What is kilocalorie (dietary)?

A kilocalorie, written as Calorie with a capital C in nutrition contexts, is a unit of energy equal to 1,000 thermochemical calories. It is the standard unit used to express the energy content of food on nutrition labels globally.

What is calorie (thermochemical)?

The thermochemical calorie is a unit of energy equal to approximately 4.184 joules. It is used in chemistry and physics to express small heat quantities, particularly in thermochemical experiments.

Worked examples

1 kilocalorie (dietary) = 1,000 calorie (thermochemical)

1 calorie (thermochemical) = 4.184 joule

More Energy conversions

• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to joule
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to kilojoule
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to kilowatt hour
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to calorie (thermochemical)
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to watt hour
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to megajoule
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to electronvolt
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to British thermal unit
• Convert kilocalorie (dietary) to therm (US)

Assumption: calorie means thermochemical calorie, and therm means US therm.