Caesar Salad Calories

December 6, 2008

The number of Caesar Salad Calories may vary quite a lot. The main problem is that the vegetables and sizes are not standard. The way people cook the chicken changes and the dressing used also influences the caesar salad calories.

All in all, the number of caesar salad calories may range from 200 calories to 600 calories!

In order for you to get a sense of the number of caesar salad calories we’ll use a known example: McDonald’s Caesar Salad. You don’t really have to eat it, but it can help you get an idea on the number of caesar salad calories you eat at other place or make for yourself.

The chicken is the ingridient that adds the most caesar salad calories. Without it the McDonald’s Caesar Salad has only around 90 calories. But the number of chicken calories changes according to the chicken part of the cooking style.  So adding grilled chicken adds 130 calories, but crispy chicken adds 240 calories.

So the total of caesar salad calories can add up to 220-330 calories (no dressing or croutons).

The single ingridient that might cost you those extra calories is the caesar salad dressing. What happens when you open a 2 fl oz packet of creamy caesar salad dressing? Well, take your caesar salad calories total and add 190 calories! You almost double the number of the caesar salad calories.

Croutons might also add extra calories: 120 for 1 oz. Your caesar salad calories can do without them indeed!

Chicken Calories

December 4, 2008

Chicken Calories

Chicken calories are easily added to most diets. So if you like chicken, this is your lucky day! Chicken calories are also a healthier choice than other types of meat. So both healthier and tasty, chicken calories are the way to go!

Chicken Calories – The Skin

The skin of a chicken is very high in fat and with the fat come more and more chicken calories.  If you are watching your weight, it is always a good recommendation to remove the skin and lower the amount of chicken calories you consume.

You realize how significant the skin (from a chicken calories point of view) when you read the numbers: 60 chicken calories difference in 3.5oz of chicken breast and 180 chicken calories difference in 3.5oz of chicken back! So off with the skin!

Chicken Calories – The Parts

Chicken parts can vary in all sorts of ways: size, meat vs bone content, fat and of course chicken calories. If you are looking for low chicken calories parts, recommended ones would be chicken breast, chicken drumstick or chicken thighs. You can see for yourself how less fat and less calories they have compared to other parts (for 3.5oz of chicken without/with skin):

• Chicken breast calories: 110/172 calories
• Chicken drumstick calories: 119/161 calories
• Chicken thigh calories: 119/211 calories
• Chicken wings calories: 126/222 calories
• Chicken back calories: 137/319 calories

Chicken Calories

Another good tip about lowering the chicken calories would be to avoid frying the chicken in oil. Stick to boiling or grilling and you’ll be just fine. Lucky for us, chicken can be tender and delicious and much as it can be low in chicken calories. Bon Appetite!

Calories in a Banana

November 30, 2008

Like other fruit, the question of calories in a banana is mainly answered by one word: sugar. Sugar is 35% of the banana’s weight and is responsible for more than 50% of the calories in a banana. So let’s check out the actual calories in a banana numbers:

• Small banana (101 gr, 6-7″): 90 calories in a banana
• Medium banana (118 gr, 7-8″): 105 calories in a banana
• Large banana (136 gr, 8-9″): 121 calories in a banana

Please bare in mind we are talking about fresh and raw bananas. The calories in a banana can change if you cook, fry or dry the banana. You would also loose all sorts of healthy nutrients. So as a general rule, it is preferred to eat the banana raw. Let’s compare for example the calories in a banana vs the calories in banana chips:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) fresh and raw banana:89 calories
• 100 gr (3.5 oz) dry banana chips: 519 calories

One of the reasons for this huge difference in the calories in a banana is water. In a fresh banana 25% is actaully water, and in dry banana there’s is very little water.

It is also good to remember that besides the calories in a banana, the banana also a good source of vitamin C. A small banana consists of 15% of the recommended intake for adults, and a large banana has upto 20%.

Cucumber Calories

November 25, 2008

Surprisingly enough, cucumbers are actually considered fruit! That means that cucumber calories, like fruit calories are influenced by the amount of sugar in the cucumber. But unlike other fruit, the amount of sugar is not very high and the sugar counts for less than half of the cucumber calories.

Cucumber Calories (with peel)

• 100gr (3.5oz) - 15 calories
• 1 large cucumber (8-1/4″, 301gr) - 45 calories

Cucumber Calories (peeled)

• 100gr (3.5oz) - 12 calories
• 1 small cucumber (6-3/8″, 158gr) - 19 calories
• 1 medium cucumber (201gr) - 24 calories
• 1 large cucumber (8-1/4″, 280gr) - 34 calories

Cucumber Calories - Tips

You should know that the peel is considered healty for you. So besides envaluating the cucumber calories, you should consider other nutrients as well.

Another point you should take in account is that we are talking about fresh and raw cucumber calories. Any cooking or pickling changes the nutrition values and the cucumber calories count. Sour pickled cucumber may have less calories and sweet pickled cucumber may have more than the raw cucumber calories, so you need to check whatever you eat.

Calories in an Egg

October 24, 2008

Most of us have eaten eggs all our lives. But we didn’t always pay attention to the calories in an egg. And especially the difference between the calories in an egg white and the calories in an egg yolk. Let’s have a look at the actual calories numbers:

• calories in an egg white (large egg)- 16 calories (protein: 3.60gr, fat: 0.06gr)
• calories in an egg yolk (large egg) - 54 calories (protein: 2.70gr, fat: 4.51gr)

As you can see, it is the fat content that is responsible for the big difference.

But assuming you eat the egg as a whole (white and yolk), the calories in an egg can still differ according to the size of the egg:

• 1 small egg (fresh, 38 gr) - 54 calories
• 1 medium egg (fresh, 44 gr) - 63 calories
• 1 large egg (fresh, 50 gr) - 72 calories
• 1 extra large egg (fresh, 56 gr) - 80 calories

Don’t forget that if you eat more than one egg, or you are trying to reach a weekly or monthly goal, the calories in an egg add up, so it is still important to track the size of the egg and its calories.

And last - the cooking method always affects the calorie content. And the calories in an egg is another example. There are 90 calories in an egg that was fried, compared with 78 calories in an egg that was hard boiled or 71 calories in an egg that was poached.

Calories in Grapes

October 14, 2008

Who doesn’t love grapes? I love them. But like other things I like to eat, there is always the question of the calories. In this case the calories in grapes. So how many calories do grapes have? Let’s see.

Surprisngly enough a single grapes has very few calories: only 3-4 calories.

But ask yourself: how many grapes to I eat in a sitting? Or let me rephrase that: how many calories in grapes am I eating at in one sitting?

So here’s some more figures about the calories in grapes that would help you out:

• A single grape: 3-4 calories
• 10 Grapes: 34 calories
• 1 oz of grapes: 20 calories
• 100gr (3.5 oz) of grapes: 70 calories
• 1 cup of grapes (150 gr): 105 calories

Now we all know that there are green grapes, red grapes, american style and european grapes, but there is hardly any difference in the calories in these grapes. So don’t bother checking out specific nutrition data about the grapes varieties. Using the above calories in grapes numbers is a very good estimate.

If you are wondering where do the calories in grapes come from, here’s your answer: like other fruit most of the grape calories come from sugar. Sweet but with calories.

Although grapes can be good for your health, especially if you drink a bit of red wine here and there (drink wisely!), don’t mix the calories in grapes with calories in wine. It is different.

Calories in Strawberries

October 3, 2008

Surprisingly enough the calories in starwberries are not extremely high. One could expect this sweet and juicy fruit to be very high in sugar and calories, but the truth is that the amount of calories in strawberries are lower than a few other types of fruit.

Can you guess the number of calories in a single strawberry?

Can you believe it can be as few as 2 calories?!?! OK, that’s for a pretty small strawberry. But even if we take large strawberries, it’s only 10 calories per strawberry.

OK, that doesn’t mean you can start a strawberries feast or eating them endlessly. We are still talking about calories. And the calories in strawberries, like any other calories, add up! So eat a few, or pile them in a cup - that should be a prefect and relatively low calorie dessert.

But I bet you are looking for the specific figures for calories in strawberries. So here there are:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) of strawberries - 32 calories
• 1 cup of whole strawberries (144 gr) - 46 calories
• 1 cup of sliced strawberries (166 gr) - 53 calories

One of the reasons strawberries are low in calories is their water percentage. 90% of the strawberries content is actually water, so you’re not consuming a lot of calories. Another thing that helps is the low sugar percentage - again, compared with other fruits. Apples for example have 10% sugar, but strawberries have less than 5%. So although around 60% of the calories in strawberries come from sugar, it is still a low number of calories.

So as you can see, 1 cup of strawberries can be a great option for a dessert or a snack. Remember to keep the number of calories in strawberries low by not adding extra sugar or cream. Enjoy your treat in its natural tasty way.

Rice Calories

September 21, 2008

I’ve wondered if chinese people think about the rice calories while eating it. It is such a common food there, they must consider it, right? But turns out that when we’re talking about rice calories we need to be more specific: what type of rice are we referring to and how do we cook it?

Let’s have a look at 3 major types of rice, each one with its own rice calories value. One cup of the popular white rice (regular long grain and cooked) has 205 calories. 1 cup of cooked brown rice has 216 calories and 1 cup of cooked wild rice has only 166 calories in it.

If you are looking more standard weights for rice calories, here they are for 3.5 oz (100 gr) of rice:

• White Rice Calories (long grain, regular, cooked) - 130 calories
• Brown Rice Calories (long grain, cooked) - 111 calories
• Wild Rice Calories (cooked) - 106 calories

Let me point another tricky thing about rice calories. There is a very big difference between cooked rice calories and dry raw rice calories. I got confused a few times with all the numbers and I don’t want that to happnen to you, so read carefully:

When comparing the same amount of rice: 1 cup of cooked rice and 1 cup of dry raw rice - the uncooked rice will have more calories.  That because in 1 cup of uncooked rice there is more rice, hence more rice calories.

Calories in Corn

September 20, 2008

Corn always reminds me of my childhood. But unlike a child when you are a grown up you should think about the calories in corn as well, not just its good taste. So let’s check out a bit of the nutrition values of corn.

A lot of us are eating corn from a can and that makes it easier to check the calories in corn because it says so on the can! Typically there are 60 to 80 calories in 3.5 oz of corn which comes in a can. It depends whether it is a vaccum pack, cream style, drained etc. Check the label and if the can is not drained make sure you check for values that do not include the liquids.

The best corn is of course corn on cob. There are a few types of corn on cob, but if we take a standard ear weighing around 2oz, cook, boil and drain it, you are looking at around 60 calories.

But watch out! 60 calories in corn on a cob refers only the corn. Add butter or anything else and you are looking at a lot more calories!

But someone reminded me that ever popcorn is corn, isn’t it? So how how many calories in popcorn vs calories in corn? If you eat it like a small snack, let’s say a cup of popcorn (already popped!) you’ll consume only 30-40 calories. Be ware of eating too much popcorn. 3.5 oz of popcorn has 387 calories for air popped corn and 429 calories in corn that was popped in a microwave.

Starbucks Calories

September 7, 2008

If you like going to Starbucks, you should be aware of the starbucks calories paradox. It is a known fact that coffee has very few calories, and a cup of coffee would hardly have any, but when we are talking about starbucks calories we actually mean the variety of coffees, milk, cream, sweet extras and other items on their menu.

There are 3 things you need to remember if want to keep your starbucks calories low:

Let start with the blends:

Wanna hear a disturbing story? A friend of mine told me about this great blend she had at Starbucks. It was a Venti Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino Blended Crème and Whip. I just had to lookup the starbucks calories table and check this drink nutrition values. Do you have any idea how many calories this drink has? 750 calories!

She had a 750 calories frappuccion blend! How about that for starbucks calories???

So when you are going for a blend, choose the light ones. There are only 110 calories to 200 calories in a grande light blend vs. twice and more for the regular blends.

Size:

I know there’s a saying “size doesn’t matter”, but it wasn’t said about the starbucks calories. It makes a huge difference if you’re having a tall cappuccion (low fat milk) or a venti cappuccio. The first has 90 calories, and the later - 150 calories. That’s almost 70% more calories! Who said starbucks calories don’t really matter???

And the milk:

that’s very important when discussing the affect of the starbucks calories on your diet. But it’s simple: whole milk has a lot of fat and that mean a lot more calories. A venti whole milk cafe latte has 290 calories! The same onw with low-fat milk has 240 calories, and with non fat milk - 170 calories. A 120 calories difference between the whole milk and non fat one.

Think about it. Most of us drink coffee everyday. So even if you go over the starbucks calories list and see a small difference between 2 drinks, it can add up to a big difference over a week and a month. So choose carefully.

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