If you haven't figured out by now, when I set myself a goal I go full out so that I fully understand the subject.  I have discovered that there is a lot of information out there on weight loss, proper nutrition, and what foods do what.  I am finding this all very fascinating.  Yeah, I'm a little weird that way.

Most people, I'm given to understand, need approximately 1200 - 1500 calories  day.Okay, that sounds reasonable.  But wait, what exactly is a calorie?  Does anyone know?  I didn't, so I looked it up, here is what Dictionary.com says:

cal·o·rie   /ˈkæləri/ Show Spelled[kal-uh-ree]

–noun

1.  Thermodynamics.

           a.  Also called gram calorie, small calorie. an amount of heat  exactly  equal to 1840 joules. Abbreviation: cal

         b.  (usually initial capital letter) kilocalorie. Abbreviation: Cal 

2.  Physiology.

         a.  a unit equal to the kilocalorie, used to express the heat output of an organism and the fuel or energy value of food.

        b.  a quantity of food capable of producing such an amount of energy.

One question, what is up with that?  Heat burning energy?  a calorie is equal to the kilocalorie?  That is like explaining that a meter is equal to a kilometer to an older person who has no concept of the metric system.

Who exactly is the person who decided that was going to be the method of calculating food intake?  Was there a committee?  Did they understand what they were doing?  It just seem sort of random to me.

I'll tell you something though, the more research I do, the less I want to eat!  It's all so complicated and gross!