So I was in the grocery store the other day, checking labels on chick peas. I was shocked to discover that the calories counts on 3 different brands were wildly different! Like, the highest one was about 2x the lowest one! I thought it was a portion size thing maybe, but the portions were the same size. Added stuff? nope, identical ingredients. All the other nutritional information was similar, just scaled up to match calories - ie, if you doubled all the numbers for the lowest one, you would get the same numbers as for the highest one, even though they were both for a 1/2 cup portion. The 3rd brand landed right between the 2. Online I can find varied results - one site says one cup of cooked chick peas is 286 and another says 220.

What the heck? Am I missing something? Could the labels be wrong? Is this typical of food, that the calories can vary widely depending on who you listen to? Aren't they supposed to be regulated or something???

That sort of thing, unfortunately is not uncommon... For my sanity's sake I try not to make myself too crazy and when in doubt use a food scale and a reliable calorie counting resource as a back up.

Since I try to eat within a calorie "range" each day I don't get too concerned if I'm over my calorie "goal" for the day by 100 or 200 calories and I consistently lost weight with this approach...

1 site I found said 283 calories in a can (250 grams)
Another said 269 calories in 164 grams
Another said 269 calories in 1 cup (164 grams)

Hope it helps?

Yes, they can, and often are. Here are some excerpts from a 2010 Time Magazine article...

"According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, prepared foods may contain an average of 8% more calories than their package labels own up to."

"Federal regulations are strict about the accuracy of the net weight of a package of prepared food, which must be at least 99% of the advertised weight. When it comes to calories, the count can be a far bigger 20% off. The Federal Government plays no role in checking the calorie claims in restaurants, which means it's up to the states to handle the job — with the predictable patchwork results."

I like to use Livestrong's MyPlate to track my calories, and their data is all over the place. Some days, depending on my activity level, I eat below my caloric limit by 15%, and some days I eat more. When I stop losing weight, it's time to rethink the numbers.