The Basics Of Energy Balance: Calories In Vs. Calories Out

Do you know what the concept of energy balance is?

Do you understand what the connection is between energy, calories and the human body?

Let's find out...

A calorie is essentially a measure of energy in much the same way as a metre is a measure of distance. When we consume food or drink, although we are in fact consuming energy we express this as the consumption of calories.

When you consume more calories than you expend energy is stored and this leads to weight gain. When you expend more calories than you consume energy is lost and this leads to weight loss. Being in a calorie surplus or a calorie deficit therefore determines whether you gain weight or lose weight.

When we think about weight gain or weight loss what we actually tend to think about is gaining or losing body fat. Too little or too much body fat can affect a number of areas of health - primarily physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. It is therefore vital that the energy we consume and the energy we expend are in balance.

It helps to have a deeper understanding of the role calories play within our bodies, how they are connected to energy balance and what we can do control the amount of calories we consume.

Energy Balance Within The Body

Total Daily Energy Expenditure - TDEE

TDEE is the number of calories you burn every day. The exact number of calories you burn varies depending on a number of different factors. These include age, sex, height, weight and level of physical activity.

Resting Metabolic Rate/Basal Metabolic Rate - RMR/BMR

RMR refers to the total number of calories burned when your body is at rest. RMR is sometimes interchanged with BMR - basal metabolic rate - but there are slight differences. The key difference is that RMR includes some movement and light activities including eating, using the toilet and stretching. Since some movement is included in RMR, it will always be slightly higher than BMR.

Thermic Effect of Food - TEF

TEF represents the increase in energy expenditure after your consume a meal. Approximately 10% of daily energy expenditure is accounted for by the process of consuming and digesting food. Simple carbohydrates and fats have relatively lower thermic effects compared to protein. Research has shown that eating higher protein meals has a higher thermic response than high-carbohydrate or high-fat meals.

Thermic Effect of Activity - TEA

TEA accounts for the highest variability of daily energy expenditure. Spontaneous physical activity and planned sustained exercise can account for up to 15 to 30% of your daily energy expenditure. TEA includes energy expended due to physical work as well as planned and structured exercise. Regular and sustained physical activity helps you to maintain a healthy body weight and raise overall RMR.

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - NEAT

A component of TEA is referred to as NEAT or non-exercise activity thermogenesis. NEAT is the energy expended for everything you do that is not sleeping, eating or exercising. It is the energy you burn during daily activities including walking whilst at work, typing and even fidgeting.

The Role Nutrition Plays

Macro and Micro Nutrients

Macronutrients are the nutrients that the human body needs in large amounts, these include fat, carbohydrates and protein. They are the nutrients that give you energy and are often called “macros”.

• Fat provides 9 calories of energy per gram. Its TEF is 0-5%

• Carbohydrate provides 4 calories of energy per gram. Its TEF is 5-15%

• Protein provides 4 calories of energy per gram. Its TEF is 20-30%

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals needed by the body in very small amounts. However, their impact on bodily health are critical and deficiency in any of them can cause severe and even life-threatening conditions.

Food Diaries

A food diary is a daily log of what is consumed over the course of a day. It helps to understand eating habits such as the types of foods you eat, how you feel when you eat and how much you eat. People often under estimate or under recall what they eat over the course of a day. A food diary, provided it is filled in accurately, will help you to create a consistent account of everything that you ingest. This then allows your eating behaviours to be determined and ultimately modified if required.

Diets

There are many views by many experts as to what type of diet is best and there are a number of different diets all with their own nuances.

Some examples include:

Okinawa, Ketogenic, Atkins, Paleo, Mediterranean, Vegan, Dukan, Fasting, Intermittent, Time restricted eating and one meal a day or OMAD.

The best diet is essentially the one that you adhere to. Dietary adherence has been scientifically proven to be the most prevalent indicator of successful weight loss and weight maintenance over time.

Important - No one diet holds the key to successful weight loss and/or weight maintenance, these are ultimately determined by the number of calories in versus the number of calories out.

Processed Foods

Processed foods include food that has been cooked, canned, frozen, packaged, preserved or changed in any way. Any time you cook, bake or prepare food, you are to a greater or lesser extent processing food.

Heavily processed foods often include high levels of added sugar, sodium and fats. These ingredients make the food you eat taste better but can ultimately lead to serious health issues like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Examples of processed foods include:

Breakfast cereals, cheeses, tinned vegetables, breads, cakes and biscuits. Savoury snacks such as crisps, sausage rolls, pies and pasties. Meat products such as bacon, sausage, ham, salami and pate and microwave meals or ready meals.

Hunger Hormones

The two most prevalent hunger hormones are Leptin and Ghrelin. Ghrelin is associated with the feeling of being hungry and Leptin is associated with the feeling of being satiated.

Satiety

Satiety is characterised by the absence of hunger and essentially means being satiated, although not necessarily full. Scientific literature points to the fact that protein has a higher satiety rating and therefore leads to an absence of hunger more predominantly than fats or carbs. Protein also has a higher thermic response making it a positive aspect of diet management.

Hydration

Drinking water is vital for life and essential for all bodily processes. Due to its prevalence in everyday life it’s easy to disregard the importance that water has on your health. Water helps to regulate body temperature, aids in digestion and helps to maintain other bodily functions. With the body constantly expending water through sweat, breathing and digestion, monitoring your hydration status throughout the day is of vital importance.

Water constitutes a greater percentage of body mass than any other substance (50 - 70%). It helps fill the spaces inside your cells, outside of your cells and in all of the major vessels. Hydration levels in your body can be determined very simply by checking and assessing the colour of our urine. Darker coloured urine points towards dehydration, lighter colour urine points towards suitable hydration.

Electrolytes

Electrolytes are electrically charged minerals and compounds that conduct electricity when dissolved in water. They regulate your nerve and muscle function, hydrate your body and balance blood acidity. The key electrolytes are sodium, calcium and potassium.

Alcohol

The main form of alcohol contained in the beverages you drink is called Ethanol. As Ethanol is metabolised in such a unique way it is often called the fourth macronutrient. However Ethanol has no nutritive value and the Acetate produced when metabolising it can impede your body utilising its own fat.

Alcohol is the most widely consumed drug on Earth.

Final Thoughts

It benefits you to pay close attention to you eating habits. The body is highly efficient and makes the best use of energy meaning that it is generally much easier to put weight on than to lose it. Whether you decide to explicitly count calories or not is down to you but being mindful about and controlling your nutrition is by far the best way of managing your weight.

In summary, to lose weight a.k.a body fat - eat less, move more and monitor what you consume, just don’t be obsessive about it.

I hope you enjoyed the content. Please leave your thoughts below in the comments section and let me know what other health and well-being topics you'd like me to cover.

If you’re interested in improving your health then please do get in touch!

Michael East

ME LIFE