Hi folks. I was shopping today at a mall and was absolutely ravenous and parched. It was lunch time and I hadn't brought anything with me. So I pass a Haagen Daz stand and there's frozen yogurt. It claims to be fat-free & sugar free. And the girl behind the counter tells me that it's 110 calories for their 4 oz. serving. So I bought it and ate it.

So the question - just how accurate are they? Is there any government regulation telling them that they have to be accurate? I wasn't even sure if it was indeed a 4 oz serving or not as the girl claimed. Bottom line - should I believe them or not?

And while we're at it, just how accurate is the calorie counts on packaged food?

Thanks.

Calories on packaged foods are usually pretty accurate and typically rounded to the nearest ten. So something that's 118 calories, they'd say it's 120. Something 123 calories would probably be listed as 120 also.

I'm pretty prositive the girl was correct that a 4 ounce serving is 110 calories. Problem is, she likely gave you more than 4 ounces.

Hmm I actually have been wondering the same thing lately. I always assume that the information is correct my worry is about if I am getting a correct portion. My advice is use your best judgment on if the portion sizes are accurate (unless you want to carry a scale around all the time). I recently read an article from ediets that discusses this very issue:

http://www.ediets.com/news/article.c...d=5&code=22399

Thank you for the article. I still am so skeptical of packages' nutrition info. I bought these fat-free, sugar free ice cream bars and it says that they are 60 calories. They're really good and I just have a hard time believing that they're only 60 calories. There are days when I eat 2 of them and it makes me nervous. And as far as restaurants are concerned I know these things can't be exact in regard to portion every time. But I figured if I'm gonna do this weightloss thing forever I've gotta live in the real world and therefore eat in the real world (as opposed to my safe home) so I made the decision to eat that instead of the other things the mall had to offer, McDonald's, Sbarros, Cinnabon, Burger King, etc... So I think I definitely picked the least evil choice.

Wow, that article makes me never want to eat out again. I'll always trust Subway and McD's Fruit and Walnut salad because I lost weight eating them but I will never, ever eat fries or a burger even if I can afford it because I just don't trust people one little bit.