SO CONFUSED about calculations!!

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FUZZBUZZ4
FUZZBUZZ4 Posts: 334
in Food and Nutrition
i just had a sandwich and it said it had.. 1730kJ which equalled 417kcal... is a kcal the same as a calorie?? i am so confused!! is it like a european thing? i was in london at the time so i dont know.. and on a cereal box it says 417kj... i am so confused!!

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  • FUZZBUZZ4
    FUZZBUZZ4 Posts: 334
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    i just had a sandwich and it said it had.. 1730kJ which equalled 417kcal... is a kcal the same as a calorie?? i am so confused!! is it like a european thing? i was in london at the time so i dont know.. and on a cereal box it says 417kj... i am so confused!!
  • ligytha
    ligytha Posts: 130
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    Ah, well, it is complicated.

    1 Calorie = 1000 calories = 1 kcalorie

    It matters if it is "c" or "C". It isn't a European thing. This is the accepted SI (official) nomenclature.
  • amandagreen1980
    amandagreen1980 Posts: 286 Member
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    Hi
    Yes a kcal is a calorie! I'm not sure if it is a european thing as I am British and that is what i see all the time! But yes it is the same as a calorie.

    Amanda
  • amandagreen1980
    amandagreen1980 Posts: 286 Member
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    wow i didn't know that!!!! :noway:

    you learn something new everyday!!
  • SoupNazi
    SoupNazi Posts: 4,229 Member
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    I was wondering why the treadmill I used today said Kcal:huh:
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    it just makes things easier to call it a calorie instead of a killocalorie. it would suck if you had to do all your calculations by numbers in the thousands and 10s of thousands and hundreds of thousands.
    just think, if you did it that way, my daily calories would be 2.7 million callories a day. LOL!
  • SoupNazi
    SoupNazi Posts: 4,229 Member
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    it just makes things easier to call it a calorie instead of a killocalorie. it would suck if you had to do all your calculations by numbers in the thousands and 10s of thousands and hundreds of thousands.
    just think, if you did it that way, my daily calories would be 2.7 million callories a day. LOL!

    2.7 million calories! You'd be that guy we see on t.v. that has to be airlifted from his house.:laugh:
  • walnut
    walnut Posts: 216 Member
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    I think kJ stands for kilojoules. I don't know how many equal a calorie (a kilocalorie), though.
  • AJCM
    AJCM Posts: 2,169 Member
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    I'm with Walnut...

    kj stands for kilojoule

    Bottom line - don't worry about kj as most food labels use cal which represents the calories that you are interested in! Don't start doing converstions yourself! I don't know why food labels even include the kj listing!

    :smile:
  • SoupNazi
    SoupNazi Posts: 4,229 Member
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    All of my workout equiptment says Kcal not Kj...is there a difference?
  • AJCM
    AJCM Posts: 2,169 Member
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    Apparently yes - there is a difference! Kilo Joule and Kilo Cal are difference units of measure (wiki or google it - lots of info out there).

    This is grade 10 Science material, but I'm still fuzzy on it Maybe I didn't pay attention... :yawn:
  • CasperNZ
    CasperNZ Posts: 8 Member
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    All foods over here (New Zealand) are in kJ not calories :( I have to convert everything before I enter it.
  • AlmostHot
    AlmostHot Posts: 312 Member
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    1 calorie = 4.2 kilojules
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,550 Member
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    A kilojoule is a measurement of energy. Since calories are associated with energy, I can see a correlation there. Same with exercises...hmm.
  • schlieffen
    schlieffen Posts: 269
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    Seems right.. kilojoule (kJ) is a direct measure of energy, while kilocalorie (kcal) is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1°C. (and yes, 1kcal = 4.184kJ, or 1kJ = 0.239kcal)

    What you see on the side of North American nutritional panels are calories.. this is misleading name because they aren't giving you the number in calories, they're giving it to you in kcal. So just like carbs are measured in grams, "calories" are measured in kcal (though they never give the unit)

    I hope that wasn't too confusing!

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