Thermogenesis, or the "Thermogenic Effect", is the heat-producing effect of calories consumed from food. In other words, when your body digests the food that you eat, it produces heat in the body that temporarily increases your metabolism. In fact, it is this heat produced that facilitates the very digestion of that food, and in turn, provides you the greatest degree of nutrition weight loss and other health benefits per quantity of food eaten.
A calorie is actually a measurement of a unit of heat. And heat is a measurement of energy. Digesting food and properly absorbing it for nutrition weight loss and general health requires energy, which requires heat, which is measured in calories.
But not all calories are built alike.
Some calories are more available to the body for easy digestion through the production of heat than others. By the same token, some calories require more energy to digest than others.
An Easy Example: Chew Your Food!
For a familiar example, the more your chew your food, converting it from a solid mass into a more liquefied mush, the more available those calories become and thus the easier they are to convert to heat (or energy) for easy digestion. Who hasn't had the experience of inadequately chewing their food, only to later suffer bloating and/or indigestion?
Which Calories Are More Thermogenically Available Than Others?
The easiest macronutrient for reaping the most nutrition weight loss and other health benefits for the least amount of food eaten is protein. An average of 27% of the calories consumed as protein are converted to heat to be utilized in the digestion of that protein.
Meanwhile, 7% of the calories consumed in the form of carbohydrates are converted into heat energy for use in the metabolic processes of digestion and absorption. That means not as much energy is produced by eating carbohydrates as by proteins, and therefore it requires the body draw on various other energy sources (like exercise) to get the job done, or else it won't get done at all.
Keep that in mind as we look at the last-and worst-macronutrient in terms of thermogenesis, and that is fats, which only convert 3% of their calories into energy for use in digestion and absorption. That means a body must find 97% of the energy it uses to digest and absorb those fats from other sources. And what happens if it doesn't?
Why is Knowledge of the Thermogenic Effect Important For Nutrition Weight Loss and General Health?
The answer to this question is simple. Because what do you think happens to those other calories not used in the thermogenic process (in other words: not converted to heat for use as metabolic energy)? Some of it gets digested-yes-its nutrients absorbed into the bloodstream.
But the rest is either eliminated as waste (leading the body to crave more food to meet its nutritional needs) or stored as fat. Either way, this contributes to all that unwanted weight gain. The more calories not used in the thermogenic effect, the likelier that some of the remaining calories in that food-whatever it is-will show up on your belly, thighs, hips, cheeks, or wherever it is that your body typically and most easily puts on weight.
It's About More Than Macronutrients - Thermogenesis is Also About Eating Patterns
The more food your body takes in at once, the harder it is to convert any part of that food into heat for digestion and absorption. So the more you eat at once the harder it is to produce and sustain an appropriate metabolic rate for proper nutrition weight loss and general health. That's why it is always recommended that you eat several smaller meals throughout the day rather just one or two large meals. In this way, you can actually eat more and still wind up weighing less!
Download your free copy of the "Experts Guide to Understanding Weight Loss" using the below link right now and get started losing weight naturally and healthily right away.
Dr. William Berkowitz has been in the natural health field for more than 23 years. His focus is on maximizing health and vitality through natural means. One of his passions is Diet and Nutrition and its application to Weight Loss. Frustrated by the confusion in the Weight Loss marketplace, through his research he developed a Weight Loss program founded on the Laws of Human Physiology. He has also developed a companion Exercise Program that turns up the metabolism in just minutes a day. Click on this link to download your FREE copy of the "Experts Guide to Weight Loss - 7 Keys to Weight Loss" [http://RapidNaturalWeightLoss.com/]
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