# Pedometer says 669 KCALS What does that mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242 "2015-11-22T00:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/1 "2015-11-22T00:38:37Z")
My pedometer says 18,235 steps, 8 miles, 669 KCALS. What are KCALS? And how do they relate to calories burned? I’m a 165 lbs. if that info is needed. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/2 "2015-11-22T00:43:46Z")
Kilocalories is the true term for what we call calories. So you burned 699 calories. ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/3 "2015-11-22T00:47:20Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Kilocalories is the true term for what we call calories. > > So you burned 699 calories. Nitpick: Calories 1 kilocalorie = 1,000 calories = 1 Calorie (capitalized) ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/4 "2015-11-22T01:02:15Z")
what they said. for whatever reason, what we list as “Calories,” other countries list as “kcals.” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/5 "2015-11-22T01:34:55Z")
The calorie, as a standard measure, is defined as the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. The energy value of food is estimated by burning it in a [calorimeter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorimeter) which measures the heat of reaction. Since virtually all foods yield results in thousands of (scientific) calories, their energy content is usually given in kilocalories, or Calories (large c). ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/6 "2015-11-22T05:01:20Z")
> [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](#): > > Nitpick: Calories > > 1 kilocalorie = 1,000 calories = 1 Calorie (capitalized) correct (or, Correct), but don’t Count on everyone Capitalizing the word Correctly or Consistently this way. For example, I just googled the words calories in various foods and, seeing over 4,800,000 hits, picked [this one](http://www.calorieking.com/) from the first results page. (It’s some kind of Commercial site selling “weight control tools” whatever that means.) A quick peek at a few pages shows “calories” (apparently referring to food Calories) all over the place. I assume this is pretty Common. ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/7 "2015-12-13T19:11:25Z")
Short answer: When talking about food, cal and kcal are the same thing. Energy is typically measured by how much it takes to raise the temperature of a certain amount of water by a certain amount. In Imperial units, the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one mass-pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit is called a **British Thermal Unit** ( **BTU** for short). In metric, it depends on whether you’re using the CGS system or the MKS system. The former uses centimeters and grams, while the latter uses meters and kilograms. In the CGS system, the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius is called a **gram calorie** , or just a calorie (always with a lower-case “c”), abbreviated **cal**. In the MKS system, the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius is called a **kilogram calorie** , or a Calorie (usually with a capital “C”) or a kilocalorie, abbreviated **kcal**. When you’re talking about food and dieting and exercise, they pretty much ALWAYS use kilogram calories. If you see the word “calorie” in this context, you can safely assume they are talking about kilogram calories (kcal) and not gram calories (cal). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/8 "2015-12-13T22:27:10Z")
Actually, in the CGS system that amount of energy is called “4.184e7 ergs”, and in the MKS system that amount of energy is called “4184 joules”. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/9 "2015-12-13T22:56:12Z")
Isn’t a kilocalory really 1024 calories? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/10 "2015-12-14T00:34:18Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Isn’t a kilocalory really 1024 calories? No. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pedometer-says-669-kcals-what-does-that-mean/738242/11 "2015-12-14T01:13:04Z")
That’s when you eat 1000 bytes of a food that are 1000 calories each byte. Or two bytes of it to the tenth power. Now it gets all screwed up if you actually are taking Bytes … and lawd knows what the result is if you take BYtes! 🙂