Let's talk about calories

Until quite recently, not many of us paid attention to those Kilo Joules or Calories… Not sure if this new interest came as a free bonus with the first “Biggest Looser” Series…

Calorie count is purely and simply science. It indicates the amount of energy that our body will produce from the food consumed. The 2 main units are Kilo joules (symbol Kj) and (large) Calories (symbol  Cal or Kcal), and 1Cal=4.2 Kj. According to Nutrition Australia, the recommended daily intake of energy is 11000 Kj (2620 Cal) for a man and 9500 Kj (2261 Cal) for a woman. These are obviously just averages. The theory is : if your energy intake equals your the amount of energy your body consumes through physical activity, you will maintain your body weight.

The most energetic nutrients are fat (about 37 Kj or 8.8 Cal  per Gram), protein (about 17 Kj or 4 Cal  per Gram) and carbohydrate (about 16 Kj or 3.8 Cal  per Gram). Alchool is pretty high in energy too (27 Kj or 6.4 Cal per Gram). To put things in perspective

• 100 gram of Water= 0 Kj
•  100 gram of tomato = 50 Kj
• 100 gram of Brocoli= 100 Kj
• 2 large fried Eggs= 1100 Kj
• 3 rashers of fried bacon (about 100 Gram) provide 1590 Kj
• 100 gram of Potato Crisps= 2100 Kj
• 1 XXXX Gold Stubby = 453 Kj

Let’s say you just ate a bag of crisps (185 grams=3885 Kj) , to burn it all and prevent the change of stocking some of the energy (as fat tissues) it will take you on average :

• Between 5.5 and 3.8 hours of gardening, playing pool or slow walking
• Between 3.7 and 2.7 hours of playing golf or moderate walking
• Between 2.7 and 1.6 hours of jogging or swimming
• Between 2.15 and 1.6 hours of squash of cycling around Mount Cootha

Let’s also remember that these are just average, and that each and everyone of us will have a different result.