What process involving the human body requires energy expenditure during food processing that the bomb calorimeter method overlooks?
Thermic effect of food (TEF)
While the bomb calorimeter measures the total potential heat energy by burning food outside the body, the human digestive system is a complex biological machine that expends energy simply to digest, absorb, and store nutrients. This necessary energy outlay is formally known as the thermic effect of food (TEF). For instance, metabolizing protein demands significantly more processing energy compared to processing fat. Because the rigid energy balance equation rooted in calorimetry does not account for this metabolic cost—the TEF—it presents an oversimplification when rigidly applied to human biology, as not all consumed calories are equally available for use or storage.

#Videos
How Americans Got Hooked on Counting Calories More Than A ...