Converting an infographic to information: Calorie Chart

Inspired by a challenge from Nathan Yau at FlowingData.com, Jon Pelter takes this pretty, but hard-to-read infographic (click to enlarge):

And converts it into a useful tool for looking up the amount of exercise required to work off certain foods (click to enlarge):

It's amazing how a simple change in axes can make a chart much easier to interpret. (And as an added bonus, Jon's chart addresses one of my pet peeves: it's in PNG format. The JPG format of the original is almost always a poor choice for charts.)

PTS Blog: Chart Busters Calorie Chart

Comments

[GB]

That second chart is a perfect candidate for being turned into a three-scale nomogram (like some of the ones at http://myreckonings.com/wordpress/2008/01/09/the-art-of-nomography-i-geometric-design/ )

[Ron D.]

A three-scale nomogram for this graphic provides a very readable and usable format --- see http://www.myreckonings.com/Pynomo/CaloriesIntakeAndOuttake.pdf . To use a nomogram you place a straightedge across values on any two of the scales to intersect the corresponding value on the third scale. The scales also make it easy to mix exercise types and times. Consider working off a 920 Calorie Big Mac and Fries. If a man were to run for 50 minutes, the nomogram shows 565 Calories were expended; then he could continue walking 47 minutes to work off the extra 355 Calories. (This nomogram was created with the Pynomo software at http://www.pynomo.org)