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25-120 kcal per cookie
Almost every cookie has 400-500 kcal per 100 g, so what decides the count is the weight of one piece. A thin plain biscuit like the Marie, which the London bakers Peek Frean created in 1874 for the wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna to the Duke of Edinburgh, is 25-30 kcal. A sugar cookie like the Russian Yubileynoye is 37-45 kcal, a cracker 20-45, an oatmeal cookie 65-115 depending on its size, and a big chocolate chip cookie up to 120.
Table: calories in cookies by type
These are averages from reference tables and the labels of mass-market brands, and since every factory has its own recipe and size, the table gives ranges:
| Cookie | kcal per 100 g | Weight of 1 piece | kcal per piece |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thin plain biscuit | 400-420 | 5-7 g | 22-29 |
| Galette (dry biscuit) | 380-400 | 6-10 g | 25-40 |
| Cracker | 420-440 | 5-10 g | 22-44 |
| Sugar cookie | 440-470 | 8-10 g | 37-45 |
| Sandwich cookie with cream | 470-490 | 10-12 g | 50-60 |
| Shortbread | 450-520 | 10-15 g | 50-75 |
| Jam-filled, rich | 420-450 | 15-20 g | 65-90 |
| Oatmeal | 430-460 | 15-25 g | 65-115 |
| Oatmeal "sugar-free", with fructose | 380-430 | 15-25 g | 60-105 |
| Chocolate chip | 470-500 | 12-25 g | 60-120 |
The oatmeal cookie deserves a second look: it has a reputation as the "healthy" one, but in calories it sits right beside shortbread, because along with the oats it carries plenty of sugar and butter.
How to count your cookie in a minute
The pack shows calories per 100 g and total weight. All you need is the weight of one cookie.
Method 1, with scales. Weigh five cookies and divide by five.
Method 2, without scales. Count the cookies in the pack and divide the pack weight by that number.
Example: a 112 g pack of sugar cookies holds 12 pieces. One weighs 9.3 g. At 460 kcal per 100 g that is 9.3 × 460 / 100 = 43 kcal.
How many calories in a pack of cookies
| Pack | Weight | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar cookies, small | 112 g | 490-525 |
| Plain biscuits | 180 g | 720-755 |
| Sandwich cookies with cream | 95 g | 445-465 |
| Crackers | 200 g | 840-880 |
| Oatmeal, loose | 300 g | 1,290-1,380 |
| Shortbread, box | 400 g | 1,800-2,080 |
A whole pack of cookies with a TV series can easily be half of a daily target.
Why cookies fill you up so poorly
Cookies have little protein (5-7 g per 100 g) and almost no water, and they combine sugar and fat in a ratio that the brain finds very hard to stop eating. The same 200 kcal as cottage cheese with berries or an apple with a handful of nuts keeps you full several times longer. The FoodMate Score shows it well: for cookies it is almost always low, even for "fitness" versions.
Cookies while losing weight
You do not have to forbid cookies, but you do have to count them: they are classic "hidden" calories that get eaten in passing and forgotten.
What helps in practice:
- Choose thin, dry ones. Plain biscuits and galettes are two or three times lighter per piece than oatmeal cookies.
- Do not eat from the pack. Set aside two and put the pack away.
- Have them with protein. Cookies after lunch or with kefir or yoghurt are more filling than "empty" with tea.
- Do not trust the word "fitness". Cookies with fructose or bran are usually only 5-15% lighter.
To see how cookies fit into your target, start with the calorie calculator: on a 1,600-1,800 kcal deficit two oatmeal cookies are about 10% of the day.
How to log cookies without fuss
In MyFoodMate AI you can photograph the cookies on their saucer or type "3 oatmeal cookies", and the app puts in an average weight, and if you always buy the same packet, correct the grams once so that picking it from "My dishes" afterwards gives the exact portion.
Frequently asked questions
The oatmeal cookie is what people ask about most, and it weighs 15-25 g and has 65-115 kcal, with the classic twenty-gram supermarket one at about 87. Per 100 g nearly every cookie sits between 400 and 500 kcal, so the gap between galettes at 380-420 and chocolate shortbread at up to 500-520 is smaller than it tastes. Cookies in the evening are fine, it's the number that matters, since a couple of sugar cookies after dinner add 80-90 kcal while a whole packet during a TV series wrecks the day at any hour. Russia's Yubileynoye, incidentally, traces its story back to 1913 and the Romanov tercentenary, at least according to the Bolshevik factory in Moscow, once Siou & Co, and a single biscuit still weighs about 8-10 g.
We check blog materials against current WHO recommendations.
