I had a bag of microwave popcorn today. (Butter flavored, if that makes a difference.) According to the box, “before popping” it was 200 calories. After popping, it was 160 calories. Is that because the company knows that some of the kernels won’t pop? Or is it a typo? Or something else?
Probably that, plus the grease stuck to the inside of the bag that you didn’t eat.
Just a WAG, but since the corn is changing its physical and probably molecular composition, that could explain it. The bigger question is why give the “before” calorie count since very, very few people will eat it that way.
it lets you know you’re loosing weight by eating it.
You may want to take a closer look at the Nutrition Label. In many cases the serving size of the unpopped kernels do not match the serving size popped.
A common serving size unpopped is 2 tablespoons which may equate to 3-5 cups popped but the popped serving size is for only 1 cup.
The label should tell you how many cups of popped corn you can expect from the unpopped serving size.
I actually considered this, but the serving size is listed as “one bag”, not “one cup”. I approve. Too often the official serving size is ludicrously small. I mean, a half-cup of ice cream is a serving? Seriously?
My guess would be the cooking fat. For the un-popped bag, they have to figure the calories of everything in bag. For the popped version, you measure the calories of what comes out of the bag after popping. Some of the fat will stick to the bag.
Back in the day, before the SO decided microwave popcorn was evil, we used to take it on camping trips and scrape the contents of the bag into a pot for cooking on a campfire. If you put it on ice for a while first, the whole contents of the bag will usually come out in a neat, solid block.