We talk about calories all the time. Whether we’re trying to figure out whether we’re eating too much for dinner, lacking the appropriate number of calories for the day, or planning a workout that gets rid of the number of calories we’d like to burn, it’s clear that we’re constantly factoring them into decisions that relate to health, fitness and weight. But what exactly is a calorie?
If you’re ever worried, this TED-Ed video will answer all of your most important questions. Further, even if you’ve never felt curious about the nature of calories, you can learn a lot about how to approach dieting by actually understanding how calories work. What do they do? How many are devoted to different processes in the body? And how much exercise does it take to get rid of, say, 100 of them?
You’ll soon have a much better idea of how many calories are actually in a lot of the foods you consume, and how many are burned by certain types of workouts. You may be surprised by how much or little those frantic jumping jacks are really burning! 
In addition, a key point in the video is that the recommended calorie intake should really be thought of as different for everyone.
A range of factors determine what your ideal intake should be, so the standard suggestions for men and women may be leaving you short of your fitness goals. In just four minutes, you’ll learn enough to change your approach and be better suited to determining your daily calorie intake in the future.
