VI.A.1.c. Fat-Free Versus Regular—Calorie Comparison

A calorie is a calorie is a calorie whether it comes from fat or carbohydrate. 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 will 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!

Nutrient data taken from Nutrient Data System for Research, Version v4.02/30, Nutrition Coordinating Center, University of Minnesota.