I am making this for dinner and I just cannot believe that a SINGLE patty that ends up the size of chocolate chip cookie can still be 285 calories. HOW?

One burger with a slice of cheese on a HALF a burger bun is about 500 calories. Holy smokes!

Look for Laura's Lean Beef Patty's, they're only 160 calories per patty and pretty darn tasty! They're a bit on the spendy side, but are in the frozen section and you get 8 patties in a package, so not too terrible

That what I usually get, but couldn't find them last time. So. I just scarfed down 950 calorie dinner in less than 10 minutes. Good thing I budgeted for it!

Is the calorie count before or after cooking? Ground beef is high in fat, which cooks away, causing shrinkage (which you observed in your cookie-size burger). I always calculate ground beef after cooking although I don't know if that is the correct way to do it. 5 ounces of raw ground beef (85/15) usually results in about a 3.5 ounce cooked burger and a difference of roughly 100 calories.