Biochemistry answers for common weight loss questions: What are Calories?

JeromeBarry1

This morning I weighed 390,089.43820000003 carats. www.convertunits.com is awesome.
And I also weighed 1,204,000 grains.

By the way, my daily meals should provide me with 0.0026974786363071672 horsepower hours of energy.

@GottaBurnEmAll There you go.

peleroja

Thank you for this, it is really a great level of explanation. Accessible and easy to understand but reads like just the facts. Saving for reference for sure!

Aaron_K123

A diet of 2000 calories a day is the energy equivalent of 2.33 kilowatt hours (1 kilowatt supplied for 2.33 hours). Converted to 24 hours that would be 0.097 kilowatt days or 97 watts per day. So a caloric intake of 2000 calories a day would basically power a 100 watt lightbulb.

Aaron_K123

Another fun calculation. I'm not sure this is accurate I make a lot of assumptions but what the heck. My body temperature is 37 degrees celsius. I weigh about 170 pounds which is 77 kilograms. As a rough estimate I could consider myself to just be a bag of water that weighted 77 kilograms which would be a bag of 77 liters of water (ain't the metric system neat).

So, bag of 77 liters of water at 77 degrees celsius. My body works to maintain my temperature at 37 degrees celsius despite not existing in 37 degree celsius temperatures all the time. What if I was dead. Well my body would cool off at apparently a rate of about 1.5 degrees F or 0.83 degrees celsius per hour according to this random article (who knows if it is true) https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/dying4.htm. So if I was dead over the course of 24 hours my body temperature would drop 24*0.83 = 19.9 degrees C. Of course being alive my body resists this by burning fuel to keep my body temp up, but the drop my body is resisting is about 19.9 degrees C worth of temp drop over 24 hours.

That should mean my body uses up enough energy to heat a bag of 77 liters of water by 19.9 degrees celsius. 1 food calorie is the heat needed to heat 1 liter by 1 degree. So 77 liters x 19.9 degrees would be 1,532 calories to keep my body warm.

Again, there are a lot of assumptions here but still find it kind of interesting that it comes a bit close considering that MFP puts my BMR at about 1600. Now I think other things go into BMR than just maintaining body temp (such as maintaining basal brain function) but that said I think maintain your body temperature is the primary factor for BMR.

diannethegeek

Thank you for these posts. They've been great!

AnnPT77

Swoon-y good. Keep 'em comin', when you feel the inclination, Aaron. It's appreciated.

lynn_glenmont

Tacklewasher wrote: »

You have a spelling error in there somewhere.

And I think you meant "subsist" where you said "subside." But I missed the spelling error.

Thanks for another helpful post.

lynn_glenmont

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

Another fun calculation. I'm not sure this is accurate I make a lot of assumptions but what the heck. My body temperature is 37 degrees celsius. I weigh about 170 pounds which is 77 kilograms. As a rough estimate I could consider myself to just be a bag of water that weighted 77 kilograms which would be a bag of 77 liters of water (ain't the metric system neat).

So, bag of 77 liters of water at 77 degrees celsius. My body works to maintain my temperature at 37 degrees celsius despite not existing in 37 degree celsius temperatures all the time. What if I was dead. Well my body would cool off at apparently a rate of about 1.5 degrees F or 0.83 degrees celsius per hour according to this random article (who knows if it is true) https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/dying4.htm. So if I was dead over the course of 24 hours my body temperature would drop 24*0.83 = 19.9 degrees C. Of course being alive my body resists this by burning fuel to keep my body temp up, but the drop my body is resisting is about 19.9 degrees C worth of temp drop over 24 hours.

That should mean my body uses up enough energy to heat a bag of 77 liters of water by 19.9 degrees celsius. 1 food calorie is the heat needed to heat 1 liter by 1 degree. So 77 liters x 19.9 degrees would be 1,532 calories to keep my body warm.

Again, there are a lot of assumptions here but still find it kind of interesting that it comes a bit close considering that MFP puts my BMR at about 1600. Now I think other things go into BMR than just maintaining body temp (such as maintaining basal brain function) but that said I think maintain your body temperature is the primary factor for BMR.

What's the assumption on the environmental temperature for this dead-body-cooling rate?

Aaron_K123

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

Another fun calculation. I'm not sure this is accurate I make a lot of assumptions but what the heck. My body temperature is 37 degrees celsius. I weigh about 170 pounds which is 77 kilograms. As a rough estimate I could consider myself to just be a bag of water that weighted 77 kilograms which would be a bag of 77 liters of water (ain't the metric system neat).

So, bag of 77 liters of water at 77 degrees celsius. My body works to maintain my temperature at 37 degrees celsius despite not existing in 37 degree celsius temperatures all the time. What if I was dead. Well my body would cool off at apparently a rate of about 1.5 degrees F or 0.83 degrees celsius per hour according to this random article (who knows if it is true) https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/dying4.htm. So if I was dead over the course of 24 hours my body temperature would drop 24*0.83 = 19.9 degrees C. Of course being alive my body resists this by burning fuel to keep my body temp up, but the drop my body is resisting is about 19.9 degrees C worth of temp drop over 24 hours.

That should mean my body uses up enough energy to heat a bag of 77 liters of water by 19.9 degrees celsius. 1 food calorie is the heat needed to heat 1 liter by 1 degree. So 77 liters x 19.9 degrees would be 1,532 calories to keep my body warm.

Again, there are a lot of assumptions here but still find it kind of interesting that it comes a bit close considering that MFP puts my BMR at about 1600. Now I think other things go into BMR than just maintaining body temp (such as maintaining basal brain function) but that said I think maintain your body temperature is the primary factor for BMR.

What's the assumption on the environmental temperature for this dead-body-cooling rate?

I believe room temperature which would be 23 C.

lemurcat12

Thanks for these, Aaron.

diannethegeek

I might as well bump this one, too!

diannethegeek

Giving some posts a bump today.

MelanieCN77

CALORIES AREN'T MATTER YOU DON'T EXIST *cough* sorry got taken with a spirit or something for a second there.

kshama2001

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

I'm going to have to Google how to start reporting my weight in carats. I'd kind of like to think of myself as a precious gem when winter sets in and my spirits are low.

That was funny

On a serious note, I also get the blues in the winter, and taper off my Wellbutrin in the spring so it is more effective again for fall/winter. Works for me. YMMV.