Page 12 - BTC Debunking the diet

Chapter 2: How do calories ACTUALLY work?

When talking about making good choices, the problem is that a lot of people
don’t know how calories work. Our bodies are made up of systems, which are
made up of organs and then cells. For cells to work, they need energy to carry
out certain metabolic processes. This energy comes from food, which we
measure in kilojoules. However, for the sake of ease, all you need to know
here is that we measure the energy content in food, for our intake, in
calories.

Every single bit of food we put in our mouths has a calorie count assigned,
and every time you put something on your plate that then goes into your
mouth, you add to that calorie count. It might not be on a plate – it could be
from a bottle or a wrapper.

Very simply put, foods that are good for you have fewer calories; foods that
are bad for you have more calories. For example, an apple has 60 calories,
while a Spur burger has 1,200 (gulp!).

So it doesn’t matter which diet you use – at the end of the day, you need to
reduce your calorie count – or burn more calories through exercise.

In any diet, if you take in fewer calories you will lose weight; if you take in
more calories you will gain weight; if you take in the same you will maintain.
So if you say, “The diet didn’t work for me because I gained weight,” that
can’t be true – not if you are taking in fewer calories.

Unfortunately, calories are like gravity – they always win! But we also
desperately need calories, because they are our fuel. No matter what we do
we are burning calories, whether it’s walking, blinking, sleeping. But the

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This booklet © 2019, Rob Rodell, all rights reserved.