Fat-Free is Not Calorie-Free

Posted: Jan. 1, 2005

A calorie is a calorie is a calorie whether it comes from fat or carbohydrates. Anything eaten in excess can lead to weight gain.

You can lose weight by eating less calories and by increasing your physical activity. Reducing the amount of fat and saturated fat that you eat is one easy way to limit your overall calorie intake.

However, eating fat-free or reduced-fat foods isn't always the answer to weight loss. This is especially true when you eat more of the reduced fat food than you would of the regular item. For example, if you eat twice as many fat-free cookies you have actually increased your overall calorie intake.

The following list of foods and their reduced fat varieties will show you that just because a product is fat-free, it doesn't mean that it is calorie-free. And, calories do count!

Number of calories is in bold

Reduced-fat peanut butter, 2T: 187
Regular peanut butter, 2T: 191
Reduced-fat chocolate chip cookies, 3 cookies: 118
Regular chocolate chip cookies, 3 cookies: 142
Fat-free fig cookies, 2 cookies: 102
Regular fig cookies, 2 cookies: 111
Light vanilla ice cream, 1/2 cup: 111
Regular vanilla ice cream, 1/2 cup: 133
Fat-free caramel topping, 2 T: 103
Caramel topping, homemade, 2 T: 103
Low-fat granola cereal, 1/2 cup: 213
Regular granola cereal, 1/2 cup: 257
Low-fat blueberry muffin, 1 small: 131
Regular blueberry muffin, 1 small: 138
Baked tortilla chips, 1 oz.: 113
Regular tortilla chips, 1 oz.: 143

Source: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

We Have Answers Do you have medical questions or need help finding a doctor? The experts at Columbia St. Mary's and Advanced Healthcare can help. Click here.