Cooking Oil Spray

ChickenKillerPuppy

Just curious how many calories most folks use for non-stick cooking oil spray. I use a pure olive oil or pure canola oil spray (no additives) and count it as 9 calories when I use it. I don't time the length of my spray, but if I use it twice (either on two different pans or maybe one below something and then I spray the top again) I'll count it twice (18 calories).

What do other people do?

Lietchi

I put my canister on the scale, tare it, spray and then put the canister on the scale again.
My spray length varies a lot, depending on what I'm cooking, so weighing is the better option for me.

springlering62

I’ve got one of those refillable olive (or oil of your choice) sprayers. I weigh it before and after use. A bunch of really good sprays usually comes out to 3-4 grams, and does a pretty good job of coating vegetables, or even just coating the pan.

I hate the glass one I have now. Am going to go back to my old Mr Mister. More parts to clean, but more reliable and can get it cleaner when it’s time. The oil seemed to stay fresher in the old one, too.

BarbaraHelen2013

I weigh the container before and after, both for any standard oil I use and for the Frylight ‘one-cal’ sprays.

More and more though I tend to just skip the oil altogether. So many things don’t need it. Veg stock or water are just fine for sautéed things. Last night I made Parmesan Roasted Brussel Sprouts and actually used slightly watered down garlic paste to ‘stick’ the Parmesan to the sprouts. Worked perfectly and saved a bunch of calories! 🤷‍♀️

goal06082021

+1 suggestion to weigh the container, that's how I do it, too.

penguinmama87

springlering62 wrote: »

I’ve got one of those refillable olive (or oil of your choice) sprayers. I weigh it before and after use. A bunch of really good sprays usually comes out to 3-4 grams, and does a pretty good job of coating vegetables, or even just coating the pan.

I hate the glass one I have now. Am going to go back to my old Mr Mister. More parts to clean, but more reliable and can get it cleaner when it’s time. The oil seemed to stay fresher in the old one, too.

Wow, I've never heard of these! I have a local guy I like to buy olive oil from, but I've always just assumed that for sprayers I'd just have to buy the prepared PAM or whatever store brand. A refillable one would definitely be more my thing.

PAV8888

Bottle weight before and after. Minimum log 0.5g even when not registering

A while back I tested weight decrease of bottle vs weight increase of frying pan using a name brand olive oil spray and up to the 10g. I tested in the non lab home conditions and home scales I use. Difference was 10g on either side. So the loss of propellant weight was negligible for the quantities (and measurement devices) that I use

kshama2001

I put the pan on the scale and weigh it.

briscogun

Wow you folks are really on it!

My can of canola oil says like 1 calories for 1/3 of a second of spray or something like that. So i just tap that thing as quick as I can, then take a paper towel to the pan and use that to smear it around and wipe up most of the excess so I just end up with the thinnest of coats on the pan, so I don't bother to log it since it should be almost negligible if any calories.

FitAgainBy55

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

Me as well. Depending on what you're making, not all the spray oil is taken up by the food. And, I cook for multiple people. So I totally ignore it. Mwa ha ha!

Then again, I haven't been losing any weight lately...

AnnPT77

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

Depends on how one uses the spray or mister. For a light coat on a stovetop pan or to oil a sheet pan, maybe not significant. I use olive oil mist to lightly coat veggies or other foods before roasting, or to add fat to filo layers when making savory filo pies. This can be a meaningful addition of calories, especially for a smaller person with a lower calorie goal.

goal06082021

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

Me as well. Depending on what you're making, not all the spray oil is taken up by the food. And, I cook for multiple people. So I totally ignore it. Mwa ha ha!

Then again, I haven't been losing any weight lately...

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

For me it's more that I like knowing how much it was - whether I include it when I enter the recipe depends on how involved the recipe is or how much of a difference I think it makes. Something like muffins where most of that oil probably was absorbed by the food, I want to know; using it to lube a baking sheet to bake off some veggies, maybe not, but I still like knowing what the amount was. Can't have too much data.

PAV8888

71 Cal of oil spray yesterday, my share

FitAgainBy55

AnnPT77 wrote: »

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

Depends on how one uses the spray or mister. For a light coat on a stovetop pan or to oil a sheet pan, maybe not significant. I use olive oil mist to lightly coat veggies or other foods before roasting, or to add fat to filo layers when making savory filo pies. This can be a meaningful addition of calories, especially for a smaller person with a lower calorie goal.

I include the oil I use as an estimate, I just don't measure it.

I use olive oil, which I'm assuming is much more calorically dense than a can of pam.

I make an omelette every morning. I built my recipe for the Omelette assuming I use 1/2 tablespoon (60 calories) of olive oil. I never bothered measuring it, it was just and estimate. I just used my spritzer to cover my big pan and I used 3 grams with 4 sprays or 27 calories. Sometimes I might need a couple more sprays to keep things from sticking -- or another 18 calories. Sometimes I might press harder, sometimes lighter. This is all within an estimate of 60 calories, so whether I use 4 sprits or 8 sprits or 6 sprays doesn't matter.

My philosophy on these things is to measure once to help me estimate and then use my estimate conservatively (over estimate) from that point on.

Another example is salad dressing. I make my own vinaigrette when I make a salad. I estimate 1 tablespoon of olive oil for my recipe. I don't measure it out, I just eyeball it. I just tested myself and I have a consistent pour +/- 2 grams. That's 18 calories. No big deal.

My philosophy is perfection is the enemy of good. I can sustain being good (somewhat accurate) much longer than I can sustain being perfect.

springlering62

Maybe it’s just me and the way I cook, but cooking spray leaves a film on my pans that’s hard to get off. I figure, if it’ll do that to Teflon, what’s it doing to my gut?

Ironic I’ll drink the heck out of skinny syrups, while shying away from strange propellants. 🤷🏻‍♀️

glassyo

I don't really count my cooking oil spray and I definitely use more than 1/3 of a second of it. I normally just use it to coat my bowl before microwaving my eggs every night and I've never timed it but I probably give it a good 2 or 3 second spray.

But, even tho I'm trying to maintain, I keep myself in a deficit to account for all the little "cheats" I use now (butter spray, cooking oil spray, hand in boxes of cereal, hand in broken off pieces of cookies because, as we all know, broken off food calories don't count)

yirara

I just use a good amount of oil for cooking, account for it, and enjoy the taste of my food. Can you actually cook in just a thin film of oil? I'd think that you can't really turn up the heat without the oil burning away before any food hits the pan.

wunderkindking

I am nowhere near needing to be that precise to lose weight. If I reach that point and want to continue to lose, sure. More than likely, knowing me, once I reach a point that requires that kind of precision to fine tuning I will either up my activity a bit or live with being 5lbs off my goal weight.

I track a lot. My PAM usage to scramble an egg is on the wrong side of my (MY - as in person) accurate vs obsessive line.

wunderkindking

yirara wrote: »

I just use a good amount of oil for cooking, account for it, and enjoy the taste of my food. Can you actually cook in just a thin film of oil? I'd think that you can't really turn up the heat without the oil burning away before any food hits the pan.

with a decent (not even good, just decent) pan, you sure can, at any heat you want. Just like air fryers work without oil. Heat and not sticking are all you need. I don't really even notice a difference in the taste of my food.

ChickenKillerPuppy

You know I also think of the cooking spray as one of those things that my numbers are the real evidence of whether I am doing this correctly or not. I'm losing (or maintaining, depending on when) at the rate I expect to lose (or maintain) based on my calorie intake, so I figure my 9 calorie standard entry is close enough that it's not messing with my understanding of my numbers. Although I must say I am impressed by those of you who weigh!

Strudders67

I use the Frylight 1 cal spray oil. Maybe it's different in other countries but, in the UK, it's a pump not an aerosol and one spray is (supposedly) 1 cal. So I just count how many sprays I use and log that.

If I'm doing something that calls for more oil, I either weigh the bottle before and after or use measuring spoons - but I wouldn't be using the spray bottle oil for that.

elmusho1989

Truthfully I don't count it as 1cal per spray is so little. I've lost 20 pounds so far.

Slarti1a

I use a teaspoon for measuring, but do like spray for roasting.

paperpudding

I'm in the ignore it altogether team.

Depends what you use it for though - I only ever use it as a thin layer on a pan - things like roasting veg I dont use any - If I am cooking say, a roast leg of lamb, I put the meat and veg in a oven bag, and the meat juices are enough to keep the veg from drying out.

BarbaraHelen2013

springlering62 wrote: »

Maybe it’s just me and the way I cook, but cooking spray leaves a film on my pans that’s hard to get off. I figure, if it’ll do that to Teflon, what’s it doing to my gut?

Ironic I’ll drink the heck out of skinny syrups, while shying away from strange propellants. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Lightbulb moment! 💡

I’ve been wondering why my smallest frying pan has a weird film on it that I’ve been scrubbing at with salt recently to lift it! It’s the one I use on the odd occasion when I use the spray oil! I doubt that your gut reaches the high temperature that I imagine causes the spray oil to film like that so I don’t think I’m too worried as far as that’s concerned but the coating is annoying, that’s for sure!

J72FIT

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

This is an area where the effort required isn't worth the increase in accuracy for me.

^^^this...

AnnPT77

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

You know I also think of the cooking spray as one of those things that my numbers are the real evidence of whether I am doing this correctly or not. I'm losing (or maintaining, depending on when) at the rate I expect to lose (or maintain) based on my calorie intake, so I figure my 9 calorie standard entry is close enough that it's not messing with my understanding of my numbers. Although I must say I am impressed by those of you who weigh!

I can only speak for myself. It's easier to weigh everything, on autopilot, vs. think about whether something is enough to worry about, or estimate it. If I start turning it into something more complicated than "weigh, note, log", I'll start forgetting things altogether, because I know my brain's foibles. I'm sure I weigh lots of things that are stupid small; I don't even care enough to notice. No thinking, just autopilot. I like it.

It's not obsessive, it's not impressive, for me it's just easiest. 🤷‍♀️

Well, small, except the olive oil mist on filo leaves. That adds up to quite a lot of olive oil, by the time you do 20 18"x14" layers or something like that. 😆

kimny72

I'd say there is a benefit to weighing the can before and after once. Different people have a very different awareness of how long they are spraying lol. I've eaten very oily food prepared by people who insisted they just used a quick spritz of oil, but after years of logging I know there was way more than just a spritz just on my serving!

If you use an oil spray a lot, and if you are a shorter woman especially, weighing it once while giving the pan an honest "this is what I usually do" spray is prob a good idea. Then you know whether you need that kind of guard rail going forward or if you are only fiddling with an incidental amount of calories.

Like Ann, I weigh everything as effortless habit, which has helped me greatly anyway.

kshama2001

yirara wrote: »

I just use a good amount of oil for cooking, account for it, and enjoy the taste of my food. Can you actually cook in just a thin film of oil? I'd think that you can't really turn up the heat without the oil burning away before any food hits the pan.

Spray is great for foods like eggs where oil isn't adding to the taste of the food, in my opinion anyway.

I did use a fair amount of regular oil when I made potato pancakes the other night - it was a plus in that case.

glassyo

LOL so I weighed my cooking spray tonight and it came out to 2 grams. Not sure what that translates to but I didn't weigh the sugar free syrup I poured onto the eggs.