What is a Calorie?
Everyone seems to be concerned with the amount of calories that are in different foods. What's the fuss? And, what is a calorie anyway?
A calorie is the measurement of energy in the food that you eat. We all need energy to function everyday and we get that energy from food. Your body uses food as fuel. It "burns" this fuel to produce the energy you need.
When you take in more calories than your body needs, the extra calories are stored as fat. If you are very active and you use more energy than you take in, your body uses some of the stored fat as energy. So your body weight depends on the number of calories that you take in and those that your body burns.
The body gets energy from nutrients including carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The nutrients don't all provide the same amount of energy, though. Carbohydrates and proteins give about four calories per gram. Fats provide more than twice as many calories, up to nine calories per gram of fat.