How Many Calories in a Bagel

This delicious round piece of bread is a delicacy all over the world. And while some people like their bagel the way it is, other like a few toppings on it to make it even more delicious. And the question never really comes to the mind of one biting into a bagel. It is after eating one, that a person who is supposed to be on a weight loss diet fears that he may have overshot his daily quota of calorie intake.

Counting the Calories

Since we have bagels in different sizes, (if not shapes!) and with different delicious stuff on it, let us look at each type of bagel individually and find the answer to our question.

Calories by Size
You generally get 4 types of bagels according to its size. Here's the list of calories by size.

Bagel Size (Diameter)	Calories
Small (3")	146 cal
Medium (3.5")	182 cal
Large (4")	229 cal
Extra Large (4.5")	283 cal

Calories by Type
Apart from the size, there's also all the stuff that we put inside the bagel that counts too. The following is a calorie count on a medium (3.5" diameter) bagel with additions.

No-Frills Bagel
Your 'average Joe', plain bagel with nothing on it will give you about 254 calories. The calculation is, of course an approximate value, for a 100 gm bagel.

Bagel With Cream Cheese
The second very popular bagel, the bagel with cream cheese will add... wait for it... 550 calories for that one delicious bagel. Something weight watchers ought to, ideally, stay away from!

Bagel with Butter
Want to go between the plain bagel and the high calorie bagel? The bagel with butter may be a good option, but that still sets you back 495 calories per bagel.

Bagel with Peanut Butter
Now peanut butter is healthy right? Surely that will be a still better option? Not quite. Your peanut butter bagel will set you back anywhere from 400-450 calories, depending on the size of the bagel.

Bagel with Egg
The egg bagel? I'm sure it must be nice to have a great bagel topped with an egg, which incidentally is supposed to be healthy food? A 3.5 inch egg bagel will add 200 calories to your calorie consumption.

Whole Wheat Bagel
Now enough is enough, you must be saying... surely, whole wheat is an healthy option, something weight-watchers and dietitians will tell you. Surely, the whole wheat bagel couldn't add too many calories. You'll be relieved when you see this number: 250 calories.

Of course the ingredients used in preparing a bagel can make all the difference to the calories in your bagel, so the numbers given below are only an approximate amount of calories in the bagel.

But still finding it difficult to quit the bagel. Well here's a little factoid that will brighten your day. The calories from bagel are generally carbohydrate based calories. Bread anyway has a high carbohydrate content and so does bagel. So where's the good news? Well the good news is that if you exercise enough, you will be able to burn those extra calories, before they turn into fat!

As you can see, the bagel is a pretty high calorie food item and perhaps not advisable for people who are on a diet. But that doesn't mean you cannot treat yourself with your favorite bread once in a while! All you need to do is get enough exercise before or after eating your bagel!