There would not have been a single day in your life since adulthood,
which has passed without some thoughts on food. Yet, how many of us
have made some sensible thinking on food and gave a reasonable
attention it deserves. This itself is quite fascinating, considering
the fact that we can?t survive without food. Any way you deserve a pat
on your shoulder as you have decided to build up your weight. In order
to have a better understanding of the chemistry of weight gain, let us
go through the minute details pertaining to calorie, energy, body mass
index and similar parameters.
The energy that a given food can release during metabolism is measured in calories per gram.
A
calorie (cal) is defined as the amount of heat required for raising the
temperature of 1 kg of water through 1 degree Celsius. Nutritionists
measure the energy content of foods in kilocalories (1 kcal = 1000 cal)
and calories. Normally, an adult requires 1200-1800 calories a day to
maintain basic life processes, and an additional 50-150% of this amount
to meet the energy requirements of physical activities. In other words
calories consumed also differ according to the activities.
A
sleeping person spends 50-75 cal/hr. A person doing some other
activities like swimming, playing basketball, or shoveling snow may
consume ten times as many, or even more. One pound ( 0.45 kg ) of body
fat is almost equivalent to 3500 calories of stored food energy.
Calorie consumption, increases in direct proportion to body weight.
Your body adds or loses weight depending upon a simple formula. If you
are consuming more energy through food, than your body actually burns,
then body weight is likely to increase. So, this primary rule ensures
that you have to consume more calories than you spend through work,
exercises and body activities.
I would like to say from my
experience that there is a basic Principle of Nutrition that is
universally true. In its most simplified form, the basic equation of
Health can be written as Health = Nutrition + Calories. There is no
dearth of information about health and nutrition. In fact it?s this
abundance of literature that often perplexes one that how healthy could
good nutrition make people be, and how much deviation from ideal
nutrition could we allow ourselves. Remember, KNOWLEDGE is crucial
during your weight gain process.
Alex Bersinski is author of Gain Weight Naturally and owner of http://www.GainWeightNaturally.com
