Why do they make calories so confusing? Help!

The pox of Pop-Secret Butter popcorn DH got has six bags. Each bag is ~3 servings. Each serving UNPOPPED is 180 calories, thus making each bag about 540 calories.

Now if you go by the POPPED serving size of 1 cup (right side of the nutrition information panel), each bag should make 4.5 servings. Then you're looking at magically only 135 calories for the whole bag.

It doesn't make a damn bit of sense. :grumble:

Okay, what does it say for the amount of servings in the entire box? Is it 17, like in OP'S photo? 17 divided by 3 is 5.6, and rounded up, that's six bags of popcorn in the box. That would make one serving for one cup popped, which is 35 calories, and 3 cups popped would be 105 for the entire bag.

just get an electronic scale and do things by weight which is far easier

The bag if every kernel pops will make 4 cups of popcorn, EACH serving is 1 cup (they figure there are about 3 servings per bag, to account for the kennels that don't pop). So if every kernel pops (making 4 cups): the calories are 140 (35 X 4) (we all know this NEVER happens). So based on their rate of unpopped kernels (meaning the 3 cups) it would be 105 (35 X3) calories per bag. Yes I happen to be OCD and measure out each bag, which tends to be 3.5 cups of popcorn, which the calorie count is: 122.5 (35X3.5)

The 2 TBSP calories for unpopped are NOT multiplied by number of servings because the bag contains 2 TBSP of unpooped popcorn (seriously cut open the bag and measure it, it's 2 TBSP). The reason that the calorie number is higher there is because some of the oil (used to cook the popcorn in the bag) cooks off, plus the interior of the bag absorbs a lot of it. (seriously wipe your finger across the inside of the bag and feel the slime on your finger.

I would love to find a microwave popcorn that makes 12 cups of popped popcorn (seriously I would). It would make things much simpler here on my kids movie nights (unfortunately they like this kind of popcorn instead of the old fashioned air popped that I make).

You are right ^ bag image wouldn't load before, so I was going by what was said for servings etc above, but now that I can see the image, this seems correct. Very very confusing. Approximately 4 cups in a bag if all pop, and the box contains 3 bags, which each contain a possible 4 cups. This is the 12 cups, which have on average 17 servings? But you are not popping 3 bags, just one. Some of the grease is not consumed, so calories after popping go down per cup. You have to measure the unpopped and subtract to get a true calorie amount. Or just record 140.

That label is absolutely confusing and labeled wrong, because the first statements lead you to believe a 2 tbsp serving makes 4 cups, and then they say a serving is 1 cup = ERROR DOES NOT COMPUTE - IS IT "4 cups" or "1 cup" you cannot give two values for a defined "serving"! Which is it, decide Mr. Manufacturer...

But by common sense we know you cannot make 12 cups of popcorn in one of those bags.

The next thing I notice is there cannot be 17 servings in the box, if there are 3 bags in the box, and 3 servings per bag, unless there are about 5 bags in that box with some "extra"...but I know most boxes like that have 3 bags...?!?!?!? I think I've got it, this is Schrödinger's Cat's box and the quantity within is any and all of these numbers at the same time, you will not know until you open it...

*edit OK so looking online there are 6 bag boxes of Pop Secret. This must be a 6 bag box not a 3 bag box, very confusing if not given this info., and it still does not resolve the error in defining one serving as "4 cups popped" above and "1 cup popped" in calories/serving.

Also, how are there about 17 servings in a bag??? This would make 5.666 packets. If there are 'about' 3 servings in a bag, surely is should be 'about' 18 servings in a bag?

Look at OP'S photo, see where it says "Servings Per Box about 17."

That's what I mean, if the serving per packet is already 'about' and rounded, surely the that should be a factor of the servings per box. Otherwise, if there are 6 packets and about 17 servings, this is 2.3 servings per packet and should be about 2. Or 5 packets and around 17 servings makes about 3.4 servings per packet. Why would you make about 3.4 servings per packet?Saying about 18 is already taking the unpopped kernels into consideration by not claiming it is 18 servings exactly. It's just confusing on purpose.

I had a packet of beef steakettes the other night (like hamburger patties I guess, but square). The package said 167 cals per serve, 4 serves per package ... but there was 3 steakettes in the package. WTF? Am I supposed to cut them in quarters and give each person 3 quarters each? Seriously ...

I tried to do the math and i got 420 calories for a bag. Is that right? So far nobody has actually answered lol

I always figure based on the popped calories. So 1 bag contains about 3 cups popped popcorn and that equals 105 calories.

Just.no

Microwave popcorn is super high calorie..do the MATH

Omg. Buy a $20 air Popper, which does a half a cup of unpopped corn at a time, and chow down. The problem with popcorn is more what you put on it. I can put a light sprinkle of salt, no butter or just a light spritz of a spray to hold the salt there, and be perfectly fine fitting it into your count.

And this, folks, is why Americans need to stop holding on to the Imperial system and switch to metric. :noway: The imperial system is insane and outdated, and pretty much only the Americans stick to it. If you want to be on the safe side calorie-wise, go with the data for unpopped. 2 tbsp x 3 servings per bag x 180 kcals per serving = 540 kcals in a bag. It will be less than that since some of the kernels don't pop and some oil stays in the bag. But I'd rather be over than under on my calorie estimation.

It's not so much that we need to switch systems, just that people need to weigh solid food. It doesn't matter if you use ounces or grams. Measuring "cups" and "spoons" of items that contain airspace or dense foods is a bad idea.