How Many Calories Should I Eat

The numbers of calories in foods, therefore, represent how much heat they can yield if burned up at 100 percent efficiency.

This is what 100 percent efficiency yields for the three food groups:

Carbohydrates = 4 Calories per gram
Proteins = 4 Calories per gram
Fats = 9 Calories per gram

These are NOT dietary yields!

Humans could not possibly digest any food group to 100 percent efficiency. Cellulose yields 4 Calories per gram when it is completely incinerated. It's rating as a food, however, is zero Calories.

How much is the energy of activation for different foods? The energy of activation is higher for digesting protein than for digesting carbs or fat.

Other Crucial Variables

"HOW you metabolize different foods depends on food composition, health and fitness, hormone balance, and lifestyle, as follows".

When glucose comes into the body (e.g., from sugar, starchy carbs, or food additives), 20 percent of it is metabolized through the liver and the remaining 80 percent through the rest of the body. In contrast, when fructose comes into the body (e.g., from sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or other food additives), 100 percent of it is metabolized through the liver.

You make more fat from fructose that you ever could from glucose! Foods are inflammatory. Inflammation is like super-glue for fat. Your food has become your enemy.

Good health and metabolism depends on a balance of hundreds of hormones. If you have become insulin resistant (diabetic or pre-diabetic) or leptin resistant, no matter how little you eat you will stay fat.

Counting calories will not help you until you address hormone resistance and hormone imbalance. Stop Worrying About Calories!

If anything, just trust your body to know how much to eat, when you eat the right foods at the right times. Eat slowly and enjoy what you eat.