How many calories in fries
A medium portion of fries has 320 kcal, with 15 g of fat.
Portion
To burn it off
Chips are potato, which is mostly starch, cooked in oil, which is where the fat comes from. Thin fries soak up more oil per bite than fat chunky chips.
A small portion is 230 kcal and a large one is 480. Going large adds 160 to a medium, roughly another small snack.
Ketchup is mostly sugar, mayo is mostly oil. A dollop of mayo adds more than you'd think.
Tips
- 1Order the small one and eat them while they're hot, which is when they're best anyway.
- 2Make oven chips at home with a light spray of oil.
Where it comes from
Belgium and France both claim chips. A Belgian story says villagers on the Meuse fried potato strips in the 1680s when the river froze and they could not catch fish. Historian Pierre Leclercq points out potatoes only reached that area around 1735, and thinks frying sliced potatoes may have started in Paris, where they were sold on the Pont Neuf by the late 1700s.
Read the full story · Where does our food come from? · Source: The Brussels Times, Fry me a river: the sizzling debate on the origin of Belgian fries
Just type it
medium fries
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Questions
Are chunky chips lower than thin fries?
A bit, usually. Thicker chips have less surface for oil to cling to.
How many calories in large fries?
A large portion is about 480 kcal.
Are oven chips lower?
Generally yes, because they're cooked with much less oil than deep fried ones.
Are sweet potato fries lower in calories?
Not by much. They're fried in the same oil, so a portion lands close to regular fries. They taste sweeter, but the number barely moves.
Does the frying oil change the calories?
Hardly. Sunflower oil, rapeseed oil and beef dripping all come to about 9 kcal per gram, so it's how much fat the fries soak up that counts, not which one.
Did you know?
A large McDonald's fries in the US is 480 kcal, about the same as four and a half medium bananas.
Fast food facts · Source: McDonald's USA, World Famous Fries (Large)
