Counting calories? Your body is not a simple math equation; it is a complex chemistry set.

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While “calories in, calories out” is technically true based on the First Law of Thermodynamics, it’s a misleading oversimplification. The type of calories you consume directly alters the “calories out” side of the equation through the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF).

For example, your body uses 20-30% of the calories from protein just to digest it, compared to only 5-10% for carbohydrates and 0-3% for fats. Does that mean you should just eat more protein? Not necessarily as we’ll get to in a future post.

ThermicEffectOfFood on Health Genius™

Counting calories? Your body is not a simple math equation; it is a complex chemistry set.