Understanding calories

Understanding calories 

The article will give you a basic idea about what calories are and how to check calories in your food. Calorie counter ideas and the amount of calories an individual requires to gain weigh is also a part of the article. 

All about calories

The total amount of energy in a food item is measured in calories. When the amount of calories we eat and drink is used up our bodies store the excess of it as body fat. If it continues over time there’s solid chance you may put on weight. 

For the guide, an average man needs around 2,500 kcal everyday to maintain a healthy body weight. Similarly, for an average woman the figure is 2,000 kcal a day. 

These values may vary depending on the age, size, levels of physical activities, height, sex and metabolic health along with other factors too. 

Checking calories in food 

Knowledge about the calorie content of food and drink can help you count the amount of calories. 

The calorie content of several shop-bought food items is mentioned on the packaging as a part of the nutrition label. This information will mostly appear to be under the “energy” heading. Another basic knowledge of calorie content is kcal, which is short for kilocalorie, and kJ, which is short for kilojoules. 

A kilocalorie is another word for what we commonly called a calorie, so we can say that 1,000 calories can be written as 1,000 kilocalories or 1,000kcal

Next to it, kilojoules are the metric measurement of calories. To figure out the energy content in kilojoules, we need to multiply the calorie figure by 4, since 1 gram is equal to 4 calories.

 

The label will usually state the amount of calories contained in 100 grams or 100 millilitres of the food or drink, so this way we can easily compare the food content of different food and drink products. Moreover, many labels will state the number if calories in one portion of the food. But always keep in mind that the manufacturer’s idea of one portion of the food might not be similar to yours, so there can be more calories in a portion you serve yourself.

You can use the calorie information to assess if a particular food fits in your daily calorie intake. 

Calorie counter

There’s a whole wide range of online calorie counters on laptops and mobile phones. Many of these have an option of using it for free by downloading it. Even some of restaurants mention the calorie information on their menus, so you have the option to check the calorie content of foods when eating out in such a restaurant. 

The optimum way of giving calories should be either served per portion or per meal. Noticing nutrition labels of food items and using a tracking app are two ways to track your calorie intake. Both of these ways are even mentioned above. 

Another way to track your calorie intake is weigh and measure your food. As mentioned, calories are usually calculated per serving or per portion, but we do not always count how many chips we ate. For this you need to use scale or comparison figure to achieve that right portion size. There are digital food weighing machines which gives you an exact figure of how much your food item weigh in grams, ounces and other units. Then you search the calories for the calculated grams or ounces of the food items.  

Suppose you are have 88 grams of chicken and 125 grams of rice for your dinner, chicken contains 210 calories and rice has 169 calories. Total calories intake of dinner is 379 kcal. 

How many calories should you eat to gain weight? 

To gain weight, you need to be in a calorie surplus state, also called hyper-caloric state. Calorie surplus state means you take in more calories than you burn or use up. If you are trying to gain weight try eating more high calorie, nutrient dense foods like nut butters, full fat yogurt and fish. You need add 300-500 calories to your daily calorie intake. if you are taking 2,000 kcal then start taking 2,400 kcal at least to gain.