I don't understand the calorie count on my pop corn?

Question

I'm a little slow this morning I guess. Label says: Per serving, Calories = 120 (3 tbsp unpopped) then next to it says 15 (1cup popped). Do some of the calories go away when popped? There are 2 servings per bag. If I eat half a bag (1 serving) how many calories is that???

Answer 1

3 tablespoons of unpopped kernels make ALOT more than 1 cup of popped popcorn. It makes like, at least 10 cups. So 1 cup popped popcorn would only be like 1/4 tbsp unpopped. If its already popped... hmm, its hard to say which they're talking about there, what is the total size of the bag?

Maybe they are including the calorie count of the unpopped popcorn as some kernels got in unpopped. I know plan, unseasoned popcorn that you airpop yourself is 5 cups per serving but i guess its different if it's prepopped.

Answer 2

One serving is 120 calories,  If there are two servings in the bag, then the whole bag contains 240 calories.  I'm guessing that there is a "g" after the 15, indicating the weight of the serving size as 15 grams [roughly 1/2 ounce].

Answer 3

3 tbsp of unpopped popcorn would be kernels, which would be much smaller than popper popcorn. 1 cup of popcorn that has been popped is a lot less actual pieces (original kernels) then 3 tbsp of small kernels. This means that once you have popped the popcorn, just go by the 15 for 1 cup of popcorn (although that does sound a little low).