How many calories is that?

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DoubleUbea
DoubleUbea Posts: 1,115 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been eating turkey bacon once and a while, turkey sausage or small ham slices for breakfast. I have not had real bacon in a long time. While shopping the other day I looked at the label of a package of bacon, the label was hard to read, blue text on clear plastic but over all the nutritional information looked much better than I would have thought. The bacon was very lean for USA bacon, so I picked it up. I figured I could fit two slices into a breakfast, freeze or make Cuban black bean soup with the rest.
This morning I scanned the bar code, double check the information and was happy that MFP had the correct information, including the calories by weight. The information on the label and the default MFP info was 'one slice 80 calories', so far so good. I cook and weight two slices of the bacon, entered the grams into MFP and it was almost 300 calories. I was confused, one slice was estimated to be 80 calories, two slices should be 160± calories.
I struggled to read the dark blue text on the clear plastic without my glasses. I verified that one slice was 80 calories but I still couldn't see the weight/calories. Finally I see that one 80 calorie slice was considered 14 grams. There wasn't a way a slice of this thick cut bacon would be under 25 grams.
That was very disappointing. Apparently I still have not learned that the serving size and serving weight are not as close as you would think.

(I know there are other threads on this but I searched, looked through the pages and can't find them,)

Replies

  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
    edited September 2018
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    The nutrition on bacon is typically for cooked (because so much fat is rendered in cooking and not eaten). Are you weighing the cooked slices?

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    ETA I see you are. That's very puzzling! Has the bacon been cooked well enough to render off most of the fat or is it still chewy? (I hate chewy bacon - must be crispy! This results in more fat rendered out and a lighter slice.)
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,945 Member
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    Yuck. Turkey bacon. You're a better man than I if you've been eating that. I like turkey substitutions for some things, but give me BACON bacon. :)

    I say eat the bacon anyway. Life is short. I don't even weigh it - never have. I'm with @pinuplove and her snarly kitten, though - I cook it pretty well and blot it on paper towels.
  • DoubleUbea
    DoubleUbea Posts: 1,115 Member
    edited September 2018
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    @pinuplove
    This was thick cut bacon so each slice weighed more than a usual slice.
    The post wasn't about the weight of the bacon, it was a fun post about making sure to weigh your food when you log. Another one of those reminders that you have to be very careful.

    cmriverside wrote: »
    Yuck. Turkey bacon. You're a better man than I if you've been eating that. I like turkey substitutions for some things, but give me BACON bacon. :)
    I have had good turkey bacon and horrible turkey bacon, it really depends on the brand, some of it is awful. I have not had any in a while so I can't recommend a brand.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
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    Ahh gotcha :smile: I thought you were trying to figure out how the weight on the package could be so wildly off.

    In my defense, it's early here :lol: Real bacon is still worth the calories to me
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    5 years of MFP and I still can't log bacon. 'pan fried' is way too vague and the same piece won't weigh as much or have the same macros if you like it crispy or not (and even then, my slices always end up weighing up to 50% more).

    At least turkey bacon is weighed before cooking.

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