When eating sunflower seeds in the shell, how many calories does ones seed have, and how many calories are expended in cracking the shell and getting the seed out?
When my sister was my friend, back in 1987, she helped me change my eating habits. I wanted to lose about 30 pounds and keep it off. She taught me to count calories, something I still do to this day without even thinking about it.
She said sunflower seeds in the shell are a good snack. I said, “But seeds are fattening!”
She that was true, but getting the seed out of the shell uses up about as many calories as you take in per seed.
So, how do we figure this out?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
5 Answers
This site says that one tablespoon of whole sunflower seeds has 46 calorie which equates to 13 minutes of walking. I think even if you spent 13 minutes cracking those shells you wouldn’t work out as much as walking. So it seems likely your friend is wrong. Walking and eating sunflower seeds might work though!
We have to figure out a way to break it down to calories per seed and calories used per shell cracking.
A tablespoon of just seed kernels has 46 calories but you figure that’s about….what, 20 seeds? Wait…no. Wait. My husband actually bought a pack of shelled seeds, so I guess I’ll measure out a tablespoon and begin counting. Then I’ll portion out that amount of unshelled seeds and TAKE A PICTURE!!
Fluther, I hate thee sometimes! Glad he’s out of town so no one will be witness to this ridiculousness!
OK. 1 tablespoon of seeds=about 200 seeds. I am eating them all tonight, in about 2 minutes.
However, when I crack the seeds, I sure as hell don’t crack 200 at one time! I’d bet I don’t do more than 50 and that’s when I’m really bored at work.
Again, how do we determine how many calories are expended in cracking one seed? Not to mention the act of getting one seed at a time and bringing it to your mouth. And the act of taking the shell out of your mouth and putting it in the trash.
All 200 seeds just got ate in ½ a second because I didn’t have to crack them.
You can include putting the shells in the bin but you can’t include ferrying them to your mouth as you would be doing that no matter what you ate!
I can’t see that cracking the shells makes that much difference to your overall energy use. It’s very minor. The calories in the seeds are never going to be cancelled out by the energy used in consumption. There is no such thing as negative calories!
If you search calories burned while typing on a PC, which is probably equivalent compared to the arm movements and activity eating shelled sunflower seeds, the result is:
The calories burned, for an average male, weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) is 56 Calories, in 30 minutes of sitting, writing, desk work, typing.
⅓ cup of unshelled seeds = 75 calories
So assuming that you eat those in 30 minutes, your total calorie intake is 15 calories, eat a bit slower and you will burn more calories than you consume
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
