Kcal and calories: What's the difference?

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keishashines
keishashines Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
I use Endomondo to track my calories burned when I exercise, and it uses kcal. What's the difference in calories and kcal? When I enter my cardio in myfitnesspal, should I enter the kcal as the actual calories I've burned?

Signed, confused lady!

Replies

  • LiteBrite007
    LiteBrite007 Posts: 294 Member
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    I believe the word "calorie" is a short form of the word Kilocalorie. But I'm drunk so maybe a sober person has a better answer.
  • firefoxxie
    firefoxxie Posts: 381 Member
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    I tried figuring this out as well and I found out there is no difference. Europeans use kCal and Americans just say cal. Most of the food I eat comes from Turkey and on the nutrition facts it says kcal so thats why I needed to know.
  • teryx123
    teryx123 Posts: 57 Member
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    A Kcal is a Kilocalorie, which is 1000 calories. The problem is that it has become acceptable slang to refer to a kilocalorie as simply a "calorie". They did that because otherwise you would obviously be dealing with huge numbers.

    That is why you are confused. When it comes to dieting or food, anytime you see "calorie" you can assume it is a Kcal or Kilocalorie. It's all the same thing.

    Only people working in science actually deal with such small units as real calories.

    I hope that makes it clearer and not worse. It is a ridiculous situation.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    A Kcal is a Kilocalorie, which is 1000 calories. The problem is that it has become acceptable slang to refer to a kilocalorie as simply a "calorie". They did that because otherwise you would obviously be dealing with huge numbers.

    That is why you are confused. When it comes to dieting or food, anytime you see "calorie" you can assume it is a Kcal or Kilocalorie. It's all the same thing.

    Only people working in science actually deal with such small units as real calories.

    I hope that makes it clearer and not worse. It is a ridiculous situation.

    Not as ridiculous as the current trend in scientific literature to refer to energy expenditure in kilojoules--nothing against the metric system per se, but that's not how my "mental map" is designed. Grrrr.....
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    I tried figuring this out as well and I found out there is no difference. Europeans use kCal and Americans just say cal. Most of the food I eat comes from Turkey and on the nutrition facts it says kcal so thats why I needed to know.

    American food doesn't seriously say in calories, does it?

    Never mind. I googled it.
  • stines72
    stines72 Posts: 853 Member
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    Wait... Am I understanding this right? So 1 calorie = 1,000 "real" calories (kilocalories, what we're actually talking about)? So if I consume 300 calories (assuming calorie is short for kilocalorie) by a nutrition label my body is actually receiving 300,000 actual calories? I'm really slow, sorry.
  • stines72
    stines72 Posts: 853 Member
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    I tried figuring this out as well and I found out there is no difference. Europeans use kCal and Americans just say cal. Most of the food I eat comes from Turkey and on the nutrition facts it says kcal so thats why I needed to know.

    American food doesn't seriously say in calories, does it?
    Yes.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Wait... Am I understanding this right? So 1 calorie = 1,000 "real" calories (kilocalories, what we're actually talking about)? So if I consume 300 calories (assuming calorie is short for kilocalorie) by a nutrition label my body is actually receiving 300,000 actual calories? I'm really slow, sorry.

    Just pretend you never saw this post.
  • stines72
    stines72 Posts: 853 Member
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    Wait... Am I understanding this right? So 1 calorie = 1,000 "real" calories (kilocalories, what we're actually talking about)? So if I consume 300 calories (assuming calorie is short for kilocalorie) by a nutrition label my body is actually receiving 300,000 actual calories? I'm really slow, sorry.

    Just pretend you never saw this post.
    No need to be a **** I already explained and apologized that I'm slow.
    Also you have a reputation to uphold with a super meat boy avatar ;)
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Wait... Am I understanding this right? So 1 calorie = 1,000 "real" calories (kilocalories, what we're actually talking about)? So if I consume 300 calories (assuming calorie is short for kilocalorie) by a nutrition label my body is actually receiving 300,000 actual calories? I'm really slow, sorry.

    Just pretend you never saw this post.
    No need to be a **** I already explained and apologized that I'm slow.
    Also you have a reputation to uphold with a super meat boy avatar ;)

    You don't appear slow, you seem to have got it, but since only the term calorie is used, the fact that it's being used incorrectly is irrelevant.
  • asarwe
    asarwe Posts: 73 Member
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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie

    Also: Scientists use kJ (kiloJoules) because any other discipline of science uses J och ElectronVolts for energy. For the scientists to be able to collaborate they need to "speak the same language". The calorie is not used in any discipline other than nutrition because of it's impractical definition and lack of coherence with the SI (metric) system of units.
  • AnexRavensong
    AnexRavensong Posts: 262 Member
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    I live in France and the labels have kJ and kCal on them.. the kCal are the same thing as calories.
  • Pencilberry
    Pencilberry Posts: 57 Member
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    small calories (real calories) are not the units used in food labeling. I think it's widely accepted to use the word Calorie (with big C) to refer to kilocalorie, which is the unit used to label foods, count how much energy you burned in your workout, etc.

    So 1 Calorie = 1 kilocalorie = 1000 calories. Those small calorie units are NOT used when referring to food and exercise. So if you are going to drop the "kilo" part, it's more correct to write "Calorie". Well, that's what I learned in college general chemistry a few years ago anyway.

    But then again, since "calories" are widely used a units for energy in food and workouts, that Calorie and calorie are used interchangeably and people never assume you are talking about small calories when you say calorie, because it's not a practical unit to use / or because they don't even know small calories exist.
  • chrispk
    chrispk Posts: 1
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    Thank you SOOOOO much! I have been trying to figure this out for DAYS!:happy:
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
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    Yeah, you know how in science a capital letter is quite different than a small letter? That. The C means a different (simpler) unit of measure as compared to c.
  • Camera_BagintheUK
    Camera_BagintheUK Posts: 707 Member
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    I tried figuring this out as well and I found out there is no difference. Europeans use kCal and Americans just say cal. Most of the food I eat comes from Turkey and on the nutrition facts it says kcal so thats why I needed to know.

    Do we? I didn't know. In the UK we use plain ordinary calories but food labels carry both values. I've no idea what a kcal is just that if I'm in a hurry and don't read the label properly I scare myself witless sometimes.

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