Microwave Popcorn

I'm confused about the serving size / calorie information on microwave popcorn...

The box says 3 tbsp unpopped (makes 4 cups popped) for serving size

and it has seperate calorie information for 3 tbsp unpopped and 1 cup popped.

Let's say I ate the whole bag...just for arguement's sake. If I did the math for the 3 tbsp unpopped popcorn, I would have eaten 540 calories. But if I did the math for the popped popcorn, it would equal 420 calories.

If that's true, why does unpopped popcorn have more calories than popped popcorn?

*bump*

I just buy the 100 cal bags....no guessing or wondering and they taste just about the same.

Right, I love those too.

But I just ate some non-100cal popcorn and need some help with that.

I would go with the popped calories since you ate it popped. I think my popcorn reads it has 3 or 3.5 servings per bag. If you ate the whole bag I would take the calories from popped and times it by 3 or 3.5 servings (whatever yours has in it). i bought the 94% fat free popcorn and did that because I LOVE popcorn.

ah...popcorn.  i've had to give it up, because i don't like it unless it has about 1/2 cup of real butter, salt and pepper, sometimes even sugar.

perhaps i don't really like popcorn?

I had never really looked, but you are totally right. It looks like unpopped popcorn has less calories. (My Orville Redenbacher's movie theater pop corn say about the same thing as your labels does) I wonder why they even list unpopped calories on the bag? Who is going to eat the unpoped corn?

The reason for the difference is that there is some of the butter/flavoring on the inside of the bag, not directly on the kernels. That means, if you were to take the kernels out of the bag and make them yourself, you would have a lower calorie count. But come on, that's kinda crazy...why wouldn't you just buy unpopped kernels and pass on the microwave bag if you were planning on doing that?

arew we sure it's not because popped popcorn is lighter... more air? And the dense-ness of unpopped makes it have more calories...?

...or something?

Original Post by septimusette:

arew we sure it's not because popped popcorn is lighter... more air? And the dense-ness of unpopped makes it have more calories...?

...or something?

 Um no. 1 kernel of popcorn should have the same number of calories no matter what form it is in.

I *think* that popped popcorn comes out as fewer calories because when you put it in the microwave, not all the kernels will pop. Some are just duds. Therefore the calorie counts for the kernels include all the kernels, but the calorie counts for the popcorn includes only the ones that have popped.

hmmm..I have wondered this before, but I was thinking that a tablespoon of kernels will have ALOT of kernals, but a tablespoon of actual popped popcorn will be like 3 pieces haha.  Like a cup of popcorn in kernels would be hundreds of kernals, but hundreds of pieces of popped corn would never fit in a cup...does that make any sense??

It's because of the nature of how calories are measured. Basically, the scientists take the food you want to measure and light it on fire, then measure how much energy it produces. Your unpopped popcorn contains more potential energy than your popped popcorn (because some energy is released during the popping) and will have less energy in it when it is burned to measure the caloric content.

The quick summary: popping your popcorn will make it have fewer calories.