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The unit is most commonly used to express food energy, namely the specific energy (energy per mass) of metabolizing different types of food. For example, fat (triglyceride lipids) contains 9 kilocalories per gram (kcal/g), while carbohydrates (sugar and starch) and protein contain approximately 4 kcal/g. [29] Alcohol in food contains 7 kcal/g. [30]
A kilocalorie is the equivalent of 1000 calories or one dietary Calorie, which contains 4184 joules of energy.The notion that "a calorie is a calorie" is related to the idea that weight maintenance is a result of equalizing calorie input and calorie output, [4] and may lead to the practice of calorie restriction.
Fat has a food energy content of 38 kilojoules per gram (9 kilocalories per gram) proteins and carbohydrates 17 kJ/g (4 kcal/g). [ 2 ] Water makes up a large proportion of the total mass ingested as part of a normal diet but it does not provide any nutritional value.
A nutritional Calorie is equivalent to a thousand chemical or thermodynamic calories (abbreviated "cal" with a lower case "c") or one kilocalorie (kcal). Because food energy is commonly measured in Calories, the energy density of food is commonly called "caloric density". [7]
It can take up to 20 hours of little physical output (e.g., walking) to "burn off" 17,000 kJ (4,000 kcal) [17] more than a body would otherwise consume. For reference, each kilogram of body fat is roughly equivalent to 32,300 kilojoules of food energy (i.e., 3,500 kilocalories per pound or 7,700 kilocalories per kilogram). [18]
All macronutrients except water are required by the body for energy, however, this is not their sole physiological function. The energy provided by macronutrients in food is measured in kilocalories, usually called Calories, where 1 Calorie is the amount of energy required to raise 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. [27]
The dietary energy supply is the food available for human consumption, usually expressed in kilocalories or kilojoules per person per day. It gives an overestimate of the total amount of food consumed as it reflects both food consumed and food wasted. [1]
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