Knowing Your Sources of Calories and Needs
In my previous post, I mentioned that it's not what you eat that makes you fat, but eating more calories than the body need is what makes you fat!
But what are calories actually?
A calorie is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. (Okay, that's according to some science textbook's definition). So basically a calorie is a unit for energy. In this post's context, it's about energy for the sustenance for us, humans.
We need energy for everything that we do, breathing, walking, standing, and even lying down resting. And we acquire energy from no other than food. A gram of carbohydrate contain 4 calories, a gram of protein contain 4 calories, and a gram of fat contain 9 calories. While above all that, next to fat is alcohol with 7 calories from every gram, and the worst part of alcohol is, it has no nutritional value.
And to choose your source of calories, ISSA recommends the 1-2-3 nutritional rule-of-thumb. What it means here is 1 part fat, 2 part proteins and 3 parts carbohydrates. Alternatively, you can also modify it based on higher protein intake, which makes it 1 part fat, 2 part carbohydrates and 3 part proteins.
Next question would be, how does this work?
I'm sharing the above calculation just for people's knowledge sake. But for real world application, it's actually not easy to count the amount you are eating and calories. But as a general guidelines, I personally adapt 3 part protein, 2 part carbohydrates and 1 part fat for my food intake. And what I do is - the amount of carbohydrates I consume is about the size of my fist only, with one whole skinless chicken breast, and vegetables. The food stall operator would usually ask me how can I be full from eating so little rice, I just smile :)
But what are calories actually?
A calorie is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. (Okay, that's according to some science textbook's definition). So basically a calorie is a unit for energy. In this post's context, it's about energy for the sustenance for us, humans.
We need energy for everything that we do, breathing, walking, standing, and even lying down resting. And we acquire energy from no other than food. A gram of carbohydrate contain 4 calories, a gram of protein contain 4 calories, and a gram of fat contain 9 calories. While above all that, next to fat is alcohol with 7 calories from every gram, and the worst part of alcohol is, it has no nutritional value.
And to choose your source of calories, ISSA recommends the 1-2-3 nutritional rule-of-thumb. What it means here is 1 part fat, 2 part proteins and 3 parts carbohydrates. Alternatively, you can also modify it based on higher protein intake, which makes it 1 part fat, 2 part carbohydrates and 3 part proteins.
Next question would be, how does this work?
Let's say you are a Male, 90kg with 15% body fat and a fitness buff range weight lifter who needs 3420 calories per day. What you need to do is divide 3420 with 6 part which makes it 570 calories per part.
570 x 1 part fat = 570
570 x 2 part carbs = 1140
570 x 3 part proteins = 1710
Total = 3420
Followed by;
570 divide 9 ( fat calories ) = 63 gram of fat
1140 divide 4 ( carbs calories ) = 285 gram of carbohydrates
1710 divide 4 ( protein calories ) = 428 gram of protein
The amount of 3420 calories should come from 63 gram of fat, 285 gram of carbohydrates and 428 gram of protein.
I'm sharing the above calculation just for people's knowledge sake. But for real world application, it's actually not easy to count the amount you are eating and calories. But as a general guidelines, I personally adapt 3 part protein, 2 part carbohydrates and 1 part fat for my food intake. And what I do is - the amount of carbohydrates I consume is about the size of my fist only, with one whole skinless chicken breast, and vegetables. The food stall operator would usually ask me how can I be full from eating so little rice, I just smile :)
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