Calories In Average Slice Of Pizza

Advice on avoiding the agony of weight gain

Studies conducted by the Obesity Society, an organization of weight-loss professionals, have found that most freshmen only gain an average of 8 pounds, rather than 15. The amount of weight gained varies from student to student, and some nutritionists attribute this weight gain to all-you-can-eat buffets, high calorie campus foods, stress and lack of exercise.

Brockport offers only two meal plans to freshmen. One is the Unlimited Plan plus $250 dining dollars. This plan allows the student to eat as many meals as they want in a day. They can go into the dining hall for a soda or they can have three plates full of pizza, sandwiches and desserts. For many freshmen, this is the first time they're responsible for their own meals. Some students over-eat and try a little bit of everything at the buffet, consuming too many calories per day. Others skip meals, slowing down their metabolism, causing them to become malnourished.

The other meal plan Brockport offers for freshmen is the Two-A-Day plus $200 dinning dollars. This allows students to eat in the dining hall twice a day. Although some students may see this as a convenient  way to save a few dollars off their college bill, they're only consuming two meals a day, when they should have three meals a day to maintain a balanced healthy lifestyle.

While the dinning dollars give students the ability to have three meals, they're often used to purchase unhealthy snacks between classes. If a student isn't eating in the dining halls, meal choices are narrowed down to pizza, sandwiches, salads, sushi, pasta, bagels and KFC, some of which aren't the healthiest food choices. Even a salad can be high in calories once you calculate the dressing and toppings, such as bacon bits and croutons.

Fast food options such as KFC aren't always healthy choices choices. An order of popcorn chicken, a side order of wedges, a side order of macaroni and cheese and a 20-ounce Pepsi would equal a total of 1,080 calories. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, the average 18-year-old female should consume approximately 1,940 calories a day. The average 18-year-old male should consume 2,676 calories a day. That KFC meal would equal 56 or 40 percent of the amount of calories a person should have in one day. The two--pack of Bosco sticks at Carmen's in the Union is 1,478 calories. That's 76 or 55 percent of your recommended daily calorie intake.

Fast Food Restaurants: Pizza Hut Nutrition Info

Take-out pizza is extremely popular and Pizza Hut is right at the top of the list. Pizza restaurants have never claimed to be healthy in terms of nutrition and it is easy to see why. They are very high in fat and sodium. People who carefully examine the nutrition data of the food they eat, rarely visit pizza restaurants on a regular basis. Are these fast food restaurants as bad as most people think?

I took the nutrition facts from one slice of every type of 12 inch pizza and listed the lowest and highest in each category. I then compared all of the different types of wings and listed the extremes.

12” pizza (slice) (89g) lowest calories – Green Pepper, Red Onion, and Diced Tomato  150

12” pizza (slice)(113g) highest calories – Meat Lovers 330

12” pizza (slice)(89g) lowest fat - Green Pepper, Red Onion, and Diced Tomato  4g

12” pizza (slice)(113g) highest fat – Meat Lover’s 16g

12” pizza (slice)(89g) lowest sodium - Green Pepper, Red Onion, and Diced Tomato  400mg

12” pizza (slice)(113g) highest sodium – Meat Lover’s 860mg

12” pizza (slice)(89g) lowest cholesterol - Green Pepper, Red Onion, and Diced Tomato  10mg

12” pizza (slice) highest cholesterol – Meat Lover’s 40mg

Wings (1) lowest calories – All American 40

Wings (1) highest calories – Garlic Parmesan 170

Wings (1) lowest fat – All American 2.5g

Wings (1) highest fat – Garlic Parmesan 12.5g

Wings (1) lowest sodium – All American 195mg

Wings (1) highest sodium – Buffalo Mild 520mg

Wings (1) lowest cholesterol – All American 10mg

Wings (1) highest cholesterol – Spicy BBQ 25mg

You would expect a pizza with vegetables to be the best in nutrition. A slice of the Green Pepper, Red Onion, and Diced Tomato ranked first in every category. On the other end of the spectrum, the Meat Lover’s pizza ranked last in every category. One slice has ¼ of the daily recommended amount of fat and almost 1/3 the amount of sodium. The nutrition data of the wings is an even scarier story. It only takes five Garlic Parmesan wings to hit your fat total for the day. Five Buffalo Mild wings will hit your sodium limit for the whole day.

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