Almost three weeks after Judge Richard J. Holwell of the United States District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of calorie counts display, NY health inspectors have already started issuing violation notices to restaurants that do not post calorie counts beside the prices on their menu boards.

Five restaurants received citations on Monday, the New York City Health Department said. They were Dunkin’ Donuts at 445 Park Avenue South, at East 30th Street; McDonald’s at 1560 Broadway, at West 46th Street; Popeye’s, at 321 West 125th Street, between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and St. Nicholas Avenue; Sbarro at 22 West 34th Street, next to the Empire State Building; and TGI Friday’s at 677 Lexington Avenue, at East 56th Street.

The “must-include-calories” ruling follows several studies saying New Yorkers are gaining weight and being diagnosed with diabetes at a higher rate than the rest of the nation. In fact, Judge Holwell noted that 56.1 percent of New York City’s population was overweight or obese and that restaurants play an increasingly large role in an individual’s diet.

The decision says any restaurant chain with at least 15 outlets nationwide would have to display calorie counts on menu boards, menus or food tags. Therefore, this rule applies to roughly 2,000 restaurants or about 10 percent of the 23,000 in the city.

Some of the restaurant chains that would be covered by the regulation did not wait for the case to work its way through the appeals process and posted the calorie counts anyway. Among them are Starbucks, Subway, Quiznos, Chipotle and Jamba Juice.

There are no fines for now, but starting with July, violations will be recorded and fines will be issued. Until then, violations issued to restaurants will not count toward assessing penalties.

Once penalties begin, fines will range from $200 to $2,000, with amounts increasing for repeat violations.