How many calories and carbs are there in Movie Theater Popcorn ?
In this article we tell you How Many Calories and how many carbs there are in Movie Theater Popcorn by size of bag, by serving and by cup, and with and without butter and other toppings. We also tell you about the different cooking methods like air popped vs oil cooked and what affect that has on the calories in Movie Theater Popcorn! You may also want to read our article How Healthy is popcorn really for an overall look at popcorn nutrition information.
Must Know Summary:
- Popcorn Nutrition for 1 cup of OIL POPPED Popcorn with NO BUTTER. has 55 calories and 6.29 grams of Carbs (USDA)
- Popcorn Nutrition for 1 cup of OIL POPPED Popcorn WITH BUTTER has 80 Calories and 7.27g of carbs.(not from USDA).
So its not that bad folks! The amount of calories and carbs in one cup makes this a low carb low calorie healthy snack!
Picture by jeffkole
Movie theater popcorn Portions – where the trouble starts
Here are the basic Guidelines for How Many Calories in Movie Theater Popcorn. Note the total cups estimated for a given size of OIL POPPED Popcorn!. Air popped popcorn is less (see the details section farther below).
You can click on this link to read a report by the Center for Science in the public interest.
Note also that Different Theaters may use different sizes for a Kids, Small, Medium or Large.
Size of Serving (note the amount of cups estimated) Total Calories Total Fat Saturated Fat
| An Average "Kid's Size" ( about 5 cups) | 300 | 20 | 14 |
| An Average "Kid's Size" ( about 5 cups) WITH BUTTER | 470 | 37 | 22 |
| Average Small Popcorn (about 7 cups) | 400 | 27 | 19 |
| Average Small Popcorn WITH BUTTER | 630 | 50 | 29 |
| Ave. Medium Movie Theater Popcorn (11 cups) | 650 | 43 | 31 |
| Ave. Medium Movie Theater Popcorn WITH BUTTER | 910 | 71 | 41 |
| Ave Large Movie Theater Popcorn (20 cups) | 1160 | 77 | 55 |
| Ave Large Movie Theater Popcorn WITH BUTTER | 1640 | 126 | 73 |
So its NOT the popcorn its the Toppings and the HUGE portions - Details Details Details!
OK, to sum it all up – its all about the portions or how much you eat. You can eat a few cups of movie theater popcorn and not sweat the calories or fat!
Oil popped popcorn and without butter its STILL only 55 calories a cup! COOL! Add Butter and its still only about 80- calories. So 3 or even 4 cups and your not going overboard.
BUT if you eat the whole large size yourself you have basically Eaten 3 days worth of fat in one sitting. Not good for you!!!!
You can click on this link for an analysis by a science
Here are the calories on a cup of AIR POPPED Popcorn according to the USDA:
Popcorn Nutrition for 1 cup of AIR POPPED Popcorn With No Butter added:.
|
Calories
31
|
Fat
0.36g
|
Carbs
6.22g
|
Protein
1.04g
|
| There are 31 calories in 1 cup of Air Popped Popcorn. |
| Calorie breakdown: 10% fat, 81% carbs, 9% protein. |
Popcorn Nutrition for 1 cup of AIR POPPED Popcorn WITH Butter added (not from USDA):.
|
Calories
63
|
Fat
3.63g
|
Carbs
6.98g
|
Protein
1.19g
|
Now if it is popped in OIL here are the calories for that same cup of popcorn:
Popcorn Nutrition for 1 cup of OIL POPPED Popcorn with NO BUTTER.
|
Calories
55
|
Fat
3.09g
|
Carbs
6.29g
|
Protein
0.99g
|
Popcorn Nutrition for 1 cup of OIL POPPED Popcorn WITH BUTTER ADDED (not from USDA).
|
Calories
80 |
Fat
5.27g
|
Carbs
7.27g
|
Protein
0.96g
|
You can click on this link to go to our main web page for more great articles like this Nutritional Value of Popcorn article.
OK thats it for this article!
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