The law of calorie balance - numbers behind fat loss

"Any discussion about optimal calorie intake is really a total waste of time - unless you are actually
counting the calories! Unless you have done this in writing, and over a significant period of time
(4-12 weeks), any discussion of this nature is purely academic. Don't kid yourself - get out your
diary, buy a calorie/nutrient counter book and do yourself a favor; get to really know what you are
doing - and more importantly - what the result of this specific combination is."


The Definition of a Calorie


You may hear many people talking about calories all the time, but when you would ask them to
explain exactly what a calorie is or tell you how many calories they consume and burn every day,
they wouldn’t have a clue. During this week, I will try to explain exactly what a calorie is , and
hopefully you too will be an expert on calories. You will learn exactly what calories are, how they
are stored in your body, how many you burn every day and how many you should eat to lose body
fat without losing muscle mass.

I’ll show you why it's important to count calories and you’ll learn  why guessing or counting only
some portions might be the only thing preventing you from getting fitter. I’ll also introduce you to
a simple method you can use to make calorie counting a quick and easy process. Best of all, I’ll
tell you the single most powerful method for fat loss ever developed. So let’s get started!


Let's begin with the definition of a calorie: The technical definition of a food calorie (kilocalorie) is
the amount of heat required to raise 1 liter of water 1 degree Centigrade. A calorie is simply a
measure of heat energy. When food is heated, it releases a certain amount of heat (energy),
depending on the type of food. The more calories that are in a food, the more energy will be
released when it is burned in your body. The word “calorie” is used interchangeably to describe
the amount of energy in food and the amount of energy stored in the body as body fat and glycogen
(stored carbohydrate).


Body fat is like a reserve storage tank for energy. When we speak of “burning off body fat” we
are talking about releasing calories from your reserve storage tank and burning them to fuel your
training. If you don't do any activities, the body fat just sits there in storage until you need it. If you’re
an average 85kg man with about 18% body fat, you have 15,3 kgs of adipose tissue. There are
about 7700 calories in each kg of body fat, which adds up to a total of 117,810 calories of reserve
energy in storage - enough to last you a long time!


Such a large calorie reserve, combined with the body’s starvation response, explains why you can
stay alive for so long without food (as long as you get water). Fasting has been studied extensively
and there are many documented cases of people living for months without eating any food whatsoever.

Your energy reserves served an important evolutionary purpose thousands of years ago, but
nowadays only very small amounts of body fat are essential for health. In our modern society
where famine is no longer the concern it was for our ancestors, body fat is today like an annoying
cosmetic problem (and a major health risk for some people).

Thanks to tens of thousands of years of evolution, you’ve developed a body that is an incredibly
efficient fat-storing machine. That’s the bad news. The good news is, by understanding calories
and balancing your input with your output, you can easily lose fat and maintain a healthy and attractive
body fat ratio.



The calorie bank analogy


A good analogy is to think your body as a calorie bank and caloric energy as money. You store
calories in your body like you store money in a bank. You can make energy deposits (eating)
and withdrawals (exercising) from your body like you would make money deposits and withdrawals
from the bank, depending on how high your energy costs are (but to the contrary of real banking,
in this case the withdrawals are the preferred option :P).

When your energy costs are the same to the calories you consume, then all the calories you consume
are burned immediately and no deposit or withdrawal of calories takes place - your balance stays
the same. When your energy costs are greater than the number of calories ingested, you will make
an energy “withdrawal” from your calorie bank and your body fat “balance” will decrease.  And
then again if your energy costs are less than the amount of calories you ingest, then you will make
an energy “deposit” and your body fat “balance” will increase (excess calories go into fat storage).




The exception to this rule is when you are on a weight training program to gain muscle mass. In that
case, a small part of the calorie surplus is directed into muscle growth. But even when you’re training
hard, if the calorie surplus is too big, the excess beyond what is needed for muscle growth will go straight into fat storage.


The reason why calories do count!


From these basic explanations, you can now easily recognize the importance of counting calories.
Keeping track of calories is just as important as keeping track of the money traffic on your bank
account. If you fail to pay attention to your finances and you make more withdrawals than deposits,
soon enough you'll find yourself being broke. It's the same with calories, except the reverse is true:
If you don’t keep track of your calorie deposits, you’ll soon find yourself with an overstuffed calorie
account in the form of unwanted body fat!


Despite the importance of watching your calories, many diet programs claim that calories don’t matter
as long as you eat the right “secret mixes” of foods. For example, in 1961, a book called "Calories
Don't Count" was published by Dr. Herman Taller. The program was one of the first to promote high protein, very low carb diets (VLCDs). Others followed, the most popular of which was “Dr. Robert
Atkin's New Diet Revolution.”


The general denominator in most of these VLCDs is the claim that by removing most or all of the carbs,
you can eat an unlimited amounts of protein and fat sourced foods. This is where the phrase “calories
don’t count” came from and that’s why you may hear about this idea little too often.

Unluckily, the concepts of eating unlimited anything or of calories “not counting” are 
dead wrong! According to the “calories-don’t-count” theory, if you eat certain foods, or certain combinations of foods, you can eat as much as you like and you’ll still lose body fat. Of course,
in our lazy and pleasure-seeking society today, this idea sounds wonderful, but it's physiologically
impossible. The reason you lose weight on VLCDs without setting calorie limits or requiring calorie
counting is because they reduce appetite and cravings.


Those diets allow you to eat more fat, which makes you feel full sooner. You also tend to get fewer
cravings because eating fat and protein in the absence of carbohydrates keeps your blood sugar and
insulin levels stabile. The end result is that you automatically eat fewer calories. The weight loss
experienced on these programs in reality comes from a calorie deficit, not from any “magical” effect
of the diet itself.

If you were to follow a Very Low Carb Diet, but you consumed more calories than you burned up
during the day, you would still gain body fat. The often-made claim, “Eat all you want and still lose weight,” is one of the biggest and most common lies told in the weight loss industry!