Calories - Myth buster

Calories

Everyone who is worried about weight gain/ weight loss – their whole metrics depends on word – CALORIES.  What is calorie? Calorie as everyone who studied Physics in high school forgets to recall – it is unit of ENERGY.

What happens when your body takes excess calories? If you want to hear garbage science would say – it’s accumulated as fat in the body. But people with garbage science forgot to explain all calories aren’t equal. If all calories aren’t equal how do you rely on metric that doesn’t provide you exact answer you require? Smarter people got even smarter – They divided calories down in 3 groups of measurement – calories by carbohydrates, protein and fats.

Scientist re – answered – all carbohydrates and fats are not equal.  There are 2 types of carbohydrates – complex and simple. Same is
true
with fats – saturated/ unsaturated or essential/non-essential. Sane people replied stick to clean eating. Extremist replied stick to RAW food. God is wise and gave us all the good stuff to eat. We as human messed up whole natural cycle.  Sane people added “Even raw food should be eaten in moderation. It also has calories.” Really? But all calories are not equal. There are good calories and bad calories.

Confusion/ Chaos

Current fitness industry came to resolution – to allow counting variable calories with range of 300 calories at average. People started talking about 1200 to 1500 calories range, 1500-1800, 2100-2400 and so on.

What to account for?

A calorie argument isn’t sustainable. But people argue that people who keep track of metrics have better result than people without any track record.
Best metric which has been clear shot is protein tracking.  Depending on your body type – all athletes suggest you consume 1 gram per pound to 1.5 gram per pound body weight protein. But too much protein would again become fat and of course hurt your liver and kidneys.

Safest reply I have heard till date is consumption of 30 grams of protein every meal irrespective of your body size.

Hot trends

Are there any foods that act as calorie deficit? Cinnamon is considered one.  Most people who consume citrus, garlic and ginger would swear by it.

Why do two people in family eat same amount of food have different size? Somehow genes aren’t the factor.  What about metabolism? Funny argument – people who eat more have higher metabolism – has already been proved. So what is the joke behind portion control? If I want better metabolism, I should eat more right?  Science answers – You can crank up your metabolism by splitting your meals in two parts. Same as cardio interval training.

Good assumptions

1.     Your body looks for meta food (minerals) that it wants first and puts all other food aside. When it is done with consuming what it requires – it shifts to other that is left for future. However when it isn’t able to process the food – it discards it. Some food that is essential but not required now but can be used later is accumulated.

2.     Sometimes body holds back food because of the lack of water. It needs solvent to safely process many nutrients. When you don’t provide it with solvent – you either have gas or stomach ache. Sometimes eating lot of solid food may require additional super agents such as vinegar or alkaline to process the hold over.

3.     PH value is very good deciding factor of how good your metabolism is and hence you should keep your acidic level higher to burn food faster. There is good deal of research that can be done on this field about foods that really do increase your acid values.

4.     Reason you can eat chocolate cake with cinnamon and your body won’t spike your insulin levels. Even grapefruit shot and crunching your abs while indulging high calories would have similar effect. Your body is trying to distribute sources of energy to right place instead of storing it.
       
Beachbody version of Calorie in/ Calorie out:
http://steve-edwards.blogspot.in/2012/06/problem-with-calories-in-calories-out.html

Conclusion:

Measure metrics which aren’t ambiguous than worry about metrics which don’t hold same value as you believe it does. Focus on providing your body enough oxygen, vital nutrients (reason multi vitamins exists), alkaline and minerals (Water is one of the best mineral provider).