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You are here: Home / Science / How do we measure how many calories there are in food?

How do we measure how many calories there are in food?

July 26, 2020 by Karen Hill

To measure how many calories there are in food, we use a hot little device called a bomb calorimeter.

It burns foods and measures the difference between how much energy went in versus how much energy comes out.

Here’s where it gets confusing if you ever talk to a physicist about your weight loss program: What we call a “calorie” is actually equal to a thousand scientific calories, or a kilocalorie.

So to a scientist, a doughnut doesn’t actually have 235 calories, but 235 kilocalories (235,000 calories). You’d better start jogging.

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Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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