Let's Talk Calories - The Bagel

by Lisa P | More from this Blogger

09 Feb 2008 05:57 AM

Do you consider the calories in what you eat? Do you have any idea how many calories you may be consuming? When you stop and count the calories you may just be surprised. Many people trying to lose weight don't realize that the serving sizes they are having are more than one serving and the calories involved are multiplied.

If you've read my blogs for any period of time, you know that it isn't about the calories for me. It is really about the starch. (The bane of my existence!) Although I tend to focus on starch and sleep, weight loss does eventually come down to calories so I thought we'd go back and cover some basics today.

When you eat a bagel, do you eat just half or the whole thing? The whole thing, of course! Well, one serving is just half a bagel and that has 75 calories.

Do you eat your bagels plain? Of course not! What do you put on top of it?

If you put cream cheese on it, one tablespoon of regular cream cheese packs 35 calories. Anybody who has ever eaten a bagel knows that you don't just put one tablespoon of cream cheese on it. You could be looking at 4-8 tablespoons for just one bagel. Add it all up and you could be looking at 400-500 calories just in a bagel! If you go with the low-fat cream cheese (neufchatel cheese), the calorie count drops to 23 calories per tablespoon.

If you put peanut butter on it, just one tablespoon has 94 calories! One tablespoon of peanut butter doesn't cover a whole bagel. Do the math and this bagel is looking like a seriously calorie dense meal. If you throw a little strawberry preserves on top of that, you're looking at another 50 calories per tablespoon!

If you think you're cutting calories by just buttering your bagel, think again. One tablespoon of butter has 102 calories.

I've only addressed the calories involved in a plain bagel. I haven't even begun to address the calories involved in a little sandwich for lunch or a little pasta for dinner. The next time your "I can't understand why I'm not losing weight" statement begins with "I only had a bagel for breakfast and..." think about it. You could be consuming half a day's calories just in what seems to be a very small breakfast.

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Learn more about Lisa P

Lisa used to be a freelance writer and Community Manager for Families.com, but she has finally made the jump to novelist.

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