Confused about calories in ground bison

krispy1138 · 10-15-2008, 03:35 PM

I eat a lot of ground bison. I usually use the cooked value in figuring out the calories, but I'm trying to be more precise so I thought I'd hunt done the raw value (it's easier for me to measure that way).

Anyway, I know we can't be 100% precise about how many calories are actually in a food, but I'm coming across a wide range of values and I'm not sure what to do? Should I just pick one that falls in the middle and go with it?

This is what I found:

1 oz = 62 calories, 4 grams fat, 5 grams protein
1 oz = 50 calories, 3 grams fat, 4 grams protein
1 oz = 52 calories, 4 grams fat, 7 grams protein (per USDA)
1 oz = 63 calories, 5 grams fat, 5 grams protein

These discrepancies may not seem huge to some, but I'm doing OPT so every calorie really counts.

I thought the USDA might be a little more accurate but I'm not sure.

Aoife · 10-15-2008, 03:42 PM

Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Game meat , bison, ground, raw [buffalo]
62 cals/oz

I find nutritiondata to be really helpful, and usually more accurate than sites where users put in stuff.

Although, partly you're gonna have issues because of the variance of fat content in any given bunch of meat, esp if leanness of meat is not stated.

Espi · 10-18-2008, 04:01 PM

Nutrition data tends to be quite good and I also heard good things about USDA. However, thhe 3rd one can never be accurate since the math doesn't add up:
4x9 + 7x4 = 64 kcal

Fat content is already quite variable in farm-bred meat.. it's highly variable in wild meat. Just accept it's going to be 'fuzzy'.

Aoife · 10-18-2008, 10:56 PM

Also part of the variability is also going to be cut, just like beef. When you buy ground beef, you can get an idea of fat content based on if it's ground chuck, ground sirloin, etc. Such isn't as readily available for bison.

Personally I'd either use the highest number, or split the difference.