Difference Between Calories and Fat Calories

Calorie and fat calorie are, despite the name, unrelated. Well, sort of. This is because people have this notion that just because they share a word they are now related to each other. In this case, it’s not entirely true. What are the differences between calories and fat calories? Read on.

Calorie

Calorie is actually a unit of measure for heat. What you may be thinking of when you see calorie is actually known as kilocalorie; meaning how much heat will it take to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree. You may see this word in various food products that you buy everyday. The recommended calorie intake of a normal person would be somewhere around 2000 calories.

Fat Calorie

Fat calorie is basically how much calorie you get from the fat in the food you eat. A gram of fat typically contains about 9 calories. So, for example, eating something with 10 grams of fat will give you about 90 calories. And most people’s diets contain too much fat to be considered healthy. Dieticians recommend only about 50-80grams of fat to be consumed everyday. However, not all fat intakes are bad for us.

Difference between Calories and Fat Calories

Calories are generally used to measure heat. However, they are also used to measure the energy needed by the body to function. Calories are found in anything we eat. Every food we consume has a set amount of calories. Unfortunately, some foods also contain fat; and we also get calories from fat. The sad thing is that the calories we get from fat are usually greater than the calories from other components of foods. The only difference about calories and fat calories is where they are coming from. Calories encompass all energy we get from everything we eat while fat calories only count those calories we get from fat.

Calories and fat calories are somewhat unrelated terms. Their only common ground is their usage in food. Calorie is a more general term compared to fat calories.