Food, calorie and delivery glossary
Plain definitions of the words you run into when you count calories, read a nutrition guide or order takeout. Each term has a real menu example and links to the tools and guides that use it.
Calories and nutrients
- Calorie A calorie is a unit of energy.
- Macronutrients (macros) Macronutrients, or macros, are the three nutrients that give food most of its calories: protein, carbohydrates and fat.
- Protein Protein is a macronutrient your body uses to build and repair muscle and other tissue.
- Carbohydrates (carbs) Carbohydrates, or carbs, are a macronutrient found in bread, rice, pasta, fruit, sugar and vegetables.
- Fat Fat is a macronutrient with 9 calories per gram, more than twice protein or carbs.
- Fibre (fiber) Fibre is the part of plant foods your body can't fully digest.
- Sodium Sodium is a mineral, mostly from salt, that restaurant food tends to have a lot of.
- Saturated fat Saturated fat is a type of fat found mostly in meat, cheese, butter, cream and coconut and palm oils.
- Serving size A serving size is the amount of food the nutrition numbers are for.
- Protein per calorie Protein per calorie is how much protein a food gives you for its calories, usually written as grams of protein per 100 calories.
Goals and eating styles
- BMR (basal metabolic rate) BMR, or basal metabolic rate, is the energy your body uses at complete rest just to keep you alive.
- TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure, is the number of calories you burn in a day, including rest, movement, exercise and digestion.
- Calorie deficit A calorie deficit means eating fewer calories than your body burns, so it uses stored energy and you lose weight over time.
- Calorie surplus A calorie surplus means eating more calories than your body burns.
- Counting macros Counting macros means tracking how many grams of protein, carbs and fat you eat, not just calories.
- Keto (ketogenic diet) Keto, short for the ketogenic diet, is a very low-carb, high-fat way of eating.
- Intermittent fasting Intermittent fasting means eating only during set hours or days.
Ordering and delivery
- Nutrition guide (restaurant) A restaurant nutrition guide is a chain's official list of calories and nutrients for its menu, usually a PDF or a page on its website.
- Calorie labelling (menu labelling) Calorie labelling is a rule that restaurants show calories on their menus.
- Calorie tracker (calorie counting app) A calorie tracker is an app where you log what you eat to keep a running total of calories and usually macros.
- Food delivery app A food delivery app is a marketplace where you order from restaurants and a courier brings the food.
- Delivery fee A delivery fee is what a delivery app charges to bring your order.
- Service fee A service fee is a charge a delivery app adds to your order on top of the delivery fee.
- Delivery membership A delivery membership is a monthly subscription that removes or lowers delivery app fees.