View Full Version : How do calories work?
LovesTheSun13
Jul 5, 2009, 10:02 AM
I heard there are good calories and bad calories. Good calories don't turn into fat whether they are burnt or not. But the bad calories do.. is this true? And they burn so slowly..
Perito
Jul 5, 2009, 10:08 AM
I'll admit that this is controversial and there are those who will disagree with me, but In my opinion, this notion is a misleading and false notion. A calorie is a calorie -- a unit of heat and/or energy. Heat in the body comes from combustion. The body needs energy to maintain its functions and it doesn't really care where it gets the energy from. If the body needs calories, it will burn the most available calorie when it needs it. The important thing is the total number of calories that you eat compared with the number of calories that your body requires.
LovesTheSun13
Jul 5, 2009, 11:13 AM
Thanks! I noticed that people on this site like to attack other people's posts, I'll go with you're idea because it makes sense. People say that a calorie will turn to fat if you get it from, for example, a piece of cake but from a fruit, it won't cause fattening
Eileen G
Jul 6, 2009, 08:04 AM
A calorie is a unit of heat. If you eat less than you need, you will lose weight, even if you eat nothing but lard or table sugar. If you eat more than you need, you will put on weight, even if you eat nothing but tuna and lettuce.
However, the human body is not a machine and it functions better on fresh whole foods than on processed junk. So if you give the right number of calories in the form of things like oily fish, lots of green veg, eggs, meat, fruit, nuts, dairy and wholegrains, you will look and feel better than if you eat fries, candy and soda all day.
KISS
Jul 6, 2009, 08:16 AM
I'll add a couple of things. One is that you need to eay what your body needs. Second, fat is not created equal either and the body will take from the easiest source first.
Triglycerides are a high density form of storage and it's difficult to utilize this source.