The Confusion...
Now that you are serious about weight
loss and knowing that weight loss is simple math (energy in
minus energy out, if it's negative then you lose weight and if it's
positive then you gain weight) then you would buy this
heart rate monitor so that you know more accurately about how many
calorie that you have burnt.
(Not that I am recommending calorie
count method, no I don't, it's too much hassle and it's not accurate
anyway – yes, you can get result this way, but there are many
ways to do it simpler. However knowing exacly your exercise regime is
great for your “big picture” planning of your weight
loss)
Let's start...
Say you run on the thredmill for half
hour and the monitor approximates your burnt energy at 245 kcal (kilo
calorie), which is scientifically equal to 245,000 calorie. Well
done!
Wanting to relates what you have done
in the gym with the used to be your favorite snack, you look at the
Snickers bar at supermarket (No, not buying it...just have a look):
it says per serving it has 240 Calorie.
Wow!!! Is that mean if I eat 2 Snickers
Bar, it is just (2x240)/245000 = 0.2% of the exercise ?
Yes, your conclusion is not wrong
as is. The problem is in Health/Nutrition community, the term Calorie
is equal to 1 kilocalorie in scientific world.
So, the Snickers bar above is actually
worth 240,000 calorie despite the label. Now, that painfull 30
minutes run on treadmil equates this whole Snickers bar... Still
want to get the bar ?
In Summary:
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Health/Nutrition/Sport/Weight
Loss community
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Scientific/
School community
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1 “calorie” = 1 kilocalorie (kcal)
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1 calorie = 0.01 kilocalorie
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1000 “calorie” = 1000 kilocalorie
(kcal)
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1000 calorie = 1 kilocalorie (kcal)
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1 calorie = 4.2 kiloJoule (kJ)
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1 calorie = 4.2 Joule
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1 calorie = 4200 Joule
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1 calorie = 0.0042 kiloJoule (kJ)
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To differentiate “calorie”
used in scientific community and health/nutrition community, some
will use Calorie (with capital C = 4.2kJ) and calorie (with lower
case = 4.2J) – but there is no consistensy on this. So, better
way to remember is, if it is about exercise, food, nutrition,
weight loss, then the calorie is much bigger one. (because it equal
to 1000 real calorie)
In technical term, if one say “1
calorie”, its definition is: amount of heat that required to
increase 1 gram of water 1 centigrade higher.
Back to our example above, the
heart monitor will mean exactly the same if it says “cal” (instead of “kcal”)
.
So....
Having a background in engineering
(hence close to scientific) backgound, this confusion and misuse of
unit is quite confusing and almost become a frustration. (Why they
don't just say “kcal” – that's it, end of
problem)... Anyway...I will put a rant on other occasion :-)
Hope with this article, there will be
no more confusion about the understanding and the loose usage of
calorie, kilocalories, kiloJoule, etc.
Good luck with your weight loss
program!!
If you are still not sure with
program that you need to follow, try some of the sponsor link on this
page. (They are all covered with money back guarantee, so if it's not
for you you got your money back and you know it's not for you)
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