Calories in Sweet Popcorn

Sweet popcorn -- cooked popcorn drizzled with butter or oil and then coated and tossed with any of a variety of sweet toppings, including sugar and chocolate -- typically derives most of its calories from fat and carbohydrates.

Calories

Homemade sweet popcorn made with butter, honey and chopped almonds contains approximately 248 calories per serving, according to Nicolette Dumke, author of "Easy Cooking for Special Diets." A 1-oz. serving of commercially prepared, sugar-sweetened popcorn that contains no nuts provides 110 calories, notes Jillian Michaels in "The Master Your Metabolism Calorie Counter." A 1-cup serving of commercially produced, caramel-coated popcorn contains 152 calories, while a similarly sized serving of homemade chocolate-coated caramel popcorn tossed and served with nuts provides 330 calories.

Features

A serving of homemade, honey-coated sweet popcorn owes its calories to 5 g of protein, 15 g of fat and 27 g of carbohydrates; many of the extra calories in this version of sweet popcorn come from the addition of nuts. A 1-oz. serving of commercially prepared, sugar-sweetened sweet popcorn gets its calories from 1 g of protein, 1 g of fat and 25 g of carbohydrates.

Considerations

Limit the butter you add to homemade sweet popcorn to minimize calories from unhealthy saturated fat. If you're watching your weight, put aside the sweet popcorn and opt for lightly salted, plain popcorn, which doesn't contain the added calories from the sugar coating.