body fat. Although the second corollary claim that you can eat low calorie junk food diet without gaining weight, if you want to stay healthy, calories quality is important. It lets you relax and enjoy your favourite indulgences from time to time without feeling guilty, as long as you maintain your calorie deficit. You can have your cake and eat it, too-you just can't eat the whole thing!

Many people work out diligently, choose healthy foods, and do everything else right, but they make the only mistake of eating too much, which prevent you from reaching your fat loss goals. Instead, you should try 80 percent full in each meal. Getting leaner requires the discipline and willpower to control your calories at all times.

How low the calorie intake is considered too low?

A larger calorie deficit will cause the rapid weight loss. However, if a deficit is too large, you eventually will suffer from slow metabolism, hunger, low energy, nutrient deficit and loss of lean body mass. Hence, the best solution is to practice a maximum calorie deficit of 30 percent below maintenance. The extreme calorie deficit is not the solution to lose weight, because it will trigger the hormones in your body, preventing you from losing fat.