Hey everybody. So my friend's birthday is coming up and I've been trying my very best to write down EVERYTHING I eat. My friend is ordering in a bunch of pizzas and I tried to look up how many calories are in pizza, but keep getting different answers. My options are either deep dish cheese pizza or thin crust veggy pizza? How many calories do you guys count when you eat deep dish and when you eat veggy? Also, do you recommend one over the other? Would REALLY appreciate your help. I'm trying really hard to follow a healthy living style for once in my life and want to be able to eat pizza with my friends but in proportion.

The calories in pizza slices are going to be variable. There are lots of factors to consider: the size of the slice, the amount of cheese, how much oil was used in cooking, etc. Generally thin crust pizzas have much fewer calories than deep-dish, which typically have a lot of cheese and oil.

A thin crus veggy pizza will be the better of the two choices, and maybe you could volunteer to bring a salad to help out? Then you could have a slice or two of pizza and lots of salad? Either way a deep dish pizza even with only cheese is going to have lots more crust (calories) than a thin crust plus nothing healthy on it, the veggy pizza will get you some healthy foods.

1/8 of a 14" deep dish cheese from dominos is 320 calories

1/8 of a 14" thin crust with 3 veg on it from dominos is 180 calories

That should help you at least see the difference, try looking it up thru google or calorie king if you know where its coming from.

Do you know where your friend is ordering pizza from? I know Pizza Hut, for one, has a calculator that figures out the nutritional value for a piece of pizza where you get to input the toppings, type of crust, size of pizza, etc. In that case, it would be a little easier to figure things out. Definitely the thin crust veggie pizza will be the better choice. I second asking if you can bring a salad, since when I eat pizza I usually have one slice and then fill up on salad or other veggies.

Can you please tell me the website for the Pizza Hut calculator? That would be amazing! The thing is, if one deep dish pizza is equal calorie wise to 2 pieces of thin crust pizza, am I better off just eating 1 piece of deep dish since it might be more filling? Not sure about the salad since she is ordering in and it is mostly for guys... not sure if they did have a salad about the dressing, don't want to be too difficult. (I really appreciate you guys getitng back to me so quickly on this question)

I think this is it.

Well, only you can answer that question. But I know for me, I would rather have 2 pieces of something than 1. Psychologically it feels like more food, more bites.

Well, think of it in a different way. If you eat 1 slice of deep dish, most of the calories are going to come from the thick, oily crust. If you eat two slices of veggie thin crust, it is healthier-many of the calories are coming from the veggies, and it is also going to have less fat.

You want to count calories, but also think about the nutritional value.

Drina, yep, that's it!

I usually keep the different chains nutritional info available, and if it isnt one of the chains, pick the one it seems "most like". Like one of our locals pizza seems a lot like pizza hut in texture/greasiness/etc so I use PH numbers, another one is more like a homemade recipe I have so I use that, etc.

Thin crust is awesome ....much better choice.

I love thin crust pizza, but my family always orders the deep dish from pizza hut.

I have looked up the pizza hut calories, but for the amount of grease, I find them to be too low.

So I calculate the slices like this, regardless of where the pizza comes from:

Deep dish = 500 calories per slice
Thin crust (with veggies ) = 200 per slice

The 500 calorie mark scares me off of eating too many slices ... and allows me to eat the thin crust guilt free as an indulgence.

Don't worry about bringing your own food - I do it all the time, and no one seems to mind. If I were you, I'd buy a healthy frozen pizza, such as Kashi, and bring it along and pop it into my friend's oven. That way, you will know exactly the calorie count and other nutritional information, no guesswork involved. Ditto the salad - if you bring a salad, that would be a nice thing to do, and bring whatever reduced fat dressing you think is best. My husband loves salad - lots of men do - and if he were invited to a pizza party, he would be delighted to see its appearance on the party table.

I'm not good at this sort of advice. I give myself one meal "off plan" per week. I don't actually count calories all day but I eat healthy except for that oen meal. Sometimes it's pizza, sometimes it's chicken and veggies. If I am craving something then I give it to myself once a week or I WILL NOT continue to eat well the rest of the week. I am losing at a steady rate of 1lb per week. But for a lot of people one day of is a "trigger". I would say the veggie thin crust is best!! And after two slices of it you shouldn't still be hungry. Maybe not stuffed, but it should make you not hungry. I would stay away from the deep dish.

I say take a salad. Not a huge one, cas not everyone will eat it! But definatly take a salad..doesn't matter if you are the only one who eats it!

And thin crust vege forsure! Look for the pieces that are the least cheesy when selecting from the box! Cheese only Pizzas are nasty, nasty, nasty!

I don't know if this is an option, but maybe you could bring a Papa Murphy's U bake pizza (or talk your friend into doing U bake vs delivery it's cheaper.)

Papa Murphy's has a line of "de-lite" pizzas that are around 150 calories a slice. They are good too.