Counting calories is a basic and preferred method of achieving weight loss goals. No matter what type of diet you choose, a calorie deficit equals weight loss and a calorie surplus equals weight gain. Calculating the calories in your food can be more difficult than it sounds, however, especially when foods contain a mix of ingredients. Information on calorie counts for some of the more popular foods can provide a good reference point and get you started in the right direction.
Identification
Almost all foods contain at least a few calories. You can get a general idea of how many calories a food may contain by first determining whether it is a carbohydrate, protein or fat. Carbohydrate and protein foods contain 4 calories per gram and fats contain 9 calories per gram. Although it's not a food group, it may be helpful to know that alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, according to MayoClinic.com.
Discovery
It can be interesting and educational to see just how many calories some popular foods contain. In the bread category, a plain bagel has 216, a Danish pastry has 287 and a doughnut has 140 calories. In the meat category, a slice of ham has 35, a chicken breast fillet has 162 and a slice of roast beef has 50 calories. In the fruit category, a banana has 143, an orange has 59 and an apple has 53 calories. In the vegetable category, 60 g of carrots have 13 calories, 60 g of peas have 32 and 1 oz. of iceberg lettuce has 3.7 calories.
Even more interesting are fast-food items and sweets. A Big Mac comes in at 492 calories, a quarter pounder hamburger with cheese has 515 calories, a 67 g serving of Kentucky Fried Chicken has 195 calories and a slice of deluxe pizza has 171 calories. Moving on to sweets, a Kit Kat has 106 calories, a Twix bar has 306 and a Snickers bar has 323 calories.
Comparison
It can also be interesting and informative to compare popular foods and see how they rate. For example, a chicken salad sandwich has 257 calories while a toasted ham and cheese has 429 calories. A regular hamburger has 254 calories while a cheeseburger has 379. A plain biscuit contains 74 calories while its low-fat counterpart comes in at 65 calories.
Potential
You can determine the calorie count of any food item by calculating it yourself, using a food scale or calorie chart or by reading food labels. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires food manufacturers to place labels on processed food, such as bread, cereal, canned and frozen food, snack and dessert items and beverages. According to FDA regulations, in addition to nutrition information, food labels must specify serving size, servings per container, total calories and calories from fat.
Considerations
It is important to remember that the total calorie count for any food depends on its type, composition and method of preparation. You can use this information to save calories by swapping high-calorie foods for lower-calorie counterparts when making food choices. For example, a 3-oz. bag of ranch-flavored tortilla chips has 426 calories. You could save 326 calories by swapping your chips for 3-1/2 cups of air-popped popcorn. As another example, you could save 201 calories by swapping a slice of thick-crust pepperoni pizza for 1 2/3 cups of grapes, according to MayoClinic.com.
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