Questions And Answers - Diet And Weight Loss
|
Food Source |
Calories |
Kilojoules |
| Protein |
4 |
16.7 |
| Fat |
9 |
37.7 |
| Carbohydrate |
4 |
16.7 |
Yes, that means that each gram of fat you consume provides more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate!
As an example of how these numbers are used, imagine a food containing 10 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat, and 10 grams of carbohydrates. That would total 170 calories:
(10 g protein x 4) + (10 g fat x 9) + (10 g carbs x 4) = 170
In this imaginary food 40 calories come from protein; 90 calories come from fat; and 40 calories come from carbohydrates.
Technical Notes
Body Fat versus Nutritional Fat
A keen observer might notice a discrepancy between this FAQ and the previous one, How many calories are there in a pound of body fat? The previous FAQ states that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of body fat, while this FAQ states that a gram of fat is equal to 9 calories.
3,500 / 9 = 389 would imply that there are 389 grams in a pound. But in reality there are 454 grams in a pound.
The reason for this apparent discrepancy is that body fat or adipose tissue contains not only fat, but also other elements including protein, connective tissue, and water. While the fat referred to in the nutritional analysis of food is pure.
Looking at it another way, 3,500 / 454 = 7.7 calories. Thus a gram of body fat contains only 7.7 calories versus the 9 calories found in pure fat. It's easy to see that there should be a difference when you consider that body fat contains water which has no calories.
Because of the differences in the two types of fat, it is appropriate to use the 3,500 calories per pound figure when discussing fat "burned" by activity; and the 9 calories per gram figure when discussing the nutritional content of food.
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