ENERGY
The human body is essentially a chemical factory. Thousands of chemicals are churn- ing and mixing and reacting inside of us.And the power source for this factory is energy. The energy needed to power the body comes in the form of calories—a word every dieter is very familiar with.Our calories are either burned or stored for use as energy on an as-needed basis. But energy doesn’t like to sit around waiting to be called into action.Unlike energy that waits to be turned on in your home, the energy that powers your body is in a constant state of flux— it flows both ways depending on your need to either burn it or store it.
All types of energy need a vehicle, a way to move around. Unlike the electrical wiring in your home, the energy in your body uses molecules to move around. THIS IS CALLED ATP..
Most people assume that the three types of fuel that make up our food—carbohydrates, fat, and protein—directly supply the body with the energy it needs to function.
Not so. An important molecule known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the battery that keeps your machine going. Think of the three fuels you eat as three grades of gasoline that produce different amounts of energy and think of ATP as a battery on wheels that takes that energy produced wherever it is needed.
The three fuels all produce different amounts of ATP, but fat produces much more than carbohydrates or protein. This fundamental biochemical fact means fat produces more calories (energy attached to ATP) per gram than its cousin’s protein and carbohydrates (carbs):
In a perfect biochemical world, our bodies would take in the precise amount of calories we need to burn to keep our bodies at their ideal weights. For too many of us, this doesn’t happen.Most of us eat more calories than our bodies require and excess calories go straight to the storage bin (which is usually around your waistline or hips).The simple equation of burn more energy than you consume is central to any reputable weight management program. It doesn’t matter if you eat pounds of food or no food, eat every 15 minutes or once a day, eat only grapefruit and egg whites, meat and potatoes, or coffee and doughnuts. In order to lose weight you must burn more energy than you consume.
However - and this is at the heart of a smart weight management program - there are ways to consume calories that will enable you to burn energy more quickly. And, there are foods and food combinations that are used more efficiently by the body and are less likely to turn into fat. Plus, I am going to show you how to exercise with maximum efficiency. You won’t have to worry about counting every calorie at every meal and weigh-ing yourself everyday.
How your Body uses Energy
Here’s a quick example to illustrate energy usage in an everyday situation.
BREAKFAST
Let’s say you ate a very light breakfast this morning consisting of 100 calories of carbohydrates. This could have been a slice of toast, a cup of cereal, or a bowl of fruit.
HOW THE CALORIES ARE USED
After breakfast you went for a run, which burned off 370 calories. Your energy equation would look like this:
+ 100 calories from breakfast (consumption)
– 370 calories from running (expenditure)
– 270 calories (energy debt)
So where did the 270 calories come from? Luckily, the jog you went on was at a slow aerobic pace, which burns more fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. The 270 extra calories your body needed during your jog came from the fat stored in your body.
The actual amount of fat lost is also easy to calculate.
Since fat has 9 calories per gram, 270 calories divided by 9 = 30 grams.
So your body burned a little more than one ounce (28 grams = 1ounce) of fat.
Now if you eat sensibly the rest of the day without eating more calories than you burn during your normal activities, you have won today’s battle and advanced one step (or one ounce) closer to winning the war on fat loss!