How many calories does one gram of fat provide?
Nutritionists divide food into three types of macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Each of these macronutrients contains calories, which give your body energy. A calorie is the amount of energy, or heat, it takes to raise the temperature of one gram of water 1 degree Celsius. If you take in more calories than you burn, your body stores that energy as body fat. So, diets recommend that you create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight (the stored body fat). Carbohydrates and proteins each provide four calories per gram, while fat provides nine calories per gram. The number of calories in a fat gram, however, does not reveal the whole story about fats and the role they should play in your diet.
