Question

1 pound of body fat is equal to about 3,500 Calories. If I were to cut 500 calories from my diet every day, how long would it take me to lose 10 pounds of body fat? How many joules is in 10 lbs of body fat?

Answer 1

To lose 10 pounds by cutting 500 calories a day would take 70 days, and 10 pounds of body fat contains approximately 146,440 kilojoules of energy.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you decide to cut 500 calories from your diet every day, to lose 10 pounds of body fat, you will need to understand that 1 pound of body fat is equal to about 3,500 Calories. Therefore, to lose 1 pound, you need to create a caloric deficit of 3,500 Calories. For 10 pounds, this would be 35,000 Calories. By cutting 500 Calories each day, it would take you 70 days to lose 10 pounds because 35,000 Calories divided by 500 Calories per day equals 70 days.

As for the energy content in joules for 10 pounds of body fat: since 1 pound of fat is approximately 3,500 Calories, and 1 Calorie equals 4.184 kilojoules (kJ), the calculation would be 3,500 Calories per pound times 10 pounds times 4.184 kJ per Calorie. This equates to 146,440 kJ for 10 pounds of body fat.