what is a calorie?

[WilliamJ]

??

[Puttingood]

1 calorie = 4.18400 Joules

[Trace]

The amount of energy to heat one gram of water one degree.

corrected.

[muff_spelunker]

it's a unit of energy in food the body uses to function. calories in a diet come from carbs (4 per gram), protein (4 per gram), fat (9 per gram), and alcohol (7 per gram).

[Thelt]

I think the notion of calories is become more suspect. Two foods may have the same amount of calories but one will be much more likely to cause increased body fat than the other because not all calories are the same and are not absorbed by your body the same way.

[Trace]

I think the notion of calories is become more suspect. Two foods may have the same amount of calories but one will be much more likely to cause increased body fat than the other because not all calories are the same and are not absorbed by your body the same way.
saturated fats.

[muff_spelunker]

I think the notion of calories is become more suspect. Two foods may have the same amount of calories but one will be much more likely to cause increased body fat than the other because not all calories are the same and are not absorbed by your body the same way.
calories don't make you fat. fat makes you fat. taking in less calories allows a body to use stored fat for energy instead of a surplus of calories.

[Thelt]

calories don't make you fat. fat makes you fat. taking in less calories allows a body to use stored fat for energy instead of a surplus of calories.

But can you take in more calories and get the same effect if the calories you are taking in are not absorbed as well as typical calories? I think more study needs to be done so that calories can be measured in terms of what they actually do to your body.

[muff_spelunker]

But can you take in more calories and get the same effect if the calories you are taking in are not absorbed as well as typical calories? I think more study needs to be done so that calories can be measured in terms of what they actually do to your body.
depends on where the calories are coming from as to how the body uses them. for example, calories from protein are used more efficiently due to increased metabolic rate than calories from carbs.

you, sir, are correct.

[Thelt]

I tried the low carb diet and it worked for as long as I could do it. I think there is a piece missing to it though. I do not think all carbs are equal and I do not think all calories are equal.

[Superfluous_Nut]

The amount of energy to heat one gram of water one degree.

corrected.
sort of. calories in the diet sense are actually 1000's of calories in the scientific sense.

so for a dietary calorie, it's amount of energy to heat 1 kg of water by 1 degree celsius (at sea level). this is probably what most people mean by "calories" unless they're scientists.

[Superfluous_Nut]

i'm no nutritionist, but i know that protein takes longer to release its energy than do carbs. carbs, especially simple carbs (eg sugars), hit you real fast and can play games with your blood sugar levels. i find i'm very susceptable to the sugar spike and crash that comes with simple carbs. having a fast metabolism, it's good to eat more protein to stablize your blood sugar. you don't get hungry nearly as fast after eating a big steak as you do after eating spaghetti.

fat, i don't really give much thought to.