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

Tweaking_Time

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 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.

LazSommer

Cool beans.

arditarose

It's pretty common knowledge that olive oil has calories...even if you spray it.

cityruss

Well, yeah.

zyxst

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.

CooCooPuff

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

It's a surprise that cooking oil has calories?

Tweaking_Time

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.

betuel75

A 1 second spray for 10 calories or even if i miscalculate and do 20 calories its still A LOT less calories than 2 teaspoons of oil.

Alluminati

H

lemurcat12

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

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.

besaro

i personally dont bother counting a couple passes with my spray oil, but you keep doing you!

aamb

all that math for 10 cals... I would probably burn that many doing the sums

sijomial

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.

kimny72

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.

davert123

aamb wrote: »

all that math for 10 cals... I would probably burn that many doing the sums

^^^This

AlabasterVerve

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

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

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

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.