The average 150-pound adult body has approximately 100 trillion cells that must function together properly for optimum health, body composition, and performance. Nutrient excesses or deficiencies can disrupt this delicate balance. The sum of all these cellular and sub-cellular reactions that build up and break down our body is known as our metabolism.
When we take in nutrients through our food and drink, our metabolism transfers the energy stored in the macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) into the formation of a compound called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP is required for almost every action in our body. For the sake of our discussion, think of ATP as the chemical that allows us to exercise. ATP is also necessary to make more ATP as our body's stores become depleted.
The macronutrients we eat are measured in Calories. A Calorie is the amount of energy or heat needed to raise 1 gram of water by 1 degree centigrade. Each macronutrient contains a certain number of Calories: proteins and carbohydrates have approximately 4 Calories per gram, while fats contain about 9 Calories per gram. And if you're curious, alcohol has around 7 Calories per gram.
So let's take a brief look at how our body uses the Calories we consume. Far and away, the majority of Calories we eat goes toward keeping us alive. Think of what's known as our Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) as the number of Calories we need to wake up in the morning, lay in bed all day, and then fall asleep at night. NO movement at all--just maintaining vital functions such as breathing, keeping our heart beating, hair growing, swallowing, etc. And our RMR accounts for almost 70% of our total energy needs.
Approximately 20% of the Calories we take in are used for moving: walking, working, playing, and exercising. If you are a very sedentary person, this percentage can be closer to 10%, and up to 30% for highly active individuals. We'll round it off to 20%.
And the remaining 10%ish is used to digest the food we eat. This is known as the Thermic Effect of Feeding, or TEF. That's right' of all the Calories we eat, about 1/10 is used in the digestion process. Fats have the lowest TEF at around 3-5%. So if you ate 100 grams of dietary fats, your body would use about 4 Calories to digest them. Carbs have a little higher TEF at approximately 12-15%, while proteins require the most energy at roughly 25-28%. When our goal is fat loss, every bit (or bite) counts. Hopefully you can see where a diet that's higher in protein can give you a fat-torching edge.
Your action item for today is to calculate your RMR. Here are the formulas:
For Men: [10 x your weight in kilograms (pounds divided by 2.2)] + [6.25 x your height in centimeters (inches multiplied by 2.55)] - [5 x your age in years] + 5
For Women: [10 x your weight in kilograms] + [6.25 x your height in centimeters] - [5 x your age in years] - 161
Here are a couple of sample calculations:
For a 40 year-old male who weighs 170 pounds and is 5'10" tall:
[10 x (170/2.2)] + [6.25 x (70 x 2.55)] - [5 x 40] + 5
[10 x 77] + [6.25 x 179] - 200 + 5
770 + 1,119 - 200 + 5 = 1,694 Calories per day
And for a 50 year old female who weighs 145 pounds at 5'6":
[10 x (145/2.2)] + [6.25 x (66 x 2.55)] - [5 x 50] - 161
[10 x 66] + [6.25 x 168] - 250 - 161
660 + 1,050 - 250 -161 = 1,299 Calories per day
Now this exercise is just to give you a basic idea of the amount of energy your body needs to sustain itself at rest. Obviously any movement at all requires more energy. At this point I don't want you to focus on counting Calories just yet. Quality before Quantity. On Saturday we will look at the importance of clean eating, and how the macronutrients we eat affect our weight and body composition. See you then!
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