Bride Sending Out Wedding Invitations Claims She Consumed More Than 1,000 Calories By Licking The Stamps & Envelopes
It's not the story you usually hear about brides and calories.
Sopotnicki / Shutterstock Weddings take a lot out of a person. They are difficult to plan, and can even be difficult to get through. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made.
However, when it comes to brides and calories, you usually hear about brides cutting calories. Many would not purposely consume over 1,000 calories right before the big day. One bride did without even realizing it.
A bride said she accidentally consumed over 1,000 calories by licking the stamps and envelopes for her wedding invitations.
Chloe Williams is a TikTok content creator who went viral for a strange reason. In a video with over one million views, Williams said, “I just found out I consumed over 1,000 [calories] in one sitting by licking envelopes.”
In the video, Williams triumphantly held up a stack of envelopes above her head.
Unfortunately for Williams, licking the envelopes was the only method that would work. “I tried a sponge, and it didn’t seal very well,” she said in the caption.
One person helpfully commented, “They sell stamp sealers! They look like bingo dabbers.”
Williams replied, “I bought them for the rest. They work so well.”
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Others were incredulous. “Not possible,” one person said.
“Do things that aren’t edible have calories?” another asked.
It does seem like Williams’ calorie calculations could have been off, though. In the caption of her video, she also said, “Yes, I did accidentally look at British stamps [calories] instead of envelopes.”
How many calories do envelopes and stamps have?
Despite Williams’ incorrect calculations, she was still on to something. It’s true that British stamps do have a surprising amount of calories.
According to Livestrong, “British stamps … contain about 5.9 calories per lick; the adhesive on a larger commemorative or special British stamp contains a whopping 14.5 calories.”
Based on this information, someone could do some serious damage from licking British stamps.
Meanwhile, American stamps have a lower calorie count, although it is still one that is present when many people would have assumed it wasn’t.
“The calorie content in the adhesive on the back of a U.S. postage stamp works out to about one-tenth of a calorie, according to nutritional information from the United States Postal Service posted on the DietFacts.com website,” Livestrong noted.
Therefore, U.S. stamps are relatively healthy compared to British ones. If Williams did lick any stamps in addition to her envelopes, they were likely U.S. ones, so she can rest easy knowing the calorie count is lower.
According to information from Atlas Obscura, envelopes most likely have a similar amount of calories.
They said, “Per the Food and Drug Administration, gum arabic, a substance commonly used in stamps and envelopes, has around 1.7 calories per gram, which by some estimates, equates to around 0.1 calories per lick in the U.S. Not a ton, but it’s not the same everywhere.”
Did Williams really consume 1,000 calories from licking envelopes?
It’s really nearly impossible to tell how many calories Williams took in from her envelope-licking session. However, it’s likely that it was less than 1,000.
The 5.9 calories that can be found on the back of a British stamp are far more than the one-tenth that usually show up on an envelope. Williams can take comfort in knowing that she didn’t consume as many calories as she originally thought.
It is surprising to learn that there are actual calories to be consumed from licking an envelope or a stamp. As someone in the comments pointed out, it seems like things that aren’t actually edible shouldn’t contain calories.
In any case, Williams probably shouldn't worry about fitting into her wedding dress because of this.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.