

Furthermore, this basic line of reasoning will help you explain this very fundamental concept to CICO skeptics. For starters, there may be quite a few interesting physiology facts you weren’t aware of. One final note before diving in: If you already buy the Calories in – Calories out (CICO) model of energy regulation hook-line-and-sinker, this will still be a valuable article for you. How does mass enter and leave the body? Once you understand how your body gains and loses mass, it should make much more sense why the Calorie, a unit of heat, serves as a valid and reliable proxy. What I aim to do in this article is start by ignoring energy and heat entirely and focus on something more concrete: mass. The human body extracts energy from food a little more elegantly than a fire does, and the human body is certainly more than a fancy heater, so that skepticism isn’t without merit. Calories are directly measured in food by burning the food in a bomb calorimeter, and they’re directly measured in humans by measuring how much heat we expel. We like skepticism, and we understand why some people may be skeptical: a Calorie is a unit of heat (the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1kg of water by 1 degree C), after all.

The Calorie has been used to describe the energy content of food and the energy cost of exercise since at least the 1800s ( 1, 2 ), and reams of research have since verified that energy balance is the primary determinant of long-term changes in body weight ( 3 ). That’s the key step that ties together mass and heat, allowing us to affect changes in body weight by measuring and manipulating Calorie intake and expenditure.


“Unsaturated fats (like those found in nuts and avocados) have been shown to lower your risk of a number of diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers.”
#Fat bombs for weight gain 2017 full#
Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, explains: “Fat is an important part of snacking because it helps you feel full and satiated.” Meaning that munching a fat bomb is more likely to fill you up than scarfing down a handful of chips (which we all know only leads to craving even more chips). Though fats have been plagued with a bad rep for years, recent research has revealed that the right kind of fats come with some serious health-boosting benefits. Sadly, those Belgian truffles you love don’t count-think lots of fat (around 85 percent) but little or no carbs or sugar.Īnd people are eating these balls of fat because.? They’re good for you (sort of). Usually sweet ( chocolate is often involved), fat bombs can also be savory (e.g., using avocado and mayo) and are easy to customize. What do they taste like? Pretty delicious, actually.
