I eat a lot of popcorn. I pop it in the pan with a bare, scant teaspoon of peanut oil. No problems. I guestimate the amount of popped corn I eat, add in the calories for the oil. Fine.

Then today I read the back of hte popcorn contain (Orville Reddenbacher's Popping Corn, if you're interested).

Unpopped 3 T = 150 cals
3 T = approx 6 cups popped
1 cup popped = 15 cals

Is it just me or does the math simply not add up there? If 3T = 150 cals = 6 cups, then each cup of popped corn should = 25 cals, not 15.

Now to add to that, I carefully measured out 3T and it was nowhere near 6 cups popped (I used my big 12 cup glass measuring cup to check and all but about 6 or 7 kernels were popped). 3T of unpopped corn = about 4 cups.

So in reality, 3T unpopped = 150 cals = 4 cups = almost 40 cals per cup popped.

If not ... how does 150 calories of unpopped corn become 60 calories of popped corn?

Any thoughts here?

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Huh...maybe Orville is (like me) mathematically challenged?

I'm looking at the label on my box of microwave popcorn (Pop Secret, Light Butter), and it claims that 6 popped cups contain only 120 calories - which seems a little suspicious, given that the box lists two kinds of oil AND milk as ingredients.

Maybe the popcorn industry has conspired against calorie counters.

I get really confused with porcorn too?? This time I bought the 100 calorie bags so I know exactly how many calories I am eating, instead of guestimating!

Interesting. I never measured the final outcome when I've done the 3T (I also use the Orville container). I've always just counted it as 3T = 150 calories.

Me, too. I can pack away a serious amount of popcorn. And 100 calorie bags help me with portion control, as well as knowing how many calories I am eating. I am way too mathematically challenged to make any sense of how many T unpopped to how many cups popped to calories.

*My widdle brain hurts...*

Yeah, I guess that's what I'll start doing as well now.

This is the first time I've ever really noticed the discrepancy and it's just downright annoying!

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I use Amish Country Popcorn and I see a similar phenomenon - 3 TBSP is 110 calories, they state on their packaging that the popped size is just an estimate, but I always get more than they say. (That peanut oil just pops a great popcorn! ) They do not say how many calories for the popped corn, so i just count the 3 tbsp = 110 and go by that.

You might find this interesting. It's a link to a physics forum trying to answer the same question. Fascinating stuff.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=107122

That is interesting. The next time I make popcorn, I think I'm going to weigh the finished product instead of measuring by volume.

Yes, I'm a geek. I can't help it.

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I think part of the issue is that when the manufacturer gives the nutritional data for the unpopped kernals of corn, that is the number of calories you would consume if you ate it unpopped. I know no one would ever eat it that way, but, in the US, the FDA requires manufacturers to list the nutritional data of the products if they are eaten as they come out of the box. This is the same reason cake mixes always list the nutritional data for the cake mix alone, even though no one actually eats the cake mix that way.

Popping the corn changes its composition and molecular structure, as does cooking any food. With most foods, the change isn't that significant--a piece of cooked broccoli doesn't look that different from a piece of raw broccoli. But with popcorn, you can see that the change is pretty significant. So the nutrition in a popped kernel of corn is different than the nutrition in an unpopped kernel. Thus, it is possible that a popped kernel of corn has fewer calories than if you were to eat the same kernel unpopped.

According to my package of microwave popcorn (Orville R., 94% fat free), the 1/2 tbsp of the unpopped kernels (which should pop up to 1 cup) has 3g fat, 17g carbs (6g fiber), and 4g protein. But 1 cup popped has 0g fat, 4g carbs (<1g fiber), and less than 1g protein. So either 1) popping the kernels causes some pretty significant changes going on in terms of the amount of fat and carbs in them or 2) Orville was smoking dope when he figured out the nutritional info.

Also, I have found that most food manufacturers are pretty generous in terms of measurements by volume. What a food manufacturer refers to as "1 cup" is often slightly less than (sometimes as much as 1/8 of a cup less) than what my measuring cup considers to be 1 cup. I figured this out once a bought a digital scale and started weighing my portions. I occasionally weigh portions in my measuring cup, just to see how far off the manufacturer is in terms of the volume measurement. It's especially tricky to measure food like popcorn by volume, since the volume amount will vary considerably depending on large the kernels end up.

And, in then end, remember that calorie counting is all just an estimate anyway. None of this is a exact science. I figure that my calorie counts for any day can always be off by 100 calories or more. There's issues like this where I think the food manufacturer might have listed the calories wrong; there's food that I can't really get an exact calorie count for (e.g., fresh fruits and veggies); and then there's lots of food manufacturers that count fiber in the calories when really, those calories shouldn't count.

Oh sure. I figure that on any given day I'm off by +/- 10% or so. That's why I don't freak out if my daily total is 1590, rather than 1500.

But the difference between 150 cals and 60 cals is pretty significant. That's nearly 3x different.

And while I'd believe the moisture content changes and possibly reduces the calories some (from evaporation of starchy liquids during the process that causes the "pop"), I don't believe that FAT evaporates like that. I don't know of any other food where fat evaporates in cooking.

So color me skeptical ..

I'll count the 150 cals and call it good.

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The best kind to eat is straight air popped. It's have no calories in the popcorn. You can buy a bottle of light butter topping to put on it if you want and 2 tblsp is 35 calories. Air popped popcorn is on of the best things to munch on, it's has pretty much no cals in it, it's good and it makes you feel full.

Sorry Extasee - that's not correct. Popcorn DOES have calories. There is no food that has "no calories".

I prefer to pop my popcorn in a little bit of oil and count those calories because it helps salt/seasoning to stick to the popped corn. Also I don't put butter on my popcorn at all and I don't use artifical butter sprays at all. But thanks for the suggestions.

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i'm into those 100 calorie bags of smart pop... cause i don't do so well with portion control so I need someone to do it for me.

and yes popcorn without fat is low in calories... but it's NOT calorie free.

I have popping corn as well, and it lists 120 calories for 3 T of unpopped corn. I wonder if the differences in calories is caused by the fact that an exact tablespoon of corn can vary in weight; same as popped corn. Does yours list grams, or just tablespoons? Mine only lists tablespoons, not grams.