What are carbohydrates?

Like proteins and fats, carbohydrate, or carbs, is an energy providing macronutrient.

In fact, carbohydrates, in the form of glucose, is your body’s first choice of energy production. Through a tricky but quick process known as glycolysis, your body metabolizes glucose into pyruvate. To units of the body’s energy providing molecules known as ATP is generated during this process . During physical activity, your body repeatedly goes through this process up until 45 seconds to 3 minutes. From then on, you will either need to rest or your body will tap into other fuel sources.

All carbs are eventually metabolized into the simple sugar glucose, with the exception of dietary fiber since the body isn’t able to break it down. Excess glucose in the body is stored in the form of glycogen, which is simply glucose molecules. Unfortunately, there’s a limit to how much glycogen can be stored, which caps at about 500 to 1200 grams.

All other excess glucose is then metabolized into fat. Maintaining blood glucose levels is really important to your body to ensure you have energy readily available. Whenever your body is low on carbs, it breaks down glycogen into glucose in a process known as glycogenolysis or metabolize non-carb substances such as lactate and pyruvate into glucose in a process known as gluconeogenesis. At the point where your body depletes both glucose in the bloodstream and all of its glycogen stores, the body begins to transition into a state known as ketosis. In this state, compounds known as ketone bodies becomes the main source of energy. Touted for its fat-burning attributes, getting into the state of ketosis has become popular with low and no carb diet programs. Whether this is safe, or even more effective than glucose, is still debated to this day.

Are all carbs created equal?

A rising concern in today’s world is the overconsumption of the so-called “bad” carbs from processed foods such as fast food and children’s cereal. But the problem is not so much that these carbs are “bad,” in fact, they’re not really bad at all, they are just carbs in its simplest forms known as monosaccharide and disaccharides, which are the same sugars found in fruits and dairy.

In fact, glucose is a monosaccharide, and we all know how important glucose is to our body. The problem with processed foods is that it contains too many of these monosaccharides in a single serving. Since these carbs are in its simplest form, it’s relatively easy to digest and to digest a lot in one meal, which pushes your calorie intake up. And as we’ve discussed before, the more calories you consume, the more weight you will gain. The so-called “good carbs” that come from foods such as oatmeal and whole wheat bread, are simply considered “good” either because they contain dietary fiber, which will make you feel fuller while consuming fewer calories, or they contain complex carbohydrates such as polysaccharides which takes longer to digest.

If moderation is taken into consideration, having some of these “bad” carbs isn’t going to do much harm, in fact, they come very handy if you need a quick boost of energy.

As far as how many carbs you consume, you should shoot for roughly 45 to 65% of your daily calories. On a standard 2,000 calorie diet, that’s roughly 225 to 325 grams per day. If you’re trying to get stronger, consuming carbs before your workout might help with a few extra reps. For lose weight, you have to eating fiber-containing carbs and more protein will help bring the calories down.

And if you’re trying to keep the doctor away, a delicious carb-loaded apple might come save your day!

What is Calorie and why do we count them? | Calculate BMR

Calories are units of energy. They are a measure of the potential energy, stored in the chemical bonds within the food that we eat. We extract this energy through digestion, and use it to perform various daily functions, such as skiing, brushing up on your archery skills, and even performing a handstand.

There are two types of calories.

1. Large calories, which are written with a capital C.
2. Small calories which are written with a small c.

Nutritional calories, or the calories that we see on food packaging, are large calories. The word calories are specifically written with a capital C. One large calorie is equivalent to a thousand small calories or 4,184 Joules. Scientifically speaking one large calorie is equivalent to the amount of energy required to heat one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. In our diets, we primarily get calories from three macronutrients:

1. Fats
2. Carbohydrates
3. proteins

Fat

In terms of energy, fats are the densest macronutrient. They measure in at a whopping 9 Calories per gram.

Carbohydrates

Though delicious, carbohydrates are less dense than fats measuring in at 4 Calories per gram.

Proteins

Lastly, we have proteins. Measuring in at 4 Calories per gram, proteins have the same energy as carbohydrates.

Although we may not consume it daily, alcohol is a source of energy as well. Measuring in at 7 Calories per gram, alcohols have more energy than both proteins and carbohydrates. Humans are primarily interested in Calories because we count them for the purpose of changing our weight. In one pound of body mass, there are about 3,500 Calories.

If you consume more Calories than your body utilizes in a day, you’ll gain weight. If you consume fewer calories than your body utilizes in a day, you’ll lose weight. So, how do you determine the number of calories that your body needs on a daily basis? With so many different diets out there, it can seem quite confusing.

TOTAL DAILY ENERGY EXPENDITURE (TDEE)

To figure out your body’s daily caloric needs, let’s determine your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE. This is the amount of energy or number of calories that your body utilizes in a day, which is based on three components:

1. The first is your basal metabolic rate.
2. The second is something called the thermic effect of food.
3. The third is the number of Calories your body utilizes during physical activity.

The sum of these three components determines your total daily energy expenditure.

BASAL METABOLIC RATE (BMR)

Your basal metabolic rate or BMR is a measure of how many calories your body needs on a daily basis just to keep you alive. These are the Calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day and did nothing.

Even sedentary, your body needs energy to keep your lungs inhaling, heart pumping, and body temperature constant. Each person’s BMR will vary according to many factors. The most recent and accurate formula that is used to estimate BMR is the Mifflin-St Jour Equation.

This equation takes your weight, height, and age into account.

To calculate your BMR,

BMR = (10 x weight) + (6.25 x height) – (5 x age) + S

In the above formula, your weight must be in units of kilograms Your height must be in units of centimeters and your age must be in units of years.

For the parameter S use 5 if you’re a male and -161 if you’re a female.

THERMIC EFFECT OF FOOD (TEF)

The thermic effect of food or TEF is based on the fact that it takes energy to digest the food that we eat we eat. We burn approximately 10% of our daily caloric intake by just digesting that food and turning it into usable energy.

For example, if you consume 2500 Calories a day your body will use about 250 of those Calories in the process of digestion.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES (PA)

Thirdly, many of us perform physical activities throughout the day such as running, stretching, and jumping. Each of these activities burns Calories and therefore, these numbers must be added to your total daily energy expenditure.

COMPONENTS OF TOTAL DAILY ENERGY EXPENDITURE

The amount of energy expended in a day differs for each individual. In general, your basal metabolic rate is the largest component comprising about 50 to 65% of your daily energy requirements. The thermic effect the food is the smallest component comprising 10% of your daily energy requirements. Lastly, depending on how active you are, about 30 to 50% of your daily energy requirement could come from physical activity.

CALORIES SUSTAIN LIFE!

In summary, we need calories to sustain life. Our daily energy needs come from the Calories in the food that we eat. If your body is in energy balance, the majority of Calories that you consume fuel your basal metabolism. Some of those Calories are needed to digest food and the remaining Calories provide us with energy to keep physically active.

ADDITIONAL FACTORS

Each person’s daily energy requirements will vary. In addition to your age, weight, gender, and height additional factors such as your genetics, amount of gut bacteria, and body composition affect your body’s ability to utilize the energy that we extract from food. With so many contributing factors, there is no one diet that will suit everyone’s needs.