Strained yogurt - less carbs? less calories?

  • I had an overflow of yogurt and one of my yogurts turned watery so I decided to strain 2 tubs of yogurt. Well, I forgot how good strained yogurt is so I decided to give myself some yogurt today and mix it with some protein powder to make it more of a protein than a carb.

    The interesting thing is I looked up the calories and protein/carb counts.

    According to calorieking,

    1 cup of plain nonfat yogurt has 137 calories, 18.8g carbs and 14g of protein.
    1 cup of strained nonfat yogurt has 120 calories, 9g carbs and 20g of protein.

    I am surprised, I thought the strained yogurt would actually have more calories.
  • somewhat off topic, but how do you strain yogurt? Muslin? Cheesecloth?

    And how long does it take?

    Kim
  • you can use cheesecloth but I like using coffee filters. I have a 4 cup strainer, I put a coffee filter in the strainer and put it over a bowl. I let it sit in the fridge for 8 hours or so. It comes out tasting someone like cream cheese. It is also a good base for tzatziki or other Mediterranean yogurt dishes.
  • I use a coffee filter too: sometimes a paper filter in a pint sized glass, sometimes a gold filter over a pitcher. I've had perfectly good results leaving it to drain for less than an hour. You just need to give it a stir periodically.
  • We used to do this at home with plain theatowels, works fine just as well. I'm at a loss why the strained kind would have LESS calories, what's dripping out with the water that contains those calories?

    BTW just a fun fact, over here (Netherlands) they call this 'Hang-up' it has no other name but it's no mistery what has been done to it
  • I think it's lower calories because some of the milk sugar (Lactose) drains away with the water. I sometimes mix the "cheese" with Splenda and cinnamon. Yummy!
  • That doesn't seem right....How could it be fewer calories? It seems as though it would be more concentrated and have higher calories. Hmm, if it is the lactose, I wonder if people who are lactose intolerant would be easier able to handle strained yogurt.
  • Wow, is that ever good news. I have been reluctant to drain/strain my yougurt because I thought it would increase the calories. I really like the yougurt that way.