Visualizing 200 Calories: Same Food Portion, Same Plate

Friday 02.22.2013 , Posted by Benjamin Starr

Unless you’re an obsessive Calorie counter, determined to keep your weight in check or train athletically, there’s a good chance you don’t know how many Calories are really in the foods you consume. Thanks to the folks at wiseGEEK, we have a clearer idea of how many Calories are contained in everyday foods, from delicious bacon to somewhat less desirable celery. The difference as clearly pictured here, is striking.

The wiseGEEK team have arranged various foods in 200 Calorie portions on the same white plate for our observation. What we get is a uniform sample size that shows the vastly different bulk of foods at the same Calorie count. That tasty bacon barely covers a 5th of the plate at a light 34 grams… hardly enough to tell your stomach it’s full and containing almost the amount of Calories as drinking straight canola oil. On the other end of the spectrum we have the stack of celery, nearly hiding the plate and coming in at a scale tipping 1425 grams. That would be one difficult menu to stomach, not to mention chew. One item of common knowledge these images confirm: humans crave Calorie dense foods.

Why 200 Calories? The wiseGEEK team “wanted something that gave tangible volumes for the entire range of items.” Thus this quantity gave a meaningful plate of both bacon and celery. Imagine if they had chosen an easily consumable 500 calories of bacon… that plate of celery would have been a Man v. Food disaster!

For reference, the size of the plate in these pictures is 10.25″ (26cm) in diameter and the bowl is 6.25″ (16cm). You’ll find plenty more examples at wisegeek.com.

(Above: Fried Bacon
34 grams = 200 Calories)

Celery
1425 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-celery 200 Calories wiseGeek

Jack in the Box Cheeseburger
75 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-a-cheeseburger 200 Calories wiseGeek

Glazed Doughnut
52 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-a-glazed-donut 200 Calories wiseGeek

Avocado
125 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-avocado 200 Calories wiseGeek

Baby Carrots
570 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-baby-carrots 200 Calories wiseGeek

Broccoli
588 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-broccoli 200 Calories wiseGeek

Canned Tuna Packed in Oil
102 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-canned-tuna-packed-in-oil 200 Calories wiseGeek

Coca Cola
496 ml = 200 Calories
calories-in-coca-cola 200 Calories wiseGeek

Doritos
41 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-doritos 200 Calories wiseGeek

Eggs
150 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-eggs 200 Calories wiseGeek

Kiwi Fruit
328 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-kiwi-fruit 200 Calories wiseGeek

M&M Candy
40 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-m&m-candy 200 Calories wiseGeek

Mini Peppers
740 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-mini-peppers 200 Calories wiseGeek

Potato Chips
37 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-potato-chips 200 Calories wiseGeek

Splenda Artifical Sweetener
50 grams = 200 Calories
calories-in-splenda-artificial-sweetener 200 Calories wiseGeek

Via huckberry

Written by Benjamin Starr

Known in some circles as the most amazing man in the universe, he once saved an entire family of muskrats from a sinking, fire engulfed steamboat while recovering from two broken arms relating to a botched no-chute wingsuit landing in North Korea. When not impressing people with his humbling humility, he can be found freelance writing, finding shiny objects on the internet, enjoying the company of much-appreciated friends and living out his nomadic nature. He is Managing Editor of Visual News. Follow his movements on Twitter:

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