When ordering pizza for dinner, calories are often the last thing on our minds. We’re focused on satisfying our craving for gooey cheese, zesty sauce, and crispy crust. But if you’re watching your weight or have certain health goals, the calorie content of your favorite pizza can be important to pay attention to.
Domino’s is one of the most popular pizza chains, known for its hand-tossed crust and wide variety of toppings. If you frequently order a medium pepperoni pizza from Domino’s, you may be wondering just how many calories are contained in one of their signature pies.
In this article, we’ll break down the calorie count in a Domino’s medium (12-inch) pepperoni pizza, looking at how many calories are in the dough, sauce, cheese and pepperoni. We’ll also compare Domino’s nutrition information to other popular pizza chains.
Armed with the facts, you can still enjoy your pizza night while keeping your daily calorie goals in mind. A medium pepperoni pizza from Domino’s packs quite a calorie punch, but there are ways to reduce the calorie load if you want to lighten it up. Let’s dig in!
Calories in Domino’s Dough
The foundation of any great pizza is the dough. Domino’s uses a classic hand-tossed style pizza dough for its pies. The calories contained in the dough depend on the size of the pizza.
For a medium 12-inch pizza, Domino’s lists the dough at 200 calories. The same size thin crust has fewer calories at 150. Thus, for a pepperoni pizza made with traditional hand-tossed dough, you’re starting with a base of 200 calories before adding anything else.
Domino’s gets its dough calories from the flour, yeast, olive oil and salt used to make the dough. Flour provides the main source of calories, about 75 calories in the 2 ounces of flour used for a medium dough ball. The yeast helps the dough rise and gives it that chewy, elastic texture. Though yeast is not high in calories, the fermentation process develops more complex starches and carbs as the sugars are metabolized.
Ways to Reduce Dough Calories
If you want to lighten up the dough portion of your pizza, there are couple options:
– Choose thin crust instead of regular hand-tossed. The thinner crust uses less dough and has 50 fewer calories than the hand-tossed.
– Order a smaller size pizza. The small 10-inch pizza crust at Domino’s has about 160 calories, so sizing down saves you 40 calories off the medium.
– Eat fewer slices. Only eat 1-2 slices instead of consuming the whole pizza. Leaving pizza uneaten? Ask for a box immediately and put leftovers away.
– Build your own pizza on a veggie crust. Domino’s offers Cauliflower Crust pizza with just 70 calories per serving! Choosing this veggie base can slash a significant amount of calories.
Calories in Pizza Sauce
What would pizza be without its signature sauce? Domino’s pizza sauce adds sweet, herby flavor to balance the cheese and crust.
Domino’s doesn’t provide full nutrition info on its pizza sauce alone. But based on the information they do provide, a medium 12-inch pizza contains around 60 calories from the tomato sauce. This is because their sauce is made from fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, which are naturally low calorie at about 25 calories per 1/2 cup.
Domino’s adds some seasonings and a bit of sugar or high fructose corn syrup to enhance the flavor of their sauce. This adds a small amount of additional calories. Overall though, the sauce only contributes about 60 calories to a medium pizza’s total calorie count.
Ways to Reduce Sauce Calories
Since the sauce is already low-calorie, there are just a couple ways to potentially reduce the calorie content from the sauce:
– Order light sauce or no sauce. Eliminating the sauce or getting light sauce removes those 60 calories entirely.
– Build your own pizza with veggies instead of sauce. Choosing a white sauce or olive oil base instead of traditional tomato sauce avoids those calories. Get creative and use pesto, barbecue sauce, or alfredo as the foundation.
– Dip crust in marinara on the side. Order marinara sauce cups and use for dipping crust rather than spreading sauce on the whole pizza.
Cheese Calories
Ooey, gooey melted cheese is what makes pizza universally crave-worthy. Domino’s certainly doesn’t skimp on the cheese – their pizzas are liberally topped with stretchy mozzarella and provolone cheese blends.
Cheese is both high in calories and fat. According to Domino’s nutrition information, a medium 12-inch pepperoni pizza contains about 450 calories just from the cheese alone. That’s nearly a quarter of most people’s recommended 2000 daily calories in just the cheese!
What accounts for all those cheese calories? Fat is a big one – pizza cheese contains about 9 grams of fat per ounce. The protein and carbohydrates in cheese also contribute calories.
Melted cheese tends to be higher in fat and calories than unmelted cheese. The melting process releases more fat, increasing calorie density. Plus, stretchy melted pizza cheese means you usually end up eating more of it per bite!
Ways to Reduce Cheese Calories
To lighten up the cheese impact:
– Order light cheese or half the cheese. Cut the cheese portion in half to save over 200 calories.
– Choose cheeses naturally lower in fat. Part-skim mozzarella has fewer calories than whole milk varieties.
– Add veggies to displace some cheese. Load up your pizza with mushrooms, onions, peppers and more to add volume while removing some cheese.
– Sprinkle a salad with cheese instead of eating melted on pizza. You’ll use less cheese overall.
– Go meatless. A cheese pizza has less cheese than one loaded with meat toppings.
Pepperoni Calories
No pizza topping is more iconic than savory, spicy pepperoni. The cured meat adds a satisfying, salty flavor contrast to all that melted cheese.
Pepperoni is high in fat, which drives up its calorie count. According to Domino’s nutrition facts, the pepperoni topping adds 70 calories to a medium pizza.
A single medium pizza contains about 48 slices of pepperoni. Each slice of pepperoni contains about 1.5g fat and 15 calories. So all those slices quickly add up!
The combination of fat, protein and sodium make pepperoni calorie-dense. If using turkey pepperoni instead, you’ll save about 10 calories per slice given its slightly lower fat content. Still, 48 slices of turkey pepperoni have over 600 calories on a whole pizza.
Ways to Reduce Pepperoni Calories
Here are some tips for cutting calories from your pepperoni pizza:
– Ask for half the pepperoni or no pepperoni to remove those 70 calories entirely.
– Choose other meats lower in fat like chicken, ham or bacon.
– Load up the pie with veggies to displace pepperoni slices.
– Create a “pizza salad” with pepperoni on top instead of a whole pizza with crust.
– Choose one slice and add a side salad instead of eating multiple slices.
Total Calories in a Domino’s Medium Pepperoni Pizza
Now that we’ve looked at the calories in the individual components, let’s put it all together to get the full calorie total for a Domino’s medium pepperoni pizza:
| Dough Calories: | 200 |
| Sauce Calories: | 60 |
| Cheese Calories: | 450 |
| Pepperoni Calories: | 70 |
| Total Calories: | 780 |
A medium 12-inch pepperoni pizza from Domino’s contains around 780 calories.
This number can vary slightly based on exact ingredient amounts and portion sizes. But based on Domino’s posted nutrition data, you can expect a full medium pepperoni pizza to have about 780 calories.
That’s a significant chunk of calories from one pizza meal! The recommended daily calorie intake is around 2000 calories for the average moderately active woman and 2500 for the average man.
Ways to Lighten Up Your Pizza
If you want to enjoy pizza while reducing the calorie count, here are some tips:
– Stick to 1-2 slices instead of an entire pizza
– Choose thin crust instead of regular crust
– Load up on veggie toppings instead of extra cheese and meat
– Opt for lighter sauces like vinegar or oil instead of full-fat tomato sauce
– Sprinkle a salad with a little cheese rather than eating slices topped with cheese
– Order a small or medium pizza instead of a large
– Split your pizza with a friend or partner so you eat less
– Pair your slice with a low calorie side like salad or veggie soup
How Domino’s Pepperoni Pizza Compares to Other Pizza Chains
Now that we know a Domino’s medium pepperoni pizza clocks in around 780 calories, how does that compare to its competitors?
Here’s a look at the calorie count for a medium pepperoni pizza at other popular national pizza chains:
| Pizza Chain | Calories in Medium Pepperoni Pizza |
| Domino’s | 780 |
| Pizza Hut | 820 |
| Papa John’s | 840 |
| Little Caesars | 850 |
As you can see, a medium pepperoni pizza ranges from about 780-850 calories across the major pizza chains. The differences in calories comes down to factors like:
– Ingredients used (cheese type, sauce flavorings, dough recipes)
– Portion sizes of dough, cheese, pepperoni
– Cooking methods that impact fat content
Domino’s comes in on the lower end of the calorie range, but not by much. All of the popular pizza chains serve up a medium pepperoni pizza with around 800-850 calories or more.
So picking Domino’s over Papa John’s, for example, can save you about 60 calories. That small difference isn’t hugely significant. No matter what, a full medium pepperoni pizza contains a hefty calorie load!
The Verdict: Yes, a Domino’s Pizza Has a Lot of Calories!
When you add up the calorie counts for the dough, sauce, cheese and pepperoni toppings, a Domino’s medium pepperoni pizza rings in at approximately 780 calories.
That’s about 40% of your daily calorie allowance if you’re following a 2000 calorie per day diet. And it’s about 1/3 of your calories if you’re eating 2500 calories per day.
Pizza is delicious, but it’s easy to underestimate just how many calories we take in when indulging. If you want the satisfying taste of pizza without all the calories, load up on veggie toppings, ask for light cheese, get a smaller size or stick to just a slice.
Or give the new lower-calorie Cauliflower Crust a try. You can still enjoy pizza flavor while making a healthier choice to keep your daily calories in check.
No matter which pizza type you get, be mindful of your portion size if you are tracking your calories. Slice up that medium pie into 4-6 slices and stop at 1-2 for a calorie-controlled treat. Then you can truly savor your favorite pizza flavors without the guilt!
