How come weight is affected by calories, and not the weight of the food? If I eat a bag of candy, I will gain weight, but if I eat 4 apples, I won’t gain as much?
In: Biology
Calories measure the energy you can get from a food. When you eat something the energy, if not used up, is stored as fat or special forms of sugar.
If you take a pound of candy it has lots of calories since it’s mostly sugar, which gets stored up and causes weight gain.
If you take a pound of apples it has some calories from sugar, which can be stored up, but also water and fibre which end up as waste.
Apples are also healthier because they contain important vitamins and minerals, as opposed to the “empty calories” of candy which provide energy but no other nutritional value.
1lb candy = 1lb sugar
–> 1lb weight (stored energy)
1lb apples = 0.5lb sugar + 0.5lb water & fiber
–> 0.5lb weight (stored energy) + 0.5lb down the toilet
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