How are calories worked out?
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timeforwork
Posts: 114 Member
Just wondering how the amount of calories per piece of food is worked out? I don't mean this in a diet related way but more like a mad scientist in a lab experimenting type thing! Anyone know as Google tends to try to send you to calorie counting pages and I got fed up seeing debates about how many calories per egg ( must be a very common search!) thanks all in advance x
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I don't know, but that is a very interesting question!0
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I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the food is burned and the resulting heat and light energy is recorded as a measure of calories.1
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I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the food is burned and the resulting heat and light energy is recorded as a measure of calories.
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timeforwork wrote: »Just wondering how the amount of calories per piece of food is worked out? I don't mean this in a diet related way but more like a mad scientist in a lab experimenting type thing! Anyone know as Google tends to try to send you to calorie counting pages and I got fed up seeing debates about how many calories per egg ( must be a very common search!) thanks all in advance x
They use a bomb calorimeter which basically burns the food to allow them to calculate the energy output.1 -
trigden1991 wrote: »timeforwork wrote: »Just wondering how the amount of calories per piece of food is worked out? I don't mean this in a diet related way but more like a mad scientist in a lab experimenting type thing! Anyone know as Google tends to try to send you to calorie counting pages and I got fed up seeing debates about how many calories per egg ( must be a very common search!) thanks all in advance x
They use a bomb calorimeter which basically burns the food to allow them to calculate the energy output.
What he said. We learned about it in biology in high school. It was always I weird to me that someone thought of it. Like hey lets burn some food and see if it can affect out weigh loss or gain. Lol.0 -
I've taught general chemistry university students how to measure this in a low-tech setting.
You burn a piece of food under a test tube full of water and measure the degrees of temperature change in the water, which correlates mathematically to the calories the piece of food contained.2 -
Thanks all x nice to know a bit about the " c" word thats slowly becoming a part of my life! Xx0
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