question of calories
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MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
I think there are calculators that can do this for you. I think X amount of FG points works out to be Y amount of calories - could be wrong though
There's some calories in beer, granted. I find that my expanding waistline has more to do with the kebabs and Chinese takeaways I consume after a few beers.
Yip. MyQul's right. The Brewer's friend ABV calculator will also calculate calories http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/
Cwrw666
Landlord.
Calories is a very poor way of measuring the food value of foodstuffs - they haven't used it in agriculture for feeding animals for about 70 years.
Basically, you remove the water from the item, place a measured amount in a bomb calorimeter which you fill with oxygen and then ignite the foodstuff and measure the temperature rise.
So sawdust has as many calories as wheat etc. (or allbran which is basically the same as sawdust anyway!)
Beer and other alcoholic beverages obviously contain calories - in unfermented sugars and alcohol. The latter is not much of a problem as the human body deals with it very inefficiently. Unfermentables are though. So beer is far more fattening than wine or dry cider.
True alcoholics, in my experience, tend to be thin as rakes because although they consume huge amounts of calories, it's all alcohol as they never seem to eat actual food. I used to know a roofer who's breakfast was about half a pint of brandy, lunch was 2 cans of special brew - I think his Mrs used to make him eat tea, but then he was back on the sauce for the evening. Surprisingly he's still alive...
Basically, you remove the water from the item, place a measured amount in a bomb calorimeter which you fill with oxygen and then ignite the foodstuff and measure the temperature rise.
So sawdust has as many calories as wheat etc. (or allbran which is basically the same as sawdust anyway!)
Beer and other alcoholic beverages obviously contain calories - in unfermented sugars and alcohol. The latter is not much of a problem as the human body deals with it very inefficiently. Unfermentables are though. So beer is far more fattening than wine or dry cider.
True alcoholics, in my experience, tend to be thin as rakes because although they consume huge amounts of calories, it's all alcohol as they never seem to eat actual food. I used to know a roofer who's breakfast was about half a pint of brandy, lunch was 2 cans of special brew - I think his Mrs used to make him eat tea, but then he was back on the sauce for the evening. Surprisingly he's still alive...
I was taught the 5-7-9 rule:
Carbohydrate is 5 Calories per gram
Fat is 9 Calories per gram
Alcohol is 7 Calories per gram
However, due to the unfortunate, empirical, unhelpful, but irreversible Second Law of Thermodynamics, all conversions of energy are inefficient and converting sugars to alcohol involves losing a lot of energy to heat.
So eating your sugars, as opposed to brewing them, will make you fatter.
Carbohydrate is 5 Calories per gram
Fat is 9 Calories per gram
Alcohol is 7 Calories per gram
However, due to the unfortunate, empirical, unhelpful, but irreversible Second Law of Thermodynamics, all conversions of energy are inefficient and converting sugars to alcohol involves losing a lot of energy to heat.
So eating your sugars, as opposed to brewing them, will make you fatter.
Sorry to have deleted your informed references to calorimetry - I appreciated them none the less.
This is a very valid point as humans do tend to lose the alcohol that is not either:
Broken down initially by enzymes in the digestive process, or
Converted by the liver
Through loss of body fluid, through urination, sweating or exhalation, and hence lost.
baggybill
Always learning...
I read somewhere years ago that calories in alcohol is irrelevant as the liver just see's it as 'poison' and focuses on eliminating it from the body.
While this is happening, the body is not giving a monkeys about fat burning/storing. There's poison in your system.
Although, even though having read this, I would argue a kebab sitting in your stomach is definitely going to make the 'fat storing hormones' day
I also read somewhere (yes, I read too much!) that alcoholics avoid food as it blunts the kick of the alcohol. I've noticed this effect myself at summer BBQ's, having a pint of ice cold beer/cider, starving, waiting on burgers cooking. Woosh, straight to the head...
Just food for thought (no pun intended!)
While this is happening, the body is not giving a monkeys about fat burning/storing. There's poison in your system.
Although, even though having read this, I would argue a kebab sitting in your stomach is definitely going to make the 'fat storing hormones' day
I also read somewhere (yes, I read too much!) that alcoholics avoid food as it blunts the kick of the alcohol. I've noticed this effect myself at summer BBQ's, having a pint of ice cold beer/cider, starving, waiting on burgers cooking. Woosh, straight to the head...
Just food for thought (no pun intended!)
Cwrw666
Landlord.
Real alcoholics undergo a change in their metabolisms so that alcohol is treated as an energy source. It's not very efficient but is different from what happens in the non-alcoholics metabolism. And a side effect is that real food makes them feel queezy. Making them take alcohol in preference to solid food. But of course another side effect is that it's a bit like being on the atkins diet - booze generally doesn't contain much in the way of protein or fat, or vitamins as well, so they begin breaking down their own tissues to supply the lack of nutrients. Not good in the long term of course...
