So, I'm trying to lose a few pounds (a stone or so for you Brits, not money) and was wondering what was a calorie that I see on those labels all the time. I knew that a calorie was a unit of energy so with a little searching I found a handy California Energy Commission web page What is Energy?
The California Energy Commission web page says a piece of buttered toast contains about 315 kilojoules (315,000 joules, or 75.28 food calories) of energy. With that energy the web page says you could:
- Jog for 6 minutes
- Bicycle for 10 minutes
- Walk briskly for 15 minutes
- Sleep for 1-1/2 hours
- Run a car for 7 seconds at 80 kilometers per hour (about 50 miles per hour)
- Light a 60-watt light bulb for 1-1/2 hours
- Or lift that 5 lb (2.26 kg) sack of sugar from the floor to the counter 21,000 times!
I can't confirm or explain their numbers. I did the metric-English conversions for this post, but I've heard before that running a hour is about 700-800 calories burned, so I suspect they are in the ball park (on the pitch). I suspect 75 calories is low for a piece of butter toast, but 315K joules is 75.28 kilo-calories (aka food calories).
I think on food labels they should put "Jog 20 minutes after eating this" or other depressing (but meaningful) warnings on the labels.
For me? What will I do for mac & cheese? I'll just take a 5 hour nap.
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