The History Of Calorie Counting

The much-maligned calorie, ah. It's likely that you've seen those annoying calorie counts on food labels, regardless of whether you've ever attempted to gain weight, reduce weight, or just feel comfortable eating junk food. You might be shocked to hear that, despite how commonplace counting calories is in modern culture, the practice itself is relatively new, as is the notion of calculating calories for health reasons.

We'll examine who created the calorie, how it gained popularity, and how it eventually became the cornerstone of bodybuilding regimens in today's post.

Who Invented the Calorie?

While some claim that the term "calorie" was first used by Favre and Silbermann in 1852, more recent research on the subject reveals a different picture. It is reported that French physicist and chemist Nicholas Clément first used the term "calorie" in his lectures on heat engines to his students in Paris between 1819 and 1824. His newly coined term, "calorie," quickly gained popularity and was included in Bescherelle's Dictionnaire National by 1845.

After translations of Adolphe Ganot's French physics textbook, which defined a calorie as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water from 0 to 1°C, the term had entered common usage by the 1860s. The word was originally made known to the American public in the 1880s by Edward Atkinson, who did so in 1886. Tutor Wilbur.

When did bodybuilders start tracking calories, and how did they do it?

Given that calorie counting became a recognized means of dieting in the 1910s, it’s remarkable to think that bodybuilders took to it so late.

When we read the dietary advice of men like Eugen Sandow or George Hackenschmidt, we find no mention of calories. What we do find is a strong emphasis on eating natural, unprocessed foods. Fast forward even to the likes of Reg Park and John Grimek, and the advice stays the same. To build muscle, you were encouraged to eat more. To lean out, you had to eat less and perform more volume in your workouts.

Heck, even Arnold, Zane, and co. appeared to function without the need to count calories. Ric Drasin has routinely discussed the ketogenic diets favored by ‘Golden Age’ bodybuilders, suggesting that the elite bodybuilders of the 1970s took a drastically different approach to food than today’s lot.

Despite this, we have some evidence of calorie counting creeping in during this time. As part of his participation in Arthur Jones’ infamous ‘Colorado Experiment’, Casey Viator consumed 800 calories a day to bring himself down to an emaciated 168 lbs. During the 28-day experiment, he upped his caloric intake to roughly 5,000 calories a day. Something that may explain his alleged 45-pound weight gain in 28 days  By the 1979 Olympia, Mike Mentzer, another Jones’ disciple, was using calorie counting to manipulate his physique. As an interesting side note, the following Mentzer quote is often taken to justify that anything goes if it fits your macros approach’.