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In the context of their post, the parent (as I read it) meant the operational, nutritional definition of a calorie, not the thermodynamic one.

That is, when it's claimed on a label, does it mean "this is what you get from burning it in a lab" or "this is how much usable energy as ATP it becomes" or "this is the ignition delta between mouth and feces"? The thermodynamic definition doesn't tell us that.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atwater_system

protein is counted as 4 because it's harder to digest, even though it's more than 5 calories when burned

carbs and fats are easy to digest so they're counted as-is




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