How much energy does your body really need? For an adult, the US FDA recommends about 2000 calories a day, with some adjustments for body size and gender. But how much energy is that? Well it turns out it’s about equal to the same rate as a 100 watt light bulb.
How many watts in a Calorie?
The digestion process releases stored chemical energy from food. This energy is measured in Calories. In food, what is commonly called a “Calorie”, actually refers to Kilocalories (Kcal), or 1000s of calories; a calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temp of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.
Ok so how much is that? 1 Calorie (Kcal) = 4184 Joules; joules is the universal measure of energy. So a 2000 calorie diet corresponds to about 8.37 million joules or energy every day..
Power is stated in watts; a watt is equal to 1 joule / second. So if you consume 8.4 million in a day, or in 86,400 seconds, that’s about 96 joules every second, or 96 watts.
Don’t hate the fat that feeds you
What happens when you eat a lot more calories? If your body gets extra energy, it has two choices; use more or store it. Using more happens if you metabolise energy faster, like when you’re studying hard or working out.
Unfortunately, the body can’t just turn up the consumption rate whenever it feels like. This is because the extra food may be too much now, but may come in handy at a future date. So the body would be foolish to be lucky enough to get food, and then just waste it. So by default, the human body stores excess energy. The most efficient way to store energy -- is fat. Per gram, fat stores 9 calories whereas carbohydrates and proteins about 4. The same reason why fatty foods are more calorific.
It takes a very small amount of energy to power the body. Eating beyond that is often done for pleasure and other psychological reasons. That is the foodie’s conundrum: “Eat to live, or live to eat”.
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