Skinny pop popcorn

Stellamom2018
Stellamom2018 Posts: 120 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Why am I so confused? I'm not new to calorie counting or mfp... Is this just sticker shock? One bag is seriously 650 calories? How is that skinny?
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Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Check your math.
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Looks to me like one bag is 375 calories.

    I don’t think 375 is very skinny either 😐

    I don’t eat much popcorn so I’d have to look up another brand to compare it to, but personally, I’ll spend my calories elsewhere. 😊
  • rightsizewendy
    rightsizewendy Posts: 5 Member
    I think it's 157.5 cals. Each popped cup is 30 cals. Each bag has 5.25 cups. So you times 30x5.25=157.5
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    375 is 2.5 servings, and about 13 cups, it appears, so that's a lot of popcorn.

    That said, it appears to be just about the same number of cals as any plain popcorn or popcorn with just salt. Adding butter or oil would of course increase the cals.

    I love popcorn, and think the cals in popcorn in general are reasonable for the serving size.
  • rightsizewendy
    rightsizewendy Posts: 5 Member
    Nevermind! I'm wrong. Those labels are so confusing. I think it's 375 cals too cause if it's 2.5 servings per bag times 150 cals - 375, cause lets be honest, you're not going to share it!
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Looks to me like one bag is 375 calories.

    I don’t think 375 is very skinny either 😐

    I don’t eat much popcorn so I’d have to look up another brand to compare it to, but personally, I’ll spend my calories elsewhere. 😊

    It's a lot of popcorn though...13 cups of popped pop corn is a lot of corn.

    That is true, but I have learned that corn no longer agrees with me as I’ve gotten older, so eating 13 cups of it would probably be a bad idea for me. 😜
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Looks to me like one bag is 375 calories.

    I don’t think 375 is very skinny either 😐

    I don’t eat much popcorn so I’d have to look up another brand to compare it to, but personally, I’ll spend my calories elsewhere. 😊

    It's a lot of popcorn though...13 cups of popped pop corn is a lot of corn.

    That is true, but I have learned that corn no longer agrees with me as I’ve gotten older, so eating 13 cups of it would probably be a bad idea for me. 😜

    I love popcorn, but I probably wouldn't feel that great if I sat down to 13 cups of it by myself. Definitely would be bloated from all of the fiber in one sitting.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Looks to me like one bag is 375 calories.

    I don’t think 375 is very skinny either 😐

    I don’t eat much popcorn so I’d have to look up another brand to compare it to, but personally, I’ll spend my calories elsewhere. 😊

    It's a lot of popcorn though...13 cups of popped pop corn is a lot of corn.

    Mostly air anyways.. more or less equivalent to small movie popcorn.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    lx1x wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Looks to me like one bag is 375 calories.

    I don’t think 375 is very skinny either 😐

    I don’t eat much popcorn so I’d have to look up another brand to compare it to, but personally, I’ll spend my calories elsewhere. 😊

    It's a lot of popcorn though...13 cups of popped pop corn is a lot of corn.

    Mostly air anyways.. more or less equivalent to small movie popcorn.

    Pretty much what my wife and I would share.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I always share the small movie popcorn too. (Well, back when we used to go to movies in the theater!)
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    Popcorn nutrition labels are pretty confusing to me as well. For lower calorie popcorn options, I like Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop and Act II 94% fat free popcorn. The OR popcorn comes in smaller portioned bags as well, and both are about 15 calories per cup rather than 30.
  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
    ^^ This! But then I pour a tbsp of lactose-free butter and sprinkle another tbsp of nutritional yeast so...
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Home made on the stove top with Pam is better and 38g has 120 calories.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    The SkinnyPop seems to have the same number of cals as regular air-popped popcorn (about 30 cal per cup).

    The OR Smart Pop brand mentioned seems to have fewer cals than just plain old popcorn, which is interesting. I don't mind the cals in regular popcorn, but may need to try it to compare.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Skinnypop has 150 calories per ounce. Popped at home airpop, and stove top without oil has 85 calories per ounce.
  • joyanna2016
    joyanna2016 Posts: 323 Member
    Orville's smart pop snack size bag is 100 calories and the best - just right!
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    edited December 2020
    😊
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited December 2020
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Orville's smart pop snack size bag is 100 calories and the best - just right!

    18 calories per cup. :)
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    Skinnypop has 150 calories per ounce. Popped at home airpop, and stove top without oil has 85 calories per ounce.

    No.

    USDA: snacks, popcorn, airpopped, 1 oz, 110 cal; 1 cup (8 g), 31 cal.

    Also:

    USDA: snacks, popcorn, oil-prepared, unsalted, 1 cup, 40 cal.

    365 brand kernels: 36 g unpopped (makes about 4 cups popped), 140 cal. That works out to over 30 g per cup (popcorn never works out perfectly from the kernel measure).

    SkinnyPop (from the package): 1 cup, 30 cal.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited December 2020
    Interesting comparison:

    OR kernels are 3 tbsp (40 g), unpopped, 120 cal, but doesn't give an estimate for 1 cup popped (or any amount popped).
    365 kernels are 3 tbsp (36 g), unpopped, 140 cal.
    All Natural (from Target) are 2 tbsp (30 g), unpopped, 110 cal.

    So these end up being:

    OR=300 cal/100 g
    365=389 cal/100 g
    All Natural=367 cal/100 g (likely a rounding error due to 2 tbsp vs 3)
    USDA popcorn, airpopped=387 cal/100 g

    The OR looks like the outlier there, so the question is why. It looks to me like OR is claiming their popcorn is lower cal and pops up "lighter and fluffier" than ordinary popcorn, so we certainly are not talking about some distinction between air-popped or stove-popped vs microwave (see the example of the OR smart pop microwave popcorn), but OR vs. other brands. I'd be interested in the explanation for the numbers above, as if true I never knew it to be and would like to do a taste test (and also a cups/kernels test).
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    joyanna2016 wrote: »
    Orville's smart pop snack size bag is 100 calories and the best - just right!

    18 calories per cup. :)

    Zero to do with your claims about generic stove-popped popcorn (couldn't tell from your response if you realized that).
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    I don't know why this is soo hard for some of you.

    A cup is a measurement of volume. It has nothing to do with nutrition or measuring calories. 40g of popped kernals has the same caloric value whether they are 6mm diameters or 12mm diameter popped kernals.But, one will measure in cups about twice as much as the other.

    Get it? Same nutrition, same weight, two times the volume.

    What I did above was attempt to convert the silliness about cups to actual nutrition.

    I'll try to say it again. 40g of Orville cooked on the stove top without oil has 120 calories per the package. And, when I weigh it cooked it is still 38g - close enough.

    Skinnypop microwave has 173 calories for 40g. Skinnypop popped in the bag has 214 calories per 40g per the package.

    You all really ought to stop thinking and researching in cups and tablespoons. Volume measurements have their place, just not here.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited December 2020
    No, you've changed your claim. You said "Home made on the stove top with Pam is better and 38g has 120 calories." When I pointed out the numbers for the Skinny Pop microwave brand were the same as air-popped kernels, according to the USDA, and then listed the numbers, you (way later, after I had already pointed it out and someone else pointed out that it was true for OR smart pop microwave brand) changed the claim to Orville Redenbacher kernels are lower cal.

    OR kernels (popped) might be lower cal than other brands -- I'd like to know why, especially if they taste the same -- as I don't think this is well known, but it has absolutely NOTHING to do with "homemade on the stove top" vs. microwave. The microwave popcorn being discussed originally in this thread seems to be the same as non-OR kernels (including general USDA info and 2 brands of kernels I gave information for). And (as another posted pointed out, again) the OR lower cals clearly do apply to the numbers they provide for at least one microwave brand.

    Oh, and you seem to be attributing the various tbsp measurements (30 g, 36 g, whatever) to POPPED kernels and clearly those are for unpopped -- the fact that some popcorn nutrition information relates to unpopped kernels and their weight and volume (in tbsp) and some to popped kernels and their weight and volume (in cups) is exactly why popcorn nutrition consistently confuses people.
  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
    😬 Whether cup for cup or gram for gram, the caloric impact of plain, unfancified popcorn is likely not worth all these calculations compared to what is generally snacked on, especially in Western countries.

    But if y'all are going in for the sake of demonstrating ways to calculate, in general, have at it. I just pictured the OP swearing off popcorn for life based on the thread thus far 🤣😭

    fwiw: for my mental health and eating patterns, I try keeping calculations super simple as well as consistent (and I've yet to use a food scale which is blasphemy, I know)
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    edited December 2020
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  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    But do you weigh what’s left over, unpopped kernels, etc. and subtract it? How much of what is left is oil?
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    corinasue1143 wrote: »
    But do you weigh what’s left over, unpopped kernels, etc. and subtract it? How much of what is left is oil?
    corinasue1143 wrote: »
    But do you weigh what’s left over, unpopped kernels, etc. and subtract it? How much of what is left is oil?

    What is your point? If I had kernels left over I would weigh them but I don't and I don't use any oil.

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