Cooking spray is NOT zero calories...I can prove it...start counting it in your calorie count!

Tweaking_Time
Tweaking_Time Posts: 733 Member
edited May 2016 in Food and Nutrition
For this example I am using Pam Olive Oil cooking spray and reading right off the (misleading) nutrition label.

Pam states that there are 5 oz. per can

Olive oil is 238 calories/ounce - so there is a total of 1,190 calories in a can of Pam

Serving size is 1/4 second spray

So...1,190 cal. /473 servings = 2.5158562367864693446088794926004 B) calories per serving

so...a one second spray is

4 x 2.516 = 10.06 calories/one second spray - lets just round that down to 10 calories/1-second spray

Don't believe it??? - the main ingredient is the list of ingredients is extra virgin olive oil.

OK - so this is not a huge number - but every little bit counts. I figure the cooking sprays use a 1/4 second spray serving (2.51 cal) and then figure that is split among 6 servings of food (0.42 cal.) - getting it down to their (misleading) zero calories.

«1345

Replies

  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
    Cool beans.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    Well, yeah.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    Why I stopped using sprays is because I can't count .25 of a second for a spray. I'd rather just pour 2 teaspoons of oil in the pan and not worry about it.
    This

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    It's a surprise that cooking oil has calories?
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    H
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2016
    arditarose wrote: »
    It's pretty common knowledge that olive oil has calories...even if you spray it.

    Yeah, this.

    I've always counted it, but it's not crazy to decide that it's too few to bother with, as many do. (I do this with black coffee.) No one actually thinks the oil is calorie free.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Tweaking_Time wrote: »
    No - It's not a surprise that spray oils have calories.

    What I was pointing out is how misleading the nutrition labels are. Do the math - never trust them.

    If one understands how nutritional labels work, it's not really misleading. The information is out there if people actually care...most people don't care or even look at the nutritional labels on things. If it's less than 5 calories per serving, it is permissible to put zero calories.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    It's maybe the capital letters and exclamation mark about something that isn't actually unknown or surprising that gets a "so what?" reaction.

    All food labelling is an estimate as is exercise calorie expenditure. If you want to bother about 10 cals then good for you but seems a little extreme to me. Bet your cycling calorie estimates are going to be more significant for example.
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    aamb wrote: »
    all that math for 10 cals... I would probably burn that many doing the sums :)

    ^^^This :smiley:
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
    Thanks for sharing what you learned, Tweaking_Time, I'm sure it's news to some.

    I didn't know when I started using MFP - I just assumed zero calories meant, well, zero calories. I don't use those spays anymore since I've moved away from the low-calorie-diet-food sort of mindset but I remember lots of sites like Skinnytaste using these sprays liberally in their recipes (which is why I bought them in the first place) and not counting the calories.


  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    So? Do you use enough of it for it to make a difference? If yes, count it. If you use it as advertised, it's really not worth it getting worked up over.
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    This really should be a concern for people who are close to their goal. I'm nowhere near that and I log it. But I also log my black coffee. Fifteen calories might seem like nothing, but it matters over the long haul and it matters a lot when you have to be strict with your deficit because you have no wiggle room. Cooking spray, coffee, a calorie here, a calorie there...it does add up.
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,024 Member
    Are you spraying so much spray that it's really going to affect you? Unless you just keep spraying it, 10 calories isn't a big deal.
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    Had no problems with losing 120 pounds while using cooking spray.
  • Fittreelol
    Fittreelol Posts: 2,535 Member
    AlabasterVerve wrote: »
    Thanks for sharing what you learned, Tweaking_Time, I'm sure it's news to some.

    I didn't know when I started using MFP - I just assumed zero calories meant, well, zero calories. I don't use those spays anymore since I've moved away from the low-calorie-diet-food sort of mindset but I remember lots of sites like Skinnytaste using these sprays liberally in their recipes (which is why I bought them in the first place) and not counting the calories.


    White knight: She does count the calories in her recipes, and explained how in one of the comments sections. I can't remember the particular recipe though.
  • DarthSamson
    DarthSamson Posts: 172 Member
    odd read the can again how big is the serving ?
    if there are .4 calories a serving then 1>.4> O

    So question is how many servings in the can ? and what percentage of the contents are olive oil

    if most of the can contents is pressured air they do not list pressurized air on the ingredients list
    ok I just went and looked
    Serving Size about 1/4 second spray (.2g) thats 0.2 grams
    what do you think the calories are in 1 gram of Haagen Dazs Ice cream ?
    340 in half a cup
    there are about 237 mLs in one American cup
    237/2 = 118 g 340 calories in 118g of Haagen Daz
    so 2.8 calories a Gram of hagendaus

    but this is 1/5 of a gram
    2.8 /5 hagandas has less than 1/2 calorie per .20g

    you thought your cooking spray held more ????


    Servings Per Container about 476

    - See more at: http://www.pamcookingspray.com/non-stick-spray-products/olive-oil-spray/#sthash.Ai1C1C6k.dpuf
  • DarthSamson
    DarthSamson Posts: 172 Member
    tweaking you math was all wrong :)
    Serving Size about 1/4 second spray (.2g)

    Servings Per Container about 476

    size .20 grams X 5 = 1 gram

    - See more at: http://www.pamcookingspray.com/non-stick-spray-products/olive-oil-spray/#sthash.Ai1C1C6k.ojkihqKP.dpuf
  • DarthSamson
    DarthSamson Posts: 172 Member
    Pam states that there are 5 oz. per can
    Serving Size about 1/4 second spray (.2g)
    Servings Per Container about 476


    Olive oil is 238 calories/ounce - so there is a total of 1,190 calories in a can of Pam
    what ?
    gold is 3800 dollars an ounce there are 6 oz in an ounce of pam
    so pam must be worth $ 28,000

    you are comparing oranges to volkswagens
    if pam was pure olive oil 238 calories an ounce ?
    there are 30 grams in an ounce

    238/30 = 8 now campers what is 1/5 of 8 1.6 ?
    so pam would have 1.6 calories if all that pam was was olive oil

    you are compairing oranges to volkswagons
    - See more at: http://www.pamcookingspray.com/non-stick-spray-products/olive-oil-spray/#sthash.Ai1C1C6k.dpuf
  • Tweaking_Time
    Tweaking_Time Posts: 733 Member
    DarthSamson wrote: »
    tweaking you math was all wrong :)
    Serving Size about 1/4 second spray (.2g)

    Servings Per Container about 476

    size .20 grams X 5 = 1 gram

    - See more at: http://www.pamcookingspray.com/non-stick-spray-products/olive-oil-spray/#sthash.Ai1C1C6k.ojkihqKP.dpuf

    I beg to differ. My math is spot on. Yours, however...

    ... I am not going to repeat my original post with the math. Scroll up and go through it again.

    If you still want more corroborating evidence - look it up on MFP - you will find many 9 cal. for a 1 second spray - but of course, that is wrong by one calorie and I proved it B)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2016
    MissusMoon wrote: »
    This really should be a concern for people who are close to their goal. I'm nowhere near that and I log it. But I also log my black coffee. Fifteen calories might seem like nothing, but it matters over the long haul and it matters a lot when you have to be strict with your deficit because you have no wiggle room. Cooking spray, coffee, a calorie here, a calorie there...it does add up.

    I drink black coffee daily, but don't log it even though I'm close to goal and have little room for error. The reason why is that I drink it every day, I am not going to cut it for the purposes of cutting calories, so ultimately if I log 1800 calories and it's really 1830 or even 1845 (assuming 10-15 cal per cup, although I don't know, never checked) and I'm not losing the answer is to cut calories. The fact that it's really 1830 that I'm consuming vs. 1800 doesn't matter, since I don't focus on the calculator suggestions but actual results over time.

    For the same reason I never logged Vitamin D when I was taking it.
  • charleycartee
    charleycartee Posts: 49 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    So I looked at my Pam, and there is another box of info next to the nutrition facts box that compares Pam to butter and oil. This is a bright white box outlined obviously in red with print the same size as the nutrition info. And it says:

    PAM (1 second spray) Fat 1 (g) Calories 9
    Butter (1 Tablespoon) Fat 11 (g) Calories 100
    Canola Oil (1 Tablespoon) Fat 14 (g) Calories 120

    So yeah, it's not zero calories. I'll admit, I think it's silly that the serving size is a quarter of a second spray, I'm not even sure that's physically possible, but I think the serving size of all sorts of things are silly. But if you're ruining your diet with copious amounts of cooking spray, you need to reevaluate your cooking methods.

    The can also warned me not to deliberately inhale the contents. And not to spray it near an open flame. And proudly announces there is a freshness date on the bottom! All good to know.

    1. Not all of what you spray will be absorbed by what you're cooking, depending on cooking method.
    2. If you do a 2 second spray for a family of 4 then you're still talking less than 5 calories per serving. To me, that's negligible. My food scale has a margin of error that can easily lead to more overage than that.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    Thanks for the math, I appreciate the details! To be honest the first time I heard about zero calorie oil spray not being zero calories was on the biggest loser. Jillian said well it's oil in a can so if you spray it long enough it's gonna be a lot of calories. I just try to be light handed with it when I use it, which isn't all that often, really.

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