Fat Banker
If the calories we get from food are not used up from the activities we do during the day they are stored as fat. Food and drinks are made up of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and alcohol. Each have their own calorie values per gram and some provide more calories than others.
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Think of ‘calories as your currency’ and your ‘body as the bank’
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Success with a calorie account means breaking even (weight maintenance) or being in calorie debt (weight loss)
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You spend your calories by doing activities
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The liver is your calorie bank manager. It decides where to hold your long term deposits (hips, thighs or stomach) this applies to withdrawals also
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Each calorie currency is of different value. 1 gram of gold being worth more than 1 gram of copper is similar to fat carrying more calories than carbohydrates. Hence, we cannot judge their value on weight alone – the energy content is what is important
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If you deposit more calories than you spend, the liver (calorie manager) stores them as fat.
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There is a lot of storage room for consumed fat so there is no minimum daily deposit; if it isn’t used then it will be stored.
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Carbohydrates and proteins are harder to store as fat because the liver has to convert them into fat before storage.
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If we eat high fat foods while we are drinking alcohol, the fats we eat are stored while the alcohol is used as energy.
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Like inches and centimeters measure distance; Calories and Kilojoules both measure energy. One calorie is approximately 4 kilojoules.
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Energy in a food does not give us ‘energy’ in the modern sense that we may associate with alertness and vigor. It is merely a scientific measurement telling us how much energy our body can extract for the purpose of metabolism.