cal ‧ o ‧ rie /ˈkæləri/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1800-1900 ; Language: French ; Origin: Latin calor 'heat' ]
1 . a unit for measuring the amount of ↑ energy that food will produce:
A potato has about 90 calories.
a calorie-controlled diet
low-calorie/high-calorie
a low-calorie snack
I need to burn off a few calories (=lose some weight by exercising) .
My wife convinced me to finally start counting calories (=control my weight by being careful about what I eat) .
2 . technical the amount of heat that is needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. It is used as a unit for measuring energy.
—caloric /kəˈlɒrɪk, ˈkælərɪk $ kəˈlɔːrɪk/ adjective
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COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ something has/contains calories
These yoghurts have approximately 90 calories per pot.
▪ count calories (=control your weight by eating fewer calories)
Women tend to count calories more than men.
▪ burn (up/off) calories (=use up the calories you have eaten)
Even walking will help you to burn up calories.
■ adjectives
▪ low-calorie
She's on a low-calorie diet at the moment.
▪ high-calorie
High-calorie foods are usually fatty.
▪ be high/low in calories (=contain a lot of/few calories)
Sweets and chocolates are very high in calories.
▪ somebody's daily calories (=that someone eats every day)
Americans get 22% of their daily calories from snacks.
▪ empty calories (=that do not contain anything good for your body)
Sugary drinks are full of empty calories.
■ calorie + NOUN
▪ calorie intake (=the amount of calories someone eats)
There are several ways you can reduce your calorie intake.
▪ calorie content
Pizzas have a very high calorie content.