Major Factors That Control What Calories Do In Your Body

A calorie is a measure of the energy released when your body breaks down the food you eat. The more calories your food contains, the more energy it makes available for your body to use for various essential processes.

It is widespread knowledge that calorie is the boss when it comes to weight gain or loss. Eating more calories than your body needs will result in weight gain and vice versa.

However, contrary to popular belief, calories are not the boss. So, it is not unusual if you do not get the desired outcome after adjusting your calorie intake. This is because many factors determine what these calories do in your body. Some of these factors include:

Hormonal Composition

Hormones are chemicals that send signals to and from various cells in your body. An imbalance in your hormones can throw your body cells and metabolism off balance. The resulting imbalance can cause your body to process calories less effectively.

For instance, insulin is an essential hormone that controls how your body uses and stores sugar. It is released when you eat to enable your body to make energy from carbohydrates (sugar). However, high insulin levels result in overstimulation of your body cells. This excessive stimulation can cause insulin resistance and a downstream effect on your liver, causing your liver to produce more fat in a process called lipogenesis. This explains why research has shown an association between excessive insulin levels and a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. It can even reduce your life span.

Therefore, reducing or increasing your calorie intake when you have an underlying hormonal imbalance may not help you achieve your desired results.

Inflammation

Inflammation is one of the processes your body uses to fight off harmful agents like infections and toxins. Although inflammation plays an essential role in keeping you safe, prolonged inflammation can harm you instead. In fact, chronic inflammation is a significant driver of various chronic diseases.

Your brain plays a vital role in how your body utilizes calories. But Inflammation can affect the gut-brain connection through its effect on the vagus nerve. This ultimately determines whether or not your body absorbs the calories and nutrients you consume in your foods.

Liver inflammation can also impair your liver function. Unfortunately, an impaired liver function has been shown to increase your body’s fat storage. It can also impair your thyroid function, which can also result in weight gain. So reducing your calorie intake without optimal liver function may not help you achieve your desired outcome.

On the bright side, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) can help reduce inflammation to help you achieve optimal metabolism. Your natural gut flora makes a significant amount of SCFAs. But you can also get them from fresh fruits like apples and pears.

Food Type

According to a study from Food and Nutrition research, the impact of whole foods on how your body uses calories is different from the impact of processed foods. Processed foods slow down your metabolism and cause you to burn fewer calories. This causes your body to store more calories (as fat) than when you eat whole foods.

In the study, two groups ate sandwiches containing the same amount of calories, proteins, carbohydrates, and fat. But one group had all whole ingredients while the other had all processed ingredients. The metabolism in the processed food group was reduced by 50%.

Therefore, healthy living goes beyond calories in, calories out. The type of food you consume determines how your body processes the calories in your food. Therefore, you should eat more whole foods than you do processed foods if your goal is to achieve optimal metabolism.

Food Preparation Method

How you cook your food affects how easily your body can absorb calories from that food. Your body absorbs calories better from well-cooked foods. This does not mean you should eat raw foods to reduce your body’s calorie absorption.

An excellent way to go is to include a variety of cooked and raw foods in your meals. This not only keeps you fuller for longer, but it also improves your metabolism and hormone function, which ultimately helps you burn calories more effectively.

Thermic Effect of Food

Your body burns calories to absorb calories from food. And the amount of calories you burn in this absorption process depends on the type of macronutrients in your food. For instance, it takes about 25-30% of the calories in protein to digest that protein. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, only require about 10-15%, and fat requires 0-5%.

In essence, the type of food you eat determines how many calories your body burns for absorption, how many it absorbs from the food, and how many it stores as fat. So, increasing your protein intake will help you burn more calories while at rest and even keep you fuller for longer.

Meal Timing

When you eat has a significant effect on what the ingested calories do in your body.

A study showed that eating a high-protein meal for breakfast will help you lose more weight than eating a high-carbohydrate meal. The study participants who ate protein-rich foods for breakfast lost more weight than those who ate carbohydrate-rich foods. The high-protein group recorded 65% more weight loss, 34% more reduction in weight circumference, and 16% are reduction in body fat percentage. This happened despite both study groups eating the same amount of calories for breakfast and keeping the rest of their daily meals the same as before the study.

So, timing is key to how your body processes the calories you consume.

Digestive Efficiency

Just like your fingerprint, how efficiently your body breaks down food is unique to you. Your digestive efficiency also changes constantly, which affects how your body processes calories from your food.

Some components that affect your digestive efficiency include:

• Digestive secretions. For instance, your bile production affects how well your body absorbs and manages calories.
• Length of your digestive tract. This determines how many calories your body absorbs from your food; the longer your digestive tract, the more nutrients and calories your body absorbs.

There are many natural ways you can improve your digestive efficiency. An example is consuming ginger, which has been shown to increase the thermic effect of food and help reduce hunger.

Microbiome Makeup

Your microbiome plays a vital role in how your body processes the calories you consume.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute discovered that certain arrays of microbes can prevent your body from burning calories. These bacteria are also associated with obesity and insulin resistance. In a study, bacteria samples from obese and non-obese human subjects were implanted into lean mice. This study found that lean mice that received the “obese” bacteria became insulin-resistant. But the other group remained the same despite being exposed to the same conditions.

Another study also showed that the diversity of your gut microbiome is directly correlated with less weight gain and higher metabolism. This effect is independent of how many calories you consume.

The following can help support a healthy microbiome community:

• Avoid things that disrupt your microbiome, like eating unclean fruits that may still contain pesticides or other chemicals. Because these chemicals can destroy your microbiome.
• Avoid unnecessary antibiotic use as they tend to wipe out this beneficial microbiome.
• Limit your consumption of added sugar because it feeds pathogenic bacteria, which eventually disrupts your natural microbiome.
• Include a variety of whole foods in your meals.

CONCLUSION

Calories are essential for practically all your body processes. Adjusting your calorie intake upwards or downwards can also help you gain or lose weight.

However, calorie adjustment is not all you need to achieve your goals. This is because various factors affect how your body processes the calories you consume. Examples include your hormones, gut flora, mealtime, and so on.

You can support how your body processes these calories through a healthy diet rich in various whole foods. But remember that moderation is also essential.