I don’t know who needs to hear this...calories are energy, not the enemy.

I remember the first foreign nutrition label I read, listing “Energy: 120 kCal.” It took a minute to remember my high school chemistry teacher explaining calories are a unit of measure for energy.

The Oxford definition of calorie is:
1. the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1°C
2. the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1°C, equal to one thousand small calories and often used to measure the energy value of foods.

Another definition: a unit equal to the kilocalorie, used to express the heat output of an organism and the fuel or energy value of food. (calories on US nutrition labels).
FUEL and ENERGY VALUE!

How often do we think about calories in those terms?
If we shift our minds to see calories as what they truly are—the energy contained in the food we are consuming, our fuel for living, how different would our relationships with food become?

I believe we would see a positive effect. I believe we would start breaking free from the dread so often associated with calorie counts. Imagine thinking “this food contains 300 units of energy.” That is a whole lot less threatening than someone saying it contains 300 calories. Rather than continuing to demonize calories, we would begin acknowledging their value. We’d start eliminating food fear and healing our relationship with food.

The correlation between calorie consumption/deficit and weight loss remains, but I find talking in terms of energy, less threatening and more inviting: if we consume more energy than we expend, our body will store the excess energy for later use; if we consume less energy than we expend, our body will use previously stored energy to make up the difference. We also need to consume a certain amount of energy each day to fuel our body and mind, and support our metabolic function.

Before you use that correlation to defend dieting, please understand a constant and drastic caloric deficit can slow down your metabolism and put your body into “starvation mode.” Rather than utilizing the energy you are consuming, your body will recognize the threat of under consumption, adjust for self-preservation, and store energy for later use.

The energy we use each day varies by age, weight, gender, stress, physical activity, and food consumption. Before starting calorie restriction (aka dieting), I highly recommend consulting a certified nutritionist or dietician who can help you understand the energy and nutritional needs of your body. But if they try to tell you to follow a 1,200 calorie diet, get a second opinion because that is the energy/nutritional need of a toddler.