Calories Vs Kcals

**Blade15** · 03-30-2012, 07:15 PM

Hi everyone...

I am little confused about the difference between cals and kcals..
On food labels, if it says 1 serving = 30 gms = 250 calories then it means 300 kcals? or just 300 cals..??

I used to think that 1 Kcal = 1000 calories
1 Calorie = 1000 calories

Is that right??? or i was wrong..???

And i am confused on the food label.. what they really means?? ( calories or Kcals??)

Help appreciated.... thanks in advance...
sorry for my bad english...

**phoenix44** · 03-30-2012, 07:30 PM

I'm pretty sure a Kcal is just a calorie.
Calorie is just shortened from Kcal

**Blade15** · 03-30-2012, 07:35 PM

**Byakko** · 03-30-2012, 07:38 PM

You're correct, 1 kcal = 1000 calories = 1 Calorie, by convention (the capital C is used to distinguish the large/dietary calorie from the small/gram calorie). However, this convention isn't consistently followed. On food labels I doubt anyone would report anything other than the large/dietary calorie = kcal. 250 kcal/30 gm however is rather high, close to pure fat in energy density.

**jpowell** · 03-30-2012, 07:52 PM

hold on...lol now I'm lost....
how can 1000 calories= 1 Calorie?
or as byakko mentioned...you have to pay attention to the capital C?

**Sgt. Hartman** · 03-30-2012, 08:32 PM

Cal and kcal are the same thing.

The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867.[1] In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule. However, in many countries it remains in common use as a unit of food energy.
Definitions of a calorie fall into two classes:

The small calorie or gram calorie (symbol: cal)[2] approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 °C. This is about 4.2 joules.
The large calorie, kilogram calorie, dietary calorie, or food calorie (symbol: Cal)[2] approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 °C. This is exactly 1,000 small calories or about 4.2 kilojoules. It is also called the nutritionist's calorie.
In an attempt to avoid confusion, the large calorie is sometimes written as Calorie (with a capital C). This convention, however, is not always followed, and not explained to the average person clearly (and is sometimes ambiguous, such as at the beginning of a sentence). Whether the large or small calorie is intended often must be inferred from context. When used in scientific contexts, the term calorie refers to the small calorie; it is often encountered in contexts such as bond and conformational energies in molecular modeling.[3]
The gram calorie, however, is too small a unit for use in nutritional contexts. Instead, the kilocalorie (symbol: kcal) or large calorie is used. In this context calorie and kilocalorie are equivalent.