Hidden calories: the oil, sauces and drinks your photo misses
When people underestimate their calories, the main dish is rarely the problem. The extras around it are. The chicken and rice are easy to see; the oil they were cooked in, the dressing on the salad and the juice next to the plate are not.
Here are the usual suspects, with typical numbers.
Fats: the biggest hidden source
Fat has about 9 kcal per gram, more than twice as much as protein or carbohydrates (about 4 kcal per gram). That's why a small amount of oil or butter makes a big difference.
| Extra | Portion | Calories (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Olive or sunflower oil | 1 tablespoon (13.5 g) | 120 kcal |
| Olive or sunflower oil | 1 teaspoon (4.5 g) | 40 kcal |
| Butter | 1 tablespoon (14 g) | 100 kcal |
| Mayonnaise | 1 tablespoon (14 g) | 95 kcal |
| Peanut butter | 1 tablespoon (16 g) | 95 kcal |
| Cheddar cheese | 30 g | 120 kcal |
| Almonds | a small handful (30 g) | 175 kcal |
Pan-fried food can easily take up one or two tablespoons of oil. That's 120–240 kcal no photo will show.
Sauces and dressings
| Extra | Portion | Calories (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Ranch dressing | 2 tablespoons (30 g) | 130 kcal |
| Caesar dressing | 2 tablespoons (30 g) | 160 kcal |
| Ketchup | 1 tablespoon (17 g) | 17 kcal |
| Honey | 1 tablespoon (21 g) | 64 kcal |
| Sugar | 1 teaspoon (4 g) | 16 kcal |
Creamy dressings are calorie-dense; tomato-based sauces usually aren't. Two spoons of a creamy dressing can add more calories than all the vegetables in the salad.
Drinks
| Drink | Portion | Calories (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Regular cola | 330 ml can | 140 kcal |
| Orange juice | 250 ml glass | 110 kcal |
| Whole milk | 250 ml glass | 160 kcal |
| Beer (regular) | 330 ml | 145 kcal |
| Red wine | 150 ml glass | 125 kcal |
Drinks usually don't fill you up the way food does, and they're the easiest thing to leave out of a diary. Two glasses of juice and a beer add up to about 365 kcal, as much as a small meal.
How to stop missing them
- Log the oil when you cook. One tablespoon in the pan, shared between two people, is about 60 kcal each.
- Ask for dressing on the side, then use as much as you actually want.
- Log drinks together with the meal. Biscai asks whether you had a drink every time you log a meal, with the common ones one tap away.
- Check the extras before you save. Was anything fried, dressed, buttered or sweetened?
Where the numbers come from
The values are rounded from USDA FoodData Central and typical product labels. Brands and recipes differ, so treat them as good estimates, not exact values.
