Peels, Cores, Pits, Etc.

It would be insane for a database to include the calories in banana peel. Apple core is harder to define but the principle is the same.

An apple is listed as 52 calories per 100 grams. See the handy USDA database that uses 'edible portion'
http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/list
I assume it doesn't include the core

I've just weighed an apple core and it was 22 grams. So it may contain about 11 calories.

If the database value doesn't include the core then you'll be correct. If it does include the core then you'll be penalising yourself by 11 calories. It's what's known as a correct side error.

Incidentally, I eat the core - it's good for you. It makes the apple simpler to eat and you only have the stalk for disposal - I sometimes eat that too.

As was stated, the calories are just the edible portion.

However, with the exception of bananas and oranges (or other fruits with relatively heavy refuse), I just weigh and log the entire fruit. It is error on the side of conservatism, saves time, and at the end of the day, really doesn't matter much.

The database doesn't include the banana peel. I don't know what portion of an orange is included. Some of us remove the zest and eat the rest of the peel. And some people will include the zest in what they are cooking. With apples, the only thing that isn't edible is the seeds, which are mildly poisonous.

I weigh apples whole and just go with what it says. Bananas are different - when I am planning on eating all of it, I weigh it with the peel. If I'm going to freeze half, I weigh the half out of the peel. Those few calories don't matter much to me right now since I have so much to lose. I always round up on what I eat anyway just to be safe.

Calories are typically tracked by "usage serving portion" using the "food composition data" format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_composition_data). When a company sends a package product such with typically uneaten parts (say a prepackage chicken breast on the bone) its the content removed from the bone manually and incerated to measure the kcals. All byproduct is discarded so if you say boiled that bones for "bone broth" that would be extra calroies outside whats tracked. Same with an apple core, orange peel, etc which are edible but typically not eaten.

Weigh apple. Eat apple. Weigh left over core. Use the magic of math (subtraction specifically) to determine how many grams of apple you've actually eaten.

I always presumed if I logged something like a chicken drumstick the bone would be factored in! I guess that could explain why they seem so high in calories for what you get compared to eating chicken in other ways!

The original thread and all posts till the one before mine were made over 6 years ago.

However principle remains the same - from a calorie point of view count only the part you eat - unless for convenience you want to just weigh whole thing and consider it rounded up.

Or if you are wanting to be super precise for whatever reason, weigh the core, peel,stone etc and subtract from the whole thing.
Or weigh the fruit already de cored, de stoned, peeled.

I assume the weight does not include seeds or pits. What I often do is cut up and weigh the edible portion, and then with other fruits of similar size, I use the same weight and eat the fruit whole if I want to.

My working assumption is there's a ten to fifteen percent "margin of error" on just about every metric for calorie / macro counting and exercise energy burn that I'm using, and further that it doesn't make any difference in achieving long term targets. If my (2000) target calories over or undershoot by 200 on a day it's nothing to bother with, but if at the end of the week there's an extra full day's calories, "8 Days a Week" is a Beatles song not a diet plan. Same for protein/carb/fat macros, which are actually more important to me.