A calorie, as used in nutrition, is a unit of energy in food. We take in calories when eating and burn them off when moving, breathing and sleeping. If your weight tends to remain consistent, you have a caloric balance, but if you have gained or lost weight, you might be taking in more or fewer calories than your body is using. Many of us rarely think about the number of calories we consume each day until we try to lose weight, and looking up dietary food items in the USDA Nutrient Database generally takes time and effort. If you consume a typical American diet, there are some general guidelines to follow that will help simplify this task.
Common Breakfast Foods
Many breakfast foods and beverages are relatively low in calories; however, while a cup of black coffee contains only about 2 calories, adding cream and sugar can increase that number to nearly 100 calories per cup. One slice of white toast has about 65 calories, but two slices with butter brings that number up to nearly 300 calories. A cup of Raisin Bran with 2 percent milk contains about 320 calories, but if you tend to put more than a cup of cereal in your bowl, that number is closer to 400 calories. A fried egg contains about 90 calories, while each slice of pan fried bacon contains approximately 45 calories. A large bagel with cream cheese boasts at least 420 calories.
Common Lunch Foods
If you eat sandwiches for lunch, your caloric intake will vary depending on the ingredients between the slices of bread, which amount to about 130 calories by themselves. A couple slices of turkey, beef or ham add about 40 calories. A tablespoon of mayonnaise can easily double the number of calories in your sandwich. Even a light variety of mayonnaise-like salad dressing contains about 50 calories per tablespoon.
Common Dinner Foods
Although a variety of dinner entrees are common in the United States, as an example, a typical plate of spaghetti and meatballs contains approximately 450 calories. Garlic toast adds another 300 calories to your dinner. A pork chop with mashed potatoes, butter and a serving of asparagus packs slightly more than 500 calories. If you're grilling, a typical cheeseburger contains about 250 calories, while a serving of home prepared potato salad boasts more than 300 calories, and a hot dog contains about 100. Conversely, a thick slice of watermelon contains fewer than 50 calories.
General Guidelines
Although it is just about impossible to remember how many calories each type of food contains, The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports offers a few nutritional guidelines to follow. Carbohydrates, including sugar, and proteins contain 4 calories per gram, while fats contain 9 calories per gram. If you are on a calorie-restricted diet, you can eat twice as many carbohydrates as fats and stay within your calorie range, though you want to avoid unnecessary fat calories from condiments such as butter and mayonnaise. As long as you can classify a food as either a carbohydrate, a protein or a high-fat item, you can roughly estimate how many calories it has.
Portions
When referring to databases for nutrition information, keep in mind that the portion sizes used are often not the sizes you might put onto your plate. They might list a serving of elbow noodles as 1 cup, but if you actually eat 2 cups for dinner, the number of calories has doubled. Additionally, these databases generally consider 3 oz of meat to constitute one serving, but many people help themselves to larger portions. If you are trying to lose weight by cutting calories, one way to restrict them is to adhere to these standard portion sizes.
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