Just wanted to clarify that this may be a stupid question.
So assuming that 1 kCal = 1000 calories, if someone was eating at a maintenance level of 2500 kCal of day, how does cardio assist weight loss when you’re usually burning less than a single kCal?
Surely that would have minimal effect on any weight loss.
When we say “calories” when talking about nutrition, we actually mean kilocalories (kcal). This is because an actual calorie (cal) is 1000 times smaller and it’s just inconvenient to work with such big numbers like 31000 cal per cup of broccoli or 679000 cal in a steak.
One cal is how much energy is required to heat a gram of water by 1° Celsius. One kcal is how much energy is required to heat 1000 grams of water by 1° Celsius.
So, when you talk about burning calories, eating calories, calorie surplus, calorie deficit etc…. You mean kilocalories.
A calorie is the amount of energy required to increase 1 gram of water by 1° Celsius.
A Calorie is the amount of energy required to increase 1 kilogram of water by 1° Celsius.
A Calorie is equal to a kcal, or 1000 calories. This is the unit of measurement used in nutrition.
A calorie is most frequently used in chemistry and physics, and is not the measurement used in nutrition.
The little c calorie gets used improperly all the time here, but it’s generally accepted that in nutrition they refer to big C Calories.
You are partially correct. They used to denote 2 types of calories, large and small. Small calories are not typically used as a unit of measurement anymore. Instead, kCal and calories are used interchangeably and are the same. No need to multiply by 1000.
Everyone’s talking in kcal it’s just people are dumb, like to keep things simple and we’ve just gotten so use to reading it as cal when it’s always kcal. For some reason nutrition labels says calories and then kcal as units which is kilocalories. But with exercise it’s just cal
I think it depends on the tool you use for measuring the burnt calories. In Polar Flow they are in kCal value, my run today burnt 479 kCal. However, if I recall correctly, in Garmin’s Connect app they mention Calories, what is misleading and wrong because in reality that’s also kCal.
You mention cardio but building muscle actually increases overall calorie burn more. Muscle is metabolically active tissue so the more muscle you have the more calories you burn around the clock. Have you considered weight training?
It’s not a stupid question, and you’ve got some great answers.
You burn more than a single kcal when doing anything since your resting metabolic rate will burn around a single kcal every minute of the day - even when you’re sleeping.
If you consume 2500 kcal, around 1600 kcal will be used to help you breathe, think, pump blood, etc. You will have about 900 kcal left to move your body. That’s where your exercise comes in (cardio and any other type). If you miss the mark, you’ll store the excess energy. If you use more than 900 kcal, you’ll tap into your energy storage. Use exactly the difference and you’ll be at maintenance.
Remember that foods rarely provide the exact amount of Calories (kcal) they report (could be more, could be less) and the amount of Calories (kcal) you use is hard to pinpoint (muscle mass, age, biology, etc has a lot to do with it). Don’t get too hung up on energy exchange. Focus on the diet that provides the best micronutrition for your activity. The Calories will follow. You can’t out run a bad diet, so trying to get that down is futile without proper nutrition.
There’s no evidence that exercise has any effect on weight loss. But it is great for health, so do it. My conclusion (I’m in my 60s) is that is like William Golman’s quote about Hollywood “Nobody knows anything”. Good nutrition trials (thousands of people with all the food measured) are impossible. Switching to any reasonable diet works to some extent, because you cut out all the crap. Low fat, go for it. Low carb, go for it. Just don’t live on packaged crap and you’ll probably lose weight and for sure feel better.
Less than 1 kCal i so little it literally doesn’t matter. Not only do you make bigger errors during tracking, but bigger errors occur during testing of the foods for calories (as there is a certain allowed error), a bigger error is your exact assumption of how many calories you should be eating, etc etc etc.
0.5 kCal in a 2500 kCal diet is 0.02%. In no science is the allowed error that small.
Edit: when someone says “calorie” they mean kCal. Check any food label and you’ll se kJ/kCal.