I get that is has something to do with energy, but so do a lot of things.
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Calories are a measure of energy, kind of like how grams measure mass, inches measure distance, and liters measure volume.
You’ll usually see calories in the context of food, where it measures the amount of energy available in the food.
A calorie is indeed a measure of energy. It is the amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
When talking about calories in food, it refers to the amount of energy the body can generate by breaking down the chemicals in the food. Oh, and it also means *Kilo*calories (which are sometimes written as kcal or Calories with a capital C), ie if a food item has 250 Calories then it actually has 250,000 calories.
Calories are just food energy – how much energy do the organic compounds in our food have, which can be released through our body’s respiration processes. It’s also important to note that a “food calorie” and a “science calorie” are different, which can be confusing. In science, a calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 mL of water by 1°C. In food, we actually take 1000 calories (a kilocalorie) and call it a “calorie” for short.
So calories are quite simply the part of food that translates into energy – not into other types of nutrition. These mostly come from sugars, starches, fats, and proteins. Your body needs a certain amount of energy each day, just to continue breathing, keeping the heart pumping, all of the organs working. And on top of that, we need energy for any work we do on top of that. If you get more calories than you need in a day, the body will try to save the extra, mostly as fat. If you get fewer calories than you need in a day, your body will burn fat deposits instead, or if you don’t have enough fat, the body may actually have to start breaking down other parts of your body, just to keep the important stuff working – that’s what starvation is.
A calorie is the amount of energy needed to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (I think it’s specifically from 24-25 C). In foor, usually we refer to kcal as calories, but they’re kilocalories, which is the energy to heat 1 litre of water by 1 degree. So it’s just a measure of the energy stored in food (originally food calories were measured by burning them and recording the temp water was heated by over it). I know some people question the usefulness of calories as a unit for food because it’s scientific use (energy to heat water) and everyday use (content of food) seem too different
A unit that measures an amount of energy, just like the joule. Specifically, 1 calorie (as used in food labeling; there’s also the 1/1000 “small” calorie) is the amount of energy needed to heat 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius (=~ 4.19 kilojoules).
A ‘calorie’ is a outdated measure of heat energy used in science. Specifically, it was a the amount of energy required to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree C. However, in modern science they tend to have kicked calories to the curb in favor units called ‘joules’. 1 calorie ~ 4 joules .
In food and nutrition we still measure energy in ‘kilo-calories’, or 1,000 calories (like “kilometer’ vs meter) but we’ve dropped the kilo- and just call them “calories”. but 1 calorie for food = 1,000 “science calories”.
They measure food with heat-energy because a long time ago they determined how much energy food had by burning in a special chamber. The amount of heat the food put out as it burned = it’s calories and more calories = more energy. Which makes some sense, you’d expect a bucket of bacon fat to burn hotter and brighter than a bowl of mung bean sprouts.
They go better than this though and now they measure calories in food in terms of the fat, protein, carbohydrates, and alcohol it contains (the 4 compounds humans can digest for energy).
A calorie is the amount of energy it takes to heat 1 gram of water 1°C, or 4.18 Joules
When talking about food, we use Calories (capital c) also known as kilocalories, or 1000 calories. That’s enough energy to heat 1 kilogram of water by 1°C
In food, it’s just the energy available for the body to use, as simple as that. For most foods, you can calculate it yourself by burning it and measuring the change of temperature in some water placed above it. (We did this in my high school chemistry class)
A calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by one degree Celsius, 4.184 Joules. Food calories, or Calories (capitalized) are 1000 calories, or 1 kcal.
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