Converting calories into grams.

[patliputra]

Many times it has been seen that people have no idea or erronious idea how to convert calories into gms. Perhaps they think that as according to definition the energy required to raise temperature of 1gm of water by 1 degree Celsius is one calorie. So they calculate 1000 cals=1000 gms. It is not correct. Actually 1kg=7717.179 calories. There are several web sites on net from where details can be had.

[patliputra]

The magic number of calories bandied about for decades has been 3,500—subtract that number from your diet or burn off 3,500 calories more than what you consume, and you’ll lose 1 lb.

But a panel of experts, convened by the American Society of Nutrition and the International Life Sciences Institute, recently developed a consensus statement on the subject, “Energy Balance and Its Components: Implications for Body Weight Regulation,” which questions the 3,500-kcal rule along with several other long-held convictions about energy balance and weight loss. While the panel was charged with answering pertinent questions about weight management, it concluded that many of the body’s methods for gaining, losing, or maintaining weight remain a mystery.

Here are some of the concepts the new consensus statement addressed:

• 3,500 kcal = 1 lb: According to the consensus panel, this rule of thumb is an inaccurate predictor of weight change and should no longer be used. The 3,500-kcal/lb rule assumes that body weight changes linearly over long periods of time, which isn’t the case. As an individual loses weight, resting energy expenditure drops due to less body mass (not a “slow metabolism,” as often assumed).

New weight-loss prediction formulas have been developed that take this reduced energy expenditure into account and offer a much slower, but more realistic, weight-loss rate that patients and clients can expect with sustained changes in energy intake and output. The complex formulas have been simplified and are available at pbrc.edu/the-research/tools... and bwsimulator.niddk.nih.gov.

By typing in an individual’s information (height, weight, age, current calorie intake, calorie reduction, activity level), a weight-loss prediction table is produced. The panel suggested that the online formulas, or something similar, should replace the 3,500-kcal/lb rule.

“What we’re trying to do with the new formulas is to get people to think in a fundamentally different way about calories and energy balance,” says John R. Speakman, PhD, of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and one of the consensus statement authors.