Calories V's kilojoules - I don't get it, please explain?

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DaoneandonlyMe
DaoneandonlyMe Posts: 118 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Calories V's kilojoules - I don't get it, please explain?

I just moved to Australia and cant figure out the kilojoules .?

Can I change the setting of MFP to Kilojoules..?

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  • kimmy176
    kimmy176 Posts: 9
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    Have a read of this:

    http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Kilojoules_and_calories-explained
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    a "calorie" is actually a kg-calorie or Calorie which is the amount of heat to warm 1kg of water by 1 C - this is 4.18 kJ

    So divide by 4 approx.
  • blackiris49
    blackiris49 Posts: 128 Member
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    Try this to convert kilojoules to calories. Just Google there are lots of sites/converters online.

    http://www.convertunits.com/from/kilojoules/to/calories
  • DaoneandonlyMe
    DaoneandonlyMe Posts: 118 Member
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    Thanks everyone !!!
  • MissMormie
    MissMormie Posts: 359 Member
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    a "calorie" is actually a kg-calorie or Calorie which is the amount of heat to warm 1kg of water by 1 C - this is 4.18 kJ

    So divide by 4 approx.

    Just to fix a minor mistake, a Calorie is not a kg-Calorie, but most of the times the calories we talk about when talking about food are kcal, kilo calories. So your piece of cheese worth 85 kcal is actually 85.000 calories. For simplicity this is often left out. No use sticking 3 zeroes behind everything right?

    1 kilo calorie can warm up 1 kilogram of water - which is about 4.18 kilo Joule
    1 calorie can warm up 1 gram of water - which is about 4.18 Joule
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Just to fix a minor mistake, a Calorie is not a kg-Calorie
    It is, actually, you overlooked the capital C. The historical connection was to use calorie for gram-calorie and Calorie for kg-calorie - ask a Frenchman.

    We ended up using "calories" as shorthand because the significance of the capital C was lost, not because someone decided to drop the kg- or k prefix.

    I learned this the hard way from 40 years working with energy data from international sources, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie is a reasonable summary.
    So your piece of cheese worth 85 kcal is actually 85.000 calories
    Well to me 85 kcal is 85,000 or 85 000 or 85000 calories, not 85.000 'cos that's just 85 with three zeros after the decimal place, which isn't significant, whereas when you put them in the right place they are significant. Your pedantry needs some work :-) or this is another illustration of international confusion due to different use of punctuation and terms.

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