Why is energy balance important for healthy living?

What will be an ideal response?


People expend energy continuously and eat periodically to refuel. Ideally, their energy intakes cover their energy expenditures with little, or no, excess. Excess energy is stored as fat, and stored fat is used for energy between meals. The fat stores of even a healthy-weight adult represent an ample reserve of energy—50,000 to 200,000 kcalories.
The amount of body fat a person deposits in, or withdraws from, storage on any given day depends on the energy balance for that day—the amount consumed (energy in) versus the amount expended (energy out). When a person is maintaining weight, “energy in” equals “energy out.” When the balance shifts, weight changes.
Quick changes in body weight are not simple changes in fat stores. Weight gained or lost rapidly includes some fat, large amounts of fluid, and some lean tissues such as muscle proteins and bone minerals. Because water constitutes about 60 percent of an adult’s body weight, retention or loss of water can greatly influence body weight. Even over the long term, the composition of weight gained or lost is normally about 75 percent fat and 25 percent lean. During starvation, losses of fat and lean are about equal. Invariably, though, fat gains and losses are gradual

Nutritional Science

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The sugar to which all other sugars are converted during human metabolism is:

a. sucrose. b. fructose. c. glucose. d. maltose.

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Which factor below MOST increases the need for supplemental vitamin D?

A. sunscreen use B. excessive sun exposure C. vegetarian diet D. use of calcium supplements

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Postmenopausal women are more prone to fractures than premenopausal women primarily because

A. low progesterone levels accelerate bone loss. B. older women are unable to maintain physical activity. C. low estrogen levels accelerate bone loss. D. the accumulation of iron in the blood depletes bone minerals.

Nutritional Science

Clients with edema associated with congestive heart failure usually have orders for:

a. cholesterol restriction and bile acid sequestrants. b. saturated fat restriction and corticosteroids. c. sodium restriction, fluid restriction, and diuretics. d. carbohydrate restriction and insulin.

Nutritional Science