Do you use kJ or kcal when logging calories

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teanoeric
teanoeric Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Do you use kJ or kcal when logging calories?

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  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
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    kcal for me, it will depend on where you're from and what you're used to.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,165 Member
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    kcal...other than photos on this site I've never even seen a label that offers a kJ option.
  • kuranda10
    kuranda10 Posts: 593 Member
    edited September 2019
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    COGypsy wrote: »
    kcal...other than photos on this site I've never even seen a label that offers a kJ option.

    Here in Australia they use kJ, but most labels have kJ and kC listed.
    the only time I've seen a label in only kJ is if it's a local Australia only product.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    Australian and the one non-metric measurement I can think of that I use is the calorie.

    Even though all food labels here list energy in Kj most will have a corresponding Cal value but even if they don't it's not too difficult to work out. If I'm just looking for a rough idea I'll just workout one quarter which gets me into the right ballpark and if I want/need to log more accurately I'll just whip the phone out and divide by 4.18,
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    kJ (or mJ) for bike rides, kCal for everything else (all other exercises and food).

    That's because I measure how much energy I put into the bike in watts, and 1 watt = 1 Joule per second. So at the end of a ride I know exactly how much work was done, in Joules.
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
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    I’m in the UK and I’ve temporarily scared myself stupid when picking up a new food in the supermarket to check it’s label if the nutritional content is listed as Kj first and Kcal second! It’s back on that shelf as if it’s burnt my hand!

    Then I realise what’s going on and take a second look, but I sincerely hope that food manufacturers never go fully metric on this one! I’ve been working in calories for so many years that I’m sure I’d have real mindset problems if I had to adjust to Kilojoules now!
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    As an Aussie, I go with kj. I find it easier as that unit of energy will be found on all food labels here.
  • koalathebear
    koalathebear Posts: 236 Member
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    Australian but I use calories because I find it easier to deal with smaller numbers :D The labels here usually have both, but even if it's just KJ, there's an easy way to convert on my phone and also MFP's barcode scanning thing does the hard work for me.

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