Cooking sprays print "0 kcal per spray" because FDA rounds sub-5 kcal to zero. The oil inside runs 792 kcal per 100 g — a half-second spray is ~1 g or ~9 kcal. A 5-second spray adds ~90 kcal. Portion errors on dense fats reach 50–200% (Almiron-Roig et al., Appetite 2013).
How should I track Oil, Pam cooking spray, original?
With calorie-dense foods like Oil, Pam cooking spray, original, a kitchen scale is your best friend. Research shows that portion estimation errors reach 50–200% for fats and oils (Almiron-Roig et al., Appetite 2013) — even a tablespoon off can mean 40–120 extra calories. Weigh on a scale rather than eyeballing — this applies to both liquid oils and solid fats like butter. If you use cooking sprays, note that "0 calorie" labels are per fraction-of-a-second spray — a realistic burst is closer to 5–10 calories, and multiple sprays add up.