What Are Calories? What Is A Calorie?

If we consume just the amount of calories our body needs each day, every day, we will probably enjoy happy and healthy lives. If our calorie consumption is too low or too high, we will eventually experience health complications.

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From Medical News Today …..

A calorie is a unit of energy. In nutrition and everyday language, calories refer to energy consumption through eating and drinking and energy usage through physical activity. For example, an apple may have 80 calories, while a 1 mile walk may use up about 100 calories.

There are two types of calories:

A small calorie (sympbol: cal) – 1 cal is the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius.

A large calorie (symbol: Cal, kcal) – 1 Cal is the amount of energy required to raise one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius.

1 large calorie (1 kcal) = 1,000 small calories.

Most people associate calories just with food and drink, but anything that contains energy has calories. One ton of coal contains the equivalent in energy of 7,004,684,512 calories.

The terms large calorie and small calorie…

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