Abstract
As a personal metric in contemporary (ac)counting practices to do with eating, health and exercise, the calorie is ubiquitous. It plays a significant part in what has come to be called the ‘Quantified Self Movement’. As it is used in contemporary quantification practices, the calorie carries the traces of its conditions of production in a previous era, when energy and efficiency were central matters of concern. This article explores calorie-counting practices and en route explains what it entails to do so with a praxiographical approach.
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Notes
- 1.
I thank my student Lauren Rowse for directing me to the website and enlightening conversations about quantifying the self.
- 2.
quantifiedself.com, April 2015.
- 3.
- 4.
Although the difference between the signs is subtle, they perform this difference reliably. However, this reliability is connected to practice: only expert sign readers know instantly that the calories in the table vary not only in value but also in ‘nature’.
- 5.
The adjudication of what constitutes good food is, in itself, a matter of multiplicities. Does ‘good’ refer to heath, sustainability or taste? Is how I define ‘good’ the same as what a nutritional consultant takes for granted? Is what is good for me good for you?
- 6.
All accessed April, 2015.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
For the historical turn to double-entry bookkeeping and its moral implications, see Poovey (1998).
- 10.
For an eloquent critique of social constructionism, see Hacking (2000).
- 11.
See Latour and Woolgar (1986).
- 12.
http://www.mapmyride.com/improve/calorie_calculator; accessed 1 May 2015.
- 13.
Gender is a default category in determining calorie needs. Elsewhere, Joseph Dumit and I have argued that calories not only depend on gender but also produce it. For a detailed case study, see Dumit and de Laet (2014).
- 14.
https://help.fitbit.com/articles, accessed 1 May 2015.
- 15.
- 16.
For more on the relationship of information, dieting and healthy eating, see Mol (2013).
- 17.
In true dialectic fashion, I suggest that even if one refuses to count calories, one’s food practices are informed by the knowing of the calorie count. The calorie is one of those knowings that may be neutralised, incorporated, rejected or observed—but this cannot be undone.
- 18.
‘To move’ has to be taken broadly here: from the moves the body makes to eat and digest, to the moves the brain makes as it responds to stimuli and the moves of a cell as it grows, groups with others or fends off intruders. See Martin (1995) for what remains a classic analysis of the metaphors we use in explaining the realities of bodily movements.
- 19.
Note that the terms one uses to describe food and its effects are full of value and judgment. Who would not agree that fat is ‘bad’ for you, although strictly speaking, this is not entirely true. Who would not choose a ‘balanced’ blood sugar level over an ‘unbalanced’ one?
- 20.
See also E. Vogel, R. Ibanez Martin & M. de Laet ‘What does it mean to eat well?’ In preparation.
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de Laet, M. (2017). Personal Metrics: Methodological Considerations of a Praxiographical Approach. In: Jonas, M., Littig, B., Wroblewski, A. (eds) Methodological Reflections on Practice Oriented Theories. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52897-7_8
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