Say you buy a bag of rice cakes, and the label says the entire bag is about 3 servings. A serving size is 18 rice cakes at 130 calories per serving. But when you open the bag and count it out, there are really only 2 servings, if a serving size is 18 cakes. What would you do - count the whole bag as 390 calories or 260?

This drives me batty!

Does it specifically say that 18 rice cakes = 130 calories? If it does and there are only 36 rice cakes in there, then I would count it as 260 for the whole bag.

Here's what I would do.... figure out the per rice cake total and then work it that way

18/130 = 7.23 so if there are 36 rice cakes the bag is 260.... otherwise it really makes no sense right?

Yes, it says "18 rice cakes" but the servings per bag says "about 3".

It really doesn't make sense! Grrrr... So since there were 38 rice cakes (give or take a few chunks and crumbs), then I guess I'll count it as 2 servings plus 15 cals. (Just for the record, I restrained myself and didn't eat the whole bag! Lol!) Thank you!

I also take a look at the grams. Sometimes it will say Serving Size = 18 Rice cakes (4 oz or 112 grams).

Then, what I would do is weigh each of the rice cakes. I've found that for example, with chips, they say "13 chips (1 oz)" per serving or whatever, but in reality, it's a lot less than that. The 1 oz contains less than the 13 chips they claim (unless they are claiming broken chips or whatever).

Anyway, you may have to get your scale out and weigh those rice cakes to get an idea of what you really are eating if you want to be precise.

Agreed. I would use a scale, too, to measure ounces/grams just to make sure you are getting an accurate calorie count per serving.

I never thought to weigh them. I will do that the next time I get a bag. I hate having to be the paranoid food police all the time! Thanks everybody!

I always go by serving size not servings per bag. That "about" on the labels tend to vary greatly.

Wow. I almost always get the exact opposite, an extra one or two chips, pretzels, rice cakes, etc. when I weigh it out.

I agree with the weight thing - I imagine that if you weigh the rice cakes the total weight will be closer to the 'about 3' servings. I find that the number of chips or pretzels or rice cakes in a serving size is almost always overstarted. Weigh the cakes to get to the serving amount.

I always weigh (and usually get more chips/pretzels/whatever than the bag says).