Calories vs kilojoules

Merkavar

so this might be odd since I have had my Fitbit for months, but recently I thought I should change it to kilojoules instead of converting calories all the time.

Apparently there is no option for this.

I was just wondering which countries actually use kilojoules other than I think Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

So which country are you from and what measurement does it use and which do you prefer?





I'll let you in on a scecret, I'm bored

minties82

I'm from New Zealand and use kilojoules and prefer them. I think most countries officially claim to use kilojoules but don't in practice.

I have no idea why lots of kiwis and Oz folk convert to calories and get frustrated, just use the kilojoules on the food packets people!

Alatariel75

I'm in Australia and use calories, though kilojoules are the standard. No real reason why, come to think of it. I can do the rough kj to cal calculation in my head when I need to but the majority of my food doesn't come with nutrition labels so using calories seemed just as easy.

Machka9

I'm in Australia and I use calories because that's what I got used to when I was in Canada. But it is easy enough to convert between the two. Approximately divide by 4. If something is 3600 kj ... that's approx. 900 cal.

Christine_72

I'm in Australia and use calories. Because that's what I've always used.
Plus most of the forums I belong to also use calories.

GettingHealthyWithShelly

Im in Australia, I also use Calories. Only because the number looks smaller (silly I know)

Alatariel75

GettingHealthyWithShelly wrote: »

Im in Australia, I also use Calories. Only because the number looks smaller (silly I know)

Haahaa same reason I use kilos and not lbs

Orphia

I'm in Australia.

I use kilojoules because most food here has its nutritional information in kilojoules, and I find scanning barcodes very useful.

I also use kilograms, but am relatively "pound-aware".

Glad you asked this question. I'd like to know what other countries use kilojoules.

Mycophilia

In Norway, our nutritional labels are marked with both. But I still use kcal since it's what most of us use on the Internet.

Soopatt

I am in South Africa and use Kilojoules, but when I discuss things on the forum I always talk calories so that people know what I am talking about. Works fine for me as I see Kilojoules in my diary and on my food packaging, and when a calorie user visits my diary they will see calories as it is determined by their MFP selection.

I have a converter saved on my laptop and phone in case I encounter imported products which happens often as I travel a lot for work.

No one would even know I used Kilojoules if I did not tell them.

Same applies for kilograms and pounds.

unrelentingminx

I'm in the UK and log my food in calories although the majority of food packaging will give both kJ and kcal information.

snowflake954

Excuse me--but what difference does it make? They are the same once converted. Use what you like and whatever is easiest for you.

Sued0nim

UK ..our nutritional labels are marked with both

I don't understand kilojoules (well I understand there is a simple mathematical conversion between kcal and kj...it's more I just don't care to pay it any attention)

I have plenty issues converting my weights to lbs (we run kg and stones and pounds)

PAV8888

I'm in Canada where we pay for our produce in kilograms while the store labels list the price in lbs ;-) I know my height in cm because that's what I was measured in when I was a child, and what my driver's license lists. But I weigh myself in lbs, because, let's face it, we all weigh things here in lbs. Of course waist measurements and body parts are measured in inches. But distances are measured in kilometres unless I'm chatting with an American MFP friend, in which case I convert to miles. Now that I think about it, I am confused and don't understand why I can't put a whatever measurement in MFP and have it automatically convert for me!

dutchandkiwi

I am in the Netherlands and lived in NZ for a long time. On MFP I use the old unit calories because well I am used to it and it is easy to work with
Our food labels are in both cal and kJ and I know the conversion by heart it is never an issue.
In my working life I use Joules quite a lot as it is the standard SI unit for energy. However in a fair number of cases in work we also use units that are conversions, or calculations from to J to whatever for instance eV or kWh which is 1 eV = 1,602 176 565 × 10 E–19 J or 1 kWh is 3 600 000 J So you see that even if you use some other units the conversion to J is always there and possible and direct and there are a many other units that are defined through the J. Somehow J is not as easy and straightforward to work with directly but does remain the basis of many things I see around me and use on a regular basis.

GettingHealthyWithShelly

PAV8888 wrote: »

I'm in Canada where we pay for our produce in kilograms while the store labels list the price in lbs ;-) I know my height in cm because that's what I was measured in when I was a child, and what my driver's license lists. But I weigh myself in lbs, because, let's face it, we all weigh things here in lbs. Of course waist measurements and body parts are measured in inches. But distances are measured in kilometres unless I'm chatting with an American MFP friend, in which case I convert to miles. Now that I think about it, I am confused and don't understand why I can't put a whatever measurement in MFP and have it automatically convert for me!

My head hurts now lol

cyronius

I'm from Australia, and I hate using calories, but I do it anyway, because the MFP site has so many bugs related to the conversion to kilojoules. I got tired of reporting them, so simply moved over to calories...

I don't really mind the fact that the Fitbit is calories only, because I don't log food in it...

charlotteX92X

I'm also from Australia and use calories because it seems to be the most commonly used and the conversion to kilojoules is easy. I use kg but can convert to pounds easy, stones is more challenging but doable however miles, feet and inches are beyond me