Calories:

Everyone has heard of calories, but what exactly are calories? Calories are a unit of measurement for energy. Our body needs a certain amount of energy to perform its tasks. So calories are neither good nor bad, but neutral. But where do calories(kcal) come from? Right, from food. Carbohydrates(CH), proteins(PR), fats(FT) and alcohol provide calories.

1g CH = 4 kcal
1g PR = 4 kcal
1g FT = 9 kcal
1g alcohol = 7 kcal

You can go to your refrigerator and look at the package of different foods. The nutritional values are always given there. I looked up a package of cheese and broccoli for you.

Example 1: Cheese Gouda 100g:

0g CH = 0 kcal
22g PR = 88 kcal
31g FT = 279 kcal
Total = 367 kcal

Example 2: Broccoli per 100g:

5g CKH = 20 kcal
2,8g PR = 11,2 kcal
0.4g FT = 3.6 kcal
Total = 34.8 kcal

So you could eat 1050g of broccoli and have the same amount of calories as 100g of cheese! Take a look at some food packages and compare how many calories each food has per 100g.

Calorie Balance:

The number of calories is decisive for muscle building/fat loss or weight gain/loss.

With a certain amount of calories at your current amount of muscle and exercise, your weight will stay the same. Let’s just say for you, that’s 2000 calories. Let’s just say you’re about 155 pounds.

So if you ate 2000 kcal every day, here’s what would happen to your weight:

It would stay the same.

Caloric deficit:

If you ate, say, 1500 calories every day, here’s what would happen:

You’d lose weight.

The body steals missing 500 calories from its own substance. Muscle and fat are available for this purpose. With good nutrition and training, he burns a lot of fat and little muscle. In a diet, you go into a calorie deficit for the purpose of fat loss.

Calorie surplus

If you ate, say, 2500 calories every day, here’s what would happen:

You’re gaining weight.

The additional 500 calories are used by the body to build up substance, i.e. muscle or fat. With good nutrition and training, he builds a lot of muscle mass and little fat. You can imagine what happens when you’re calorie plus and not doing muscle building workouts….

Calculate the amount of calories:

This means for you, that depending on the goal, the appropriate amount of calories must be applied.

First, figure out the amount of calories that will keep your weight the same. There is one accurate and several inaccurate methods.

Exact method:

You eat the same amount of calories every day and measure your weight every day. You then change the amount of calories until the weight stays the same. And voilà, you have found “your 2000 calories”. From this weight-maintaining calorie amount you then subtract calories in case of dieting and for muscle building you increase it. For just maintaining weight/current shape, you leave the calorie amount at the weight-maintaining amount. I recommend the exact method.

Estimation methods

Estimation methods are imprecise and only rough guidelines. But if you don’t know your individual calorie count yet, they are a starting point. Or they are consulted when you don’t feel like knowing the exact method. With the help of the morning weighing of the next days you will then see how accurate the estimate was.

Man: Take your weight and multiply it by 30.

Example: 80kg body weight: 80 x 30 = 2400 calories. From this subtract 300-500 calories in the case of a diet.

Woman: Weight x 25

Example: 70kg body weight: 70 x 25 = 1750 calories. From this also subtract in the 300-500 calories in the case of a diet.