With balance in mind, what is the value of a calorie?
In terms of fat loss, it doesn’t matter whether your caloric deficit comes from diet, exercise, or both; as long as you have a caloric deficit you will lose fat. It terms of gaining fat it doesn’t matter if you take in too many calories from carrots or butter; the extra calories will be stored as fat. Here’s the balance part. 50 calories of strawberry jam is not a significant source of vitamins and minerals. 50 calories of broccoli or sweet red/ green peppers will supply more than double your vitamin C for the day plus provide other nutrients and fiber. In this case, while the calories are the same, the nutrition delivered with those calories are not. This is usually overlooked when we focus on calories only. Not all fat is created equally. If most of your fat intake is from saturated fats such as butter and red meat, your risk of cardiovascular disease increases. If most of your fat intake is from nuts, grains, fish (salmon, tuna), and oils like olive oil, your risk of cardiovascular
