KCAL and CALORIES

[yoshiiscool2002]

IS kcal the same thing as the calories in the nutrional facts in the food products?

[MainMor]

Ok I saw this definition... I do not know what it means exactly, but it looks like Calorie and KCal (kilocalorie) is the same exact thing.

Calorie
C.g.s. unit of heat, now replaced by the joule (one calorie is approximately 4.2 joules). It is the heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1°C. In dietetics, the Calorie or kilocalorie is equal to 1,000 calories.

The kilocalorie measures the energy value of food in terms of its heat output: 28 g/1 oz of protein yields 120 kilocalories, of carbohydrate 110, of fat 270, and of alcohol 200.

[LadyLuck]

The above reply is useful, but there's more to the story:

Yes, the "calories" on food packages are actually kilocalories or "kcal" as you might've seen, so one kilocalorie (or one "calorie" off say, a pop-tarts package) is enough energy to raise 1,000 grams of water one degree celsius. Or one gram 1,000 degrees, or any combination thereof.

**this brings up the interesting scientific point that besides all of the other benefits of keeping hydrated, drinking water lowers your body's overall temperature, requiring more heat to get it warm/hot again, and that heat comes from burning calories, and burning calories, as we all know, is how we get the pounds off.**

Just don't get too crazy and try to drink too much water without enough electrolytes (this can kill you), or drinking ridiculously cold water (like 1 degree above freezing) in hopes of magnifying the calorie-consuming effect because your body will be shocked and make you throw up if you get all hot doing DDR and then toss down freezing water. The recommended 8-10 glasses a day, at a reasonably cool temperature is best.

[MainMor]

Hey I appreciate you letting us in on this LadyLuck...

I was pretty much confused over the statement I had posted and my searches did not lead anywhere to get clarity.

[FaerieLink3]

I thought this was a really good post.. so i stickied it!!

This was a question i had for a long long time!!

Thanks for the great replies you guys!!

[fierala]

8 to 10 8oz glasses of water a day could be too much too. There's been lots of research about whether it's necessary...I posted the first link that came up in Google:

www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/14/water_glasses030314

[iamjay]

wow what stoked me about your post was this
"broccoli is about 90 per cent water"
That's Crazy
more broccoli for me considering it's my fav. veggie. (only if it's got melted cheese on it which consits of 0.5 carbs)

[godspeed]

and obscene amounts of fat. garlic is by far the better companion for the broccoli, in my opinion. [which happen to be the two greatest inventions ever, in my opinion].

sorry for the rant. atkins makes me angry.

[godspeed]

opinions: a two for one sale!

_{i shouldn't post so late}

[iamjay]

yes that's true it is loaded with fat but that fat quickly goes thru your body and doesn't attack to your body. But carbs attach to your body and stays there until u work it off then you start losing fat

[abrannan]

iamjay said:

yes that's true it is loaded with fat but that fat quickly goes thru your body and doesn't attack to your body. But carbs attach to your body and stays there until u work it off then you start losing fat

No, go back and read your Atkin's book again. "Fat" and "carbs" is too simple a model. For example, sugar is a carbohydrate, fiber is also a carbohydrate. Is Fiber as bad for you as sugar is?

The problem with sugars (not all carbs) is that they get broken down and released into the bloodstream too quickly. This causes an insulin response, and insulin is a hormone that promotes conversion of excess calories to fat. If you eat nothing but fat, you'll still have a calorie excess and you'll still gain weight. Fiber is a bit different, because our bodies aren't able to process fiber, and we pass it as waste, which makes it essential for cleaning out your colon.

Saying cheese is bad because of the fat is also too simple of a model. Just as there are good and bad carbs, there are good and bad fats. The real killer about cheese is the cholesterol. But there's good and bad cholesterol, too.

The point I'm trying to make is that humans are built to process a lot of different things, and we need all of those things to function properly. Moderation is the key. Don't cut anything completely out of your diet, and don't overdo it on anything either.

[iamjay]

tell that to all the people who have lost wieght just by eating chicken, salad, meat, eggs, pork rinds, cheese, and other great low carb products. They lose at least 5pounds the first week (the only problem is that it's mostly water wieght )

[abrannan]

iamjay said:

tell that to all the people who have lost wieght just by eating chicken, salad, meat, eggs, pork rinds, cheese, and other great low carb products. They lose at least 5pounds the first week (the only problem is that it's mostly water wieght )

And how may calories are they eating? How (if you'll excuse the indelicacy) constipated are they? How bad do they smell when their body goes into ketosis? What is their Cholesterol? What happens after they drop those 5 pounds in the first week? It's easy to drop the first 20 pounds.

I'm not saying Atkin's won't lose you weight, and I'm not saying you need to load up on carbs. We went through this cycle 20+ years ago, but replace carbs with fat. Everybody was coming out with low-fat products, because fat was the great devil. To make up for the flavor, they added sugars. Now sugar is the great devil, and we're replacing sugar with sugar alcohols (Because Atkin's does the whole "net carbs" thing, and food manufacturers are playing lose with the definitions). 20 years from now, they'll find out what the sugar alcohols have been doing to our bodies, and we'll have a new great devil.

[JiNN]

Not Sure if everyone already knows this...but i read there are 3,500 kcal in a pound... just thought it'd help.

[Varg]

Is DDR actually reliable when counting calories? It seems a little too easy to burn calories on it.

[abrannan]

It's not really reliable. I can stand on my pad and swing my arms around like a madman, burning calories all day, but DDR will say I've burned 0. You're better off going off of heart rate (70% of max for 30-45 minutes per day) to make sure you're doing enough.

[razordu30]

abrannan,

I very much agree about the Atkins thing. I'm not as dismissive about simplifying things as fat and carbs, but if the situation warrants it I do tend to differentiate between complex carbs and fat from Omega-3 fats.

I won't even go into how not eating carbs can cause ketosis, but I will say Americans have been eating the same amount of carbs since the early 1900s, yet obesity has gone up. If carbs were the problem, consuming the same level for a hundred years wouldn't do anything. But you know what has gone up? The amount of fats Americans consume.

It irritates me. This doesn't mean I don't avoid complex carbs after 6:00pm, but I'm very much an advocate against cutting out carbs or even making an extra effort to lower its intake. It's a friggen' witch hunt, I say.

1 pound of body fat = 3,500 Calories
To burn 1 pound fat you must have a deficit of = 3,500 Calories, either through diet or exercise

Sorry for ranting...it's just after working at a restaurant for so long and hearing, "Double cheeseburger, hold the BREAD" so often just pisses me off.

- Ramon
/gets off soapbox

PS - People who lost weight while on Atkins didn't lose it because they cut carbs out, it's because they ate more fruits and vegetables as opposed to the junk they were probably eating before.

[abrannan]

VirtualRamon said:

But you know what has gone up? The amount of fats Americans consume.

More so than even fat, it's the total number of calories. It's the portion sizes, created as a backlash to the nouveaux cuisine trend. It's the "Extra Value" your meal has by saving you 10 cents on that extra 500 calories worth of french fries you just added to your meal. It's the suggestion that you can't possibly be satisfied unless you have "super sized" your "extra Value" meal. Or that your children need a "big Kids" meal.

Of course fat has 9 calories per gram, so you can pack more calories into a smaller package of fat than you can into an equivalent package of carb or protein (4 calories/gram each).

[DDRNewbie]

I figured I'd put my 2 cents worth in:

Godspeed--- I too am pretty much fed up with the whole atkins thing. My uncle went on that and, sure, he lost weight. He also happens to be a guy who loves a good steak, regardless of whether its part of a diet or not. I can't imagine what it's doing to his arteries and such...nevermind the fact that every three months or so he breaks down, has a piece of pie and the whole freaking diet collapses (rinse and repeat).

It's become pretty funny...to me at least. For the first few weeks after I heard about it, I honestly thought that the South Beach Diet was a joke. I mean...eating only fish? come on! Next there will be the Fungo-licious Diet: spore-based bottom dwellers are your friends! Every one of them comes out with something thats either your one cardinal sin or your one saving virtue, as Abrannan said.

Anyways, for what it's worth, I've come across this:

Basically, when a person moves / exercises / *exists*...they burn calories for energy. Everyone learned in elementary school that calories come from fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Now, when you burn calories.....a certain number is taken from each group. In terms of fats and carbs, the article I saw gave the example of 220 calories being burned in an hour.....110 of which were from carbohydrates......and 110 that were from fats.

But people think that fats are the ONLY thing that make those love handles stick out...so they figure "hey, I'll stop eating carbs, and work harder so that more fat calories are burned!" Apparently, though, that doesnt work. The article I read said that if you increased your workload....say to 330 in an hour instead of 220......you still burned 110 calories of fat....and the other 220 were made up from carbohydrates. What happens if you dont have the 220 carbs to use? Well, things (like your muscles) start being broken down to make up the difference, and meanwhile you start feeling wore out......the fat stays the same.

What I'm not sure people think about is how unstable we would be if you could really just cut out your carbs and burn fat directly as fast as you wanted.....your body fat content would fly right out of control. It would be like detonating your car's gas tank all at once. You dont want that, do you? Of course not....you want the fuel to be burned at a relatively steady rate, faster when needed and slower when at rest. Thats how the fats work. When you have nothing else....they're there to be burned at a slow and steady rate.

If you want to maintain your energy *and* your muscles....you're gonna need some carbs to cover immediate use.

(oh, and for those of us guys who like to "pose" for the ladies.....the carbs are what fill your biceps (all muscles, really) and make them look like anvils [as the cartoons go] instead of globs of jello)

No matter what diet youre on, eventually youre gonna eat one of those "forbidden foods" and its gonna come crumbling down. Eat normal food and exercise more....thats all you need to do to lose weight.

DDR Newbie

[abrannan]

Again, I say check your research. South Beach is not eating only fish. South Beach's prime directive is to stay clear of processed carbs and saturated fats. White flour, white sugar, pasta are out, but you can eat whole wheat. Fatty meat is out, but you can eat lean steaks, though chicken is better. The other principle is that you aren't sunk if you cheat here and there, you just have to cut back a little further for a little while for every time you cheat.

I'd never heard the bit about calories the you burn coming from a particular food type before, where'd you get that info?