In recent years, many people have been convinced that counting calories is not necessary if you want to lose weight and then manage your weight properly. I do not understand this view; it is, in fact, quite foolish.
Calories in food come from three macronutrients, which include carbohydrate, protein, and fat. We get about 4 calories for every gram of carbohydrate and protein we consume. In contrast, we get about 9 calories for every gram of fat consumed. You can witness this math in action on the label of any packaged food. The total calories are provided based on grams of carbohydrate, protein, and fat contained in a serving size.
Whenever we exceed our caloric needs, the body stores the excess calories as fat in specialized cells called adipocytes, which are more commonly known as fat cells. There is an odd misconception that it is primarily dietary fat that stored in fat cells; which is COMPLETELY incorrect. If you were to eat a low carbohydrate and low protein diet, the primary calorie source would be fat. And if this diet contained just 1500 calories per day, you would lose body fat mass, and perhaps develop 6-pack abs, despite the fact that 1000 calories per day might come from fat, which is clearly a high-fat diet. So, clearly, consuming a mostly fat diet in this low calorie context, would lead to weight loss, not weight gain.
There is a key point that must be understood based on what I described in the last paragraph. We must exceed our caloric needs in order for fat cells to accumulate stored fat calories. These excess calories most commonly come from “foods” made with sugar and flour as they make up about 40% of the total caloric intake of the average American. Excess calories from sugar and flour raise blood levels of glucose, which then gets converted into fat that stored in fat cells. Read full blog.....

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