Posted October 2nd, 2008 by smartElder
Calories
In my Top 10 Reasons Why You’re Fat post, I talked about the importance of regulating your calories. A calorie is often referred to a kilocalorie (kcal) in the academic world. I will use the word “calorie” so I don’t cause confusion.1
One calorie is the energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water 1 degree Celsius1 (4.23 cups of water 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit2). A calorie is the potential energy in carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, proteins contain 4 calories per gram, and fats contain 9 calories per gram.1
How many calories do I have to burn to lose 1 lbs or 1 kg?
You must burn 3,500 more calories than you consume to lose 1 lbs of fat (7,700 calories to lose 1 kg).3 This means that if you consumed 2,000 calories and burned 2,500 every day, you would lose 1 lbs in a week ( (2,000 - 2,500) x 7 = 3,500).
To lose weight you can either eat less calories, burn more calories, or both.
1. Insel, Paul, & Turner, R. Elaine, & Ross, Don (2004). Nutrition –2nd ed, pg. 14. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
2. 1 US gallon weighs 8.34 lbs or 3.78 kg. 0.26455 gallons weighs 1 kg (1 / 3.78). There are 16 cups in a gallon, so 4.23 cups weigh 1 kg (0.26455 * 16).
3. Corbin, Charles B. & Lindsey, Ruth (2005). Fitness for Life –5th ed, pg. 230. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Tags: Calories, Weight Loss
Posted September 26th, 2008 by smartElder
Water Makes You Healthy
People often wonder, “How much water should I drink per day?” That is a good thing to wonder because water is so essential to weight loss, health, and nutrition. We learned in my Nutrition Basics post that water is one of the 6 basic nutrients for the body.
You commonly hear you should drink 8 cups or 8 glasses of water per day. The best way to gage how much you should be drinking is to look at your urine. The optimal color is mostly clear with a slight hue of yellow. Dark yellow means you aren’t drinking enough.
More accurately, scientists have found the body requires 1 mL water for every calorie burned. As the average person is said to consume 2,000 calories per day, the body would need 2,000 mL or 2 L (liters) of water per day. This equates to 67.6 US fluid ounces (oz) or 8.45 cups.1
There are additional factors to be considered. You can lose water in four ways: sweat, urine, vapor when you breathe, and feces. Under normal conditions, you lose 500-700 mL per day through sweat. If you exercise, it will be more (up to 1 L per hour). You normally lose 1.0-1.5 L of water through urine each day. You lose 250-350 mL of water each day by exhaling water vapor when you breathe. Hotter air, increased humidity, and increased physical activity greatly increase water loss through sweat and breathing. Fecal mater is 70% water, and the human body will normally lose 100-200 mL water per day through this avenue. Vomiting or diarrhea can cause a loss of up to 5.0 L.2
My apologies if the images painted by the above paragraph were discomforting. However, this is all stuff you should know on your quest to becoming as fit as you can be.
You can also drink too much water. A condition called hyponatremia can occur when the sodium content of blood becomes diluted with water. However, this condition is more likely to happen when athletes lose too much sodium through perspiration.3
Also, you can also lose weight if you drink water at the right temperature.
Remember that you also get water through the foods you eat. If you are pregnant, you may want to drink more water depending on how you feel. The biggest concept here is that you want to listen to your body. If you are thirsty, take a drink. If your urine is too yellow, drink more. That rule should cover most any circumstance you come across. As always, consult your doctor for personal recommendations.
1. Fink, Heather Hedrick & Burgoon, Lisa A. & Mikesky, Alan E. (2005). Practical Applications in Sports Nutrition –1st ed, pg. 232. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
2. McArdle, William D. & Katch, Frank I. & Katch, Victor L. (2007). Exercise Physiology –6th ed, pg. 77-78. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
3. Benardot, Dan (2006). Advanced Sports Nutrition, pg. 90. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Tags: Water
Posted September 24th, 2008 by smartElder
White Bread - A Carbohydrate
As explained in Nutrition Basics, carbohydrates are one of the six types of nutrients used to fuel the human body. They are plentiful in fruits, vegetables, and grains. They are also found in low amounts in dairy products. There are practically no carbohydrates found in meat; thus, the strategy of the Atkins Diet.1
When we consume carbohydrates, they are eventually broken down into glucose, which is burned for energy.
If you break down the word, carbohydrate means hydrated carbon or water with carbon. A water molecule (H2O) looks like this:
H2O Molecule
The subscript “2″ after the “H” means there are two hydrogen atoms. So, we have two hydrogen atoms joined with one oxygen atom to make H20 or water.
A carbohydrate would be a combination of carbon and H20.
Let’s now take a look at the most basic carbohydrate, glucose:
Glucose Molecule
Glucose (C6H1206) has six carbon atoms, twelve hydrogen atoms, and six oxygen atoms. Note that if you divided C6H1206 by six, you would get CH20, which is carbon plus water.
The simple and complex carbohydrates we eat get broken down by the body’s digestive system into glucose. Through a process called cellular respiration, glucose is converted into energy. The formula for this process is:
C6H1206 + 6O2 = 6CO2 + 6H20 + Energy.
In other words, Glucose + Oxygen = Carbon Dioxide + Water + Energy. The “energy” is the cool part because now we have energy to move around and do the things we want to do. We now know how we get energy from carbohydrates. Also, this shows the importance of breathing oxygen.2
What’s even more crazy is that cellular respiration is the exact opposite of photosynthesis, which equation is:
6CO2 + 6H20 + Light Energy = C6H1206 + 6O2
Plants take the carbon dioxide from the air, water from the ground and air, and sun light to make glucose and oxygen.3 We, in turn, use glucose and oxygen to produce our own energy. It’s a wonderfully designed world we live in.
1. Insel, Paul, & Turner, R. Elaine, & Ross, Don (2004). Nutrition –2nd ed, pg. 14. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
2. Ross, Frederic C. (2000). Cell Biology And Chemistry for Allied Health Science, pg. 54. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
3. Pack, Phillip E. (2007). CliffsAP Biology –3rd ed., pg. 57. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Tags: Carbohydrates
