Before you order a pizza, you may wonder if you’re getting your money’s worth based on the weight of a pizza.
The heavier a pizza is, the more filling it’s likely going to be.
That’s because there’s more dough or more toppings on it.
Here’s what you need to know about how much a pizza weighs.
How Much Does A Pizza Weigh?
An average 12-inch pizza weighs around two pounds.
Since most ingredients used in pizza are light, ounces are the typical unit used for measurement.
The heaviest part of pizza is the dough.
There are several other factors that can add to the weight of the pizza as well.
They include:
- Amount of dough
- Ingredients
- Sauce or no sauce
- Size of pizza
What Determines The Weight Of A Pizza?
1. Dough
One of the biggest factors that determine the weight of pizza is its dough.
There isn’t pizza without first mixing and baking the dough.
Like many other baked goods, it uses flour.
In particular, most pizza companies use unbleached all-purpose flour.
Some might also use bread flour that they have watered down.
Flour, once mixed with water, becomes very heavy.
The more flour that a pizza needs, the heavier it becomes.
Another factor that determines the weight of pizza is its toppings.
2. Toppings
1. Cheese
Cheese can also become heavy if they use a lot of it.
A double-cheese pizza with nothing else on it, for example, is going to weigh more than a single-cheese pizza.
Cheese is often thick and creates a layer on the pizza.
To make the layer, they need to use a lot of cheese.
The larger the pizza, the more cheese they need.
That adds to the weight.
Other toppings can also influence the weight.
2. Vegetables
Vegetables and meat can be heavy depending on the size and amount.
If you have a lot of peppers, for example, then your pizza is going to be quite heavy.
Companies tend to take large slices of peppers and place them on the pizza.
That goes for meat, too.
3. Meats
Pepperoni slices tend to be quite large.
If you order a deluxe pizza with slices of steak or chicken on it, then you can also expect the pizza to be heavier.
Those large chunks of toppings can add a significant amount of weight to the pizza.
4. Sauce
Some people like to eat their pizza without the sauce.
This takes away some of the weight of the pizza.
Others like extra sauce.
This adds to the weight of the pizza.
Tomato sauce can be quite heavy since they need a lot of it to spread over the pizza.
The sauce has to be present in every bite, and it has to be thick enough to give the pizza the right flavor and texture.
Depending on the amount they use, the tomato sauce can add a lot of weight to a pizza.
3. Size Of The Pizza
Finally, one of the biggest factors that determine the weight of a pizza is its size.
A small pizza is going to weigh significantly less than an extra-large pizza.
Even if the type of pizza is the same, like a cheese pizza, you can expect the larger size to weigh more.
That’s because it needs to use more dough, more cheese, and more sauce than the smaller version.
All of these factors determine a pizza’s weight.
How Much Does An Average Slice Of Pizza Weigh?
To break down the weight of a pizza even further, you can also weigh a slice of pizza.
An average slice of pizza comes from a 12-inch pizza.
It’s difficult to give an estimate since slices often come in different sizes.
Even a professional pizza company may deliver pizza slices that weren’t cut evenly.
However, if you cut the pizza into four equal slices, you’ll find that one slice weighs approximately 195 grams.
The weight of the slice increases if you have extra-heavy toppings like vegetables or meat.
The size of the slice also determines its weight.
A slice from an extra-large pizza, for example, is going to weigh more than a slice from a small pizza.
That’s because the slice is naturally larger.
Extra-large pizzas come with a large diameter.
Since it has a larger diameter, it also has a larger surface area.
That means each slice is bigger.
Since the slice is bigger, it uses more ingredients and weighs more.
How Many Calories Does An Average Pizza Have?
Besides a pizza’s weight, you might also have a concern over the number of calories it has.
One of the major determining factors of its calories is the type of pizza that it is.
A thin-crust pizza, for example, is going to have fewer calories than a thick-crust pizza.
That also applies to its toppings and size.
A thin-crust cheese pizza has an average of 230 calories a slice.
A thick-crust cheese pizza has an average of 312 calories a slice.
If you eat an entire pizza, then you could end up eating more than 1,000 calories depending on the pizza’s size.
These numbers are only for cheese pizzas, too.
If you have vegetables on your pizza, then the calorie count won’t be quite as high.
If you have meat on your pizza, however, then you could end up adding a substantial number to your calories.
This is especially true if you’re enjoying a meat lover’s pizza that combines several different types of meat.
The reason the type of crust affects the calorie count has to do with the size.
A thin-crust pizza uses less dough than a thick-crust pizza.
Since there isn’t as much dough in the pizza, you’re eating less of it.
That number increases a lot when you choose to eat a deep-dish pizza.
That has a lot of crust, sauce, and other toppings that add several calories to each slice.
Some deep-dish pizzas can have 640 calories a slice.
How Much Does A Deep-Dish Pizza Weigh?
The heaviest type of pizza is a deep-dish pizza.
The average weight of a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is four pounds.
That’s because it uses a large amount of dough and fillings.
Some deep-dish pizzas have a crust that’s two inches tall.
However, the crust is on the thinner side.
It’s thick enough to support the pizza, but that’s about it.
Since it uses more crust than the average thick or thin-crusted pizza, it adds to the weight.
The bulk of the weight of a Chicago-style pizza comes from its toppings and sauce.
To give their customers a flavorful experience, Chicago-style pizzamakers fill their pizza with sauce.
Their pizza closely resembles a pie by the time they’re done.
Once there’s enough sauce and cheese in the middle, they’ll add toppings to it.
Some deluxe pizzerias will also include toppings within the pizza, too.
Since they need more cheese and toppings to mix throughout the pizza, it also adds to the weight.
The other main type of deep-dish pizza is Detroit-style.
While Chicago-style tends to be well-known, Detroit-style pizza is slowly starting to increase in popularity, too.
It’s similar to Chicago-style pizza in that it’s also a deep dish.
However, whereas Chicago-style pizza uses a thin crust for its deep dish, Detroit-style makes a thicker, fluffier, crust.
Since it uses more crust, you can expect a Detroit-style pizza to weigh more than a Chicago-style pizza.
Which Type Of Pizza Weighs The Most?
Between Chicago-style, New York-style, and Detroit-style, you may wonder which pizza is the heaviest.
Chicago-style pizza has tall walls of crust that house sauce, cheese, and other toppings.
While these dishes are usually small or medium in size, there are sometimes larger sizes available, too.
Most of the weight in a Chicago-style pizza comes from its crust and sauce.
That’s because the pizza maker will use some extra sauce to fill the crater inside of the pizza.
If the specific pizzeria making the pizza also uses a lot of cheese, that also adds to the weight of a Chicago-style pizza.
New York-style pizza is different from both Chicago and Detroit-style pizza.
Instead of being a deep dish, it uses a thin crust.
The aspect of New York pizza that sets it apart is its size.
When you order a real New York-style pizza, you can expect thin crust and large size.
Their slices, alone, tend to be huge.
Even a small pizza is practically a size larger than you would expect.
This influences the weight in a few different ways
The first is that the weight doesn’t come from the crust.
Since it’s thin, it only uses a small amount of dough.
Even the larger size doesn’t use that much dough because the crust is so thin.
The second way that the style impacts its weight is its toppings.
Since there’s a lot of surface area to cover, there’s a lot of cheese, sauce, and other toppings.
Large chunks of meat or vegetables can make it all the heavier.
When you compare New York-style pizza with Chicago-style pizza, Chicago-style pizza weighs a bit more than New York-style pizza.
That’s because the amount of crust of a Chicago-style pizza is thicker and has more volume than a New York-style pizza.
Everything else is about the same.
The last style of pizza to consider and compare is Detroit-style pizza.
The main difference between Detroit and Chicago pizza is that Detroit uses a fluffier type of crust.
There’s a lot of air and volume in their crust.
Since it’s also a deep-dish pizza, the inside of the pizza uses a lot of sauce, cheese, and toppings.
That means it likely weighs more than a New York-style pizza.
Its main competitor is Chicago-style pizza.
Between these two styles, Detroit-style pizza weights a bit more than Chicago-style pizza
It all comes down to the crust.
While Chicago-style crust is often two inches in height, it’s also thin.
The Detroit-style pizza uses a fluffy crust that gives it more substance and weight.
Everything between the two is the same or similar.
They both use a lot of sauce, cheese, and toppings inside of the deep-dish pizza.
When comparing all three, Detroit-style pizza weighs the most.
Does Frozen Or Fresh Pizza Weigh The Most?
You may also wonder if there’s a difference in weight when you compare frozen pizza with fresh pizza.
Frozen pizza is the type of pizza that you buy from the store.
There are several brands of frozen pizza like:
- Red Baron
- DiGiorno’s
- Jack’s
- Tombstone
Comparing these types of pizza with pizza that you order from a local pizzeria may make you think that they weigh the same, but that isn’t the case.
Frozen pizza usually only has a few toppings.
They’re mass-produced in a factory which means they sometimes need to spread their ingredients out.
Their production is carefully controlled to offer them the most profit possible.
There’s also minimal cheese and sauce used in frozen pizzas.
The idea is to give you enough of those ingredients to find satisfaction with the pizza.
This is different from fresh pizza which tends to go heavy on ingredients.
They want to offer intense flavor and texture in their recipes.
The crust is different between the two, too.
Frozen pizza tends to have a thin crust.
Even pizzas that advertise a thicker crust tend to be thinner than most average fresh pizzas.
Since there isn’t as much crust, the pizza is lighter.
Considering the smaller amount of ingredients, the smaller size of the pizza as a whole, and the thin crust, frozen pizza weighs less than a fresh pizza.
You can also find the weight of the frozen pizza in the box’s description.
It’s usually under one or two pounds which is the standard average for 12-inch fresh pizzas.
Fresh pizza is heavier than frozen pizza.
How Do You Weigh Pizza?
If you plan on making homemade pizza, then you may wonder how to estimate how much dough you need to make the size of pizza that you need.
Some experts will tell you that practice makes perfect.
Once you do it enough, you’ll be able to eyeball it and make the right decision.
A good way to start, however, is to understand that one ounce of pizza dough roughly equals one inch of diameter.
If you want to make a thin crust pizza, then you’ll want to measure the pan or disc that you’re using.
Take that measurement and convert it to ounces.
Then weigh your dough as you’re making the pizza to ensure its ounces match up with the measurement of the pan.
You can always take away dough or add more if it doesn’t seem like it’s enough.
If you want to make a thick crust or a deep-dish pizza, then you’ll need to use more dough.
Conclusion
While the average weight of a pizza is two pounds, there are plenty of factors that can make it weigh more or less.
Certain styles of pizza also weigh more than others.
Understanding that one ounce of dough equals one inch per diameter of pizza can help you make the perfect size of pizza at home.
