Better Health & Living

Issue: July 2008
Test Your Calorie IQ
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Test Your Calorie IQ

One reason for the obesity epidemic is that we don't know about calorie counts.

by Suzanne Schlosberg

Fretting about calories-- how many we're eating, how many we're burning, how many we've saved by ordering the chicken grilled instead of fried--is practically a national pastime. Yet ironically, Americans are consuming more calories than ever: 150 to 300 more per day than we ate 20 years ago, according to the USDA.

What's more, most of us have no clue how many calories we're munching, wolfing down, sipping, and slurping every day. Study after study shows that we dramatically underestimate our calorie intake, and that's especially true when we're eating "healthy." When Cornell University researchers asked SUBWAY patrons to guess the calorie count of the 911-calorie meal they'd just eaten, they guessed 559--a mistake that, if you made it daily, could lead to gaining about a pound every 10 days.

"On average, normal-weight people think they've eaten 20 percent less than they actually did," says Brian Wansink, PhD, chair of marketing and nutritional science in Cornell University's applied economics and management department. "Obese people typically underestimate by 30 to 40 percent."

Becoming savvier about your calorie intake can go a long way toward helping with weight loss. What's your calorie IQ? Take this quiz and find out.

calorie iq

A Starbucks 16-ounce Caffé Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream contains 360 calories. How many calories will you save if you order it with fat-free milk and no whip?

  1. 70
  2. 85
  3. 98
  4. 125
  5. 140

Answer:

(E.) Holding the whipped cream saves 70 calories and switching to fat-free milk saves another 70.

A McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese contains 510 calories. Which of the following contains more?

  1. A Dunkin' Donuts Banana Walnut Muffin
  2. An Au Bon Pain Almond Croissant
  3. A Taco Bell Chicken Fiesta Taco Salad
  4. (A.) and (B.)
  5. All of the above

Answer:

(E.) The muffin contains 540 calories, the croissant has 590, and the taco salad has 544.

calorie iq

The USDA defines a serving of pizza as a 2.3-ounce slice containing 140 calories. One slice of Sbarro's Gourmet Vegetable Pizza contains:

  1. 278 calories
  2. 395 calories
  3. 486 calories
  4. 524 calories
  5. 837 calories

Answer:

(E.) The vegetable pizza slice contains 837 calories and weighs in at 13.4 ounces! A slice of Sbarro Cheese Pizza contains 486 calories and weighs 8 ounces, compared to 272 calories and 3.7 ounces for a slice of Domino's.

Which breakfast side dish contains the most calories?

  1. Four bacon strips
  2. Four sausage links
  3. 4 ounces of ham
  4. 4 ounces of hash browns
  5. Two slices of wheat toast with two pats of butter

Answer:

(B.) It's the sausage; it has 340 calories. But if you think the toast with butter has the fewest calories, you're wrong. It's the bacon at 140; the ham follows at 200, then the hash browns at 220, and finally the toast at 222.

calorie iq

For about the same number of calories as in a movie theater-size (5.3-ounce) bag of M&M's, you could:

  1. Eat about 40 cups--three 2.9-ounce bags--of Orville Redenbacher's Smart-Pop 94 percent fat-free popcorn
  2. Eat one apple, one banana, one pear, and one orange; 1 cup each of straw-berries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries; and six Hershey's kisses
  3. Drink one Starbucks 16-ounce caramel Frappuccino with whipped cream and eat one cinnamon-chip scone
  4. (A.) and (B.)
  5. (A.) and (C.)

Answer:

(D.) The M&M's contain 770 calories. The Frappuccino and scone combined contain 840 calories. The popcorn adds up to about 720 calories, and the fruit and kisses top out around 770.

To lose 1/2 pound a week, you need to cut 250 calories per day. You can do this by:

  1. Eating a SUBWAY 6-inch Turkey Breast Sub instead of a 6-inch Tuna Sub
  2. Spreading 1 tablespoon yellow mustard on any Wendy's sandwich instead of 1 tablespoon mayo and drinking sparkling water instead of a 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew
  3. Ordering a baked potato instead of french fries
  4. (A.) and (C.)
  5. All of the above

Answer:

(E.) The tuna sub contains 530 calories, compared to 280 for the turkey breast. One tablespoon of mayo has 90 calories, compared to 10 for the same amount of mustard, and a 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew contains 165 calories. A medium baked potato contains 161 calories, compared to 423 for a side of fries at Denny's.

calorie iq

A Honey Bran Raisin Muffin at Dunkin' Donuts contains 480 calories and 5 grams of fiber. For the same number of calories and 3 additional grams of fiber, how many GoLean frozen waffles could you eat?

  1. 2 1/2
  2. 3
  3. 3 3/4
  4. 4
  5. 5 1/2

Answer:

(E.) Each waffle contains 85 calories and 1.5 grams of fiber.

Which of these alcoholic beverages has the fewest calories?

  1. A 5-ounce glass of white wine
  2. A 5-ounce glass of red wine
  3. A 12-ounce beer
  4. An 8-ounce gin and tonic
  5. A 3.5-ounce martini

Answer:

(A.) It's the white wine, barely, with 121 calories. The red wine contains 125 calories, the beer has 153, the gin and tonic has 155, and the martini has 140.

Scoring:

8 or more correct: Congratulations! You're calorie savvy.

6 or 7 correct: You need to spend more time reading labels.

Less than 6 correct: You need to bookmark calorie-count.com on your Blackberry.

Suzanne Schlosberg is a health writer in Oregon who writes for many national publications.

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