Have certain foods ever surprised you with their calorie content? Good or bad?
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I had a sandwich at Denny's a couple months ago it was pretty simple turkey and bacon with spinach and a sundried tomato mayo type sauce. 720 calories for a tiny sandwich. I was so sad afterward, becasue I was still hungry, but had no calories left for dinner. Since then, unless it is a cheat day, I always go online first to find out nutrition before ordering. But the calories for veggies also surprised me in the begining, so much food for so few calories
Veggies are the other way around for me actually. I always thought they were so low calorie, but I find a serving pretty small for 35 calories (carrots, broccoli etc).0 -
Flapjacks (I'm from the uk, so I don't mean pancakes :P) !! I used to eat one nearly every single day, and they are my favourite food - turns out it was nearly 400 cals for that one bar. Every. day.
I do miss them though.0 -
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I was surprised how low calorie potatoes are. They get such a bad press, but you get good value for your cals.0
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The first day I started counting I went to Sonic for a small shake...over 800 calories!! That day was totally shot! LOL. Now if I have a shake craving I make it at home so I know what goes in it and it's only half the calories if that.0
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snowflake930 wrote: »Flour, plain old all-purpose flour about 460 calories per cup! Certainly changed my whole outlook on bread, cereals, crackers and whatnot. However, at the overripe age of 60, it's still a challenge for me to find satiatian with a pile of kale.
LOL @ kale and at the "overripe" old age of 63, I totally agree. I was pretty surprised by serving sizes and calories in general when I began on MFP 31 months ago. Nothing much surprises me anymore after over 2-1/2 years on MFP and reading labels. But, I am still constantly putting things back on the shelf because of calorie content. It takes me a lot longer to grocery shop now.
I too end up spending more time at the grocery store because of labels, but for me it's also the carb, protein and sodium content.0 -
Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches, in the multipack. They are amazing! (and only 110 calories)0
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I was surprised how low calorie potatoes are. They get such a bad press, but you get good value for your cals.
I totally agree!! My husband came home one day with a container of microwave potatoes from The Little Potato Company and I gave him a hard time over it. They were like an Italian Blend or something. Nowhere on the front of the package did it advertise low cal. But when I flipped it over, I read it was only 85 calories per serving, and I found a single serving (approx 6 small potatoes) to be very satiating as a side dish.0 -
When I first started logging (on my old account) I nearly died when I found out the calorie count of Couscous
I love it, and was making big roast vege or fresh vege salads with it and having them for lunch everyday.....until I started logging!!
It's 145 cals per 50g (dried weight) or 92g (cooked weight) serving??? And 92g cooked weight is quite a lot of couscous. If I'm sticking veggies in for a salad I'd get two servings out of that.
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml?cmpid=ahc-_-ghs-sna1-_-asdacom-dsk-_-hp#/product/56941672
If anything I was shocked by how LOW calorie couscous is. If I can get a large portion of salad with feta, and veg pan fried in olive oil, in it for only 277 cals then it's going in the "holy *kitten* is it only that much?!" pile.
WRT "holy hell why so high?!" pile. Turkish delight. Like, I know why it's so high. I get it. But when I make my own and cut it into 40 little squares and THOSE are still 40+ cal each it makes me sad (ditto fudge)0 -
I love potatoes too. I roast red potatoes with herbs and olive oil a lot, and find I get a lot of bang for my buck. They're cheap and have good (albeit carby) nutrition too. I think they get bad press because of the stuff people load on them - cheese, sour cream, butter etc.0
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I had a cup of baby lima beans the other day. I about fainted when I logged it and saw that it was 220 calories. Not that it killed my diet or anything, but I was so used to eating broccoli or some other very low calorie vegetable, and the number absolutely took me by surprise!0
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It didn't surprise me with its calories but when I was shopping today, I saw salt-reduced salt. Literally salt that was 50% salt and 50% some potassium stuff.0
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Twizzlers. I thought they were a decent choice as far as candy calories are concerned but the package from the checkout lane was over 500 calories (it was king size, but seriously not a huge package). Um, no! If I'm going to blow 500 calories on candy, it will be chocolate!0
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I haven't been surprised by calories really, but portion sizes. I get the Lindt Hello My Name Is chocolate bars and a serving is FOUR pieces - the pieces are really big. I usually am satisfied with one. On the other hand, the whole grain club crackers I love - the serving size is half an ounce. I wish there was some sort of regulation across serving/portion sizes, they can be so misleading.0
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stevencloser wrote: »It didn't surprise me with its calories but when I was shopping today, I saw salt-reduced salt. Literally salt that was 50% salt and 50% some potassium stuff.
I love this stuff.
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Oooh, I agree about some portion sizes. After many years of eating far more than a serving of something, I find myself pleasantly surprised when I eat something and think its a fair portion, only to find its actually less than a single serving.0
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Crispy/Fried chicken wings, w/sauce - 150 per wing
And on the other end, cucumbers/cauliflower/squash0 -
Not a surprise by any means, but more of an aggravation: the amount of calories in a dang restaurant salad. Any restaurant, really, they're all oozing with hidden (or not so hidden) calories!0
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Home made pizza. You think it has a million calories in it, but you can eat almost half of the pizza and not hit 600 calories (depending on what you put on it). Homemade crust and sauce and home shredded cheese. If you make it right, you can splurge without actually splurging. I LOVE pizza, so this was a big help to me.
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The standard Saturday night watch a movie treat for my Son and I during the Summer was going to Dairy Queen and getting a large Blizzard. This was usually after a 12-16 ounce steak, potato salad and grilled asparagus drenched in olive oil. I was particular to the Heath Bar Crunch. That alone comes in at 1260 calories. Yikes!0
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[quote/]
WRT "holy hell why so high?!" pile. Turkish delight. Like, I know why it's so high. I get it. But when I make my own and cut it into 40 little squares and THOSE are still 40+ cal each it makes me sad (ditto fudge)[/quote]
Oh my, I love Turkish delight. Especially with Bosnian (or turkish) coffee. It's a good thing it isn't readily available here
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I was shocked at how many calories were in a chicken taco salad. It varies from one place to another but some of them (especially with the edible bowl which I don't eat) are anywhere from 700-1300 calories. That's just insane...and it's chicken! On the flip side I LOVE the fact that broccoli is only 30cals for 1 cup (85gm). I will eat two cups of broccoli and be pretty darn full for 60 cals. Win win!0
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Home made pizza. You think it has a million calories in it, but you can eat almost half of the pizza and not hit 600 calories (depending on what you put on it). Homemade crust and sauce and home shredded cheese. If you make it right, you can splurge without actually splurging. I LOVE pizza, so this was a big help to me.
I had a whole pizza for 700 calories the other day, but yeah, I went light on the toppings.0 -
Home made pizza. You think it has a million calories in it, but you can eat almost half of the pizza and not hit 600 calories (depending on what you put on it). Homemade crust and sauce and home shredded cheese. If you make it right, you can splurge without actually splurging. I LOVE pizza, so this was a big help to me.
I had a whole pizza for 700 calories the other day, but yeah, I went light on the toppings.
My pizza usually ends up being more calories than take-out.
It's worth every one though.
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I was surprised when I realized how much calories I was downing in my coffee creamer! Bye by creamer! I found a yummy vanilla bean protein shake and now I use that instead of creamer and sweetener.0
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Breakfast cereal- it was mostly a portion size shock. Those big bowls I'd been pouring myself since I was a kid? Easily 3 to 4 servings.
Potatoes also shocked me, because I had it drilled into my head for so long that they make you fat. No, smothering them in sour cream, cheese and butter and eating until I was stuffed made me fat.0 -
It might sound daft but I was really shocked at how many calories is in just one tbsp of vegetable oil.0
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Cookies, chicken skin, cheese slices and flora spread were all higher than expected and would bump up my calories.0
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I had always assumed that because avocados are healthy, they would be low in calories, but not so much. I was surprised by how many calories I can drink and how many calories are in such a small amount of sugar. I make my own lemon/limeade, and I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I like my lemonade tart enough to make my eyes water, but a liter still came out to 350 calories. Also, the portion size to calorie ratio really surprised (and disheartened) me. So many things that look decently healthy based on the calorie count can only do that because the portion size is unrealistically small. (I'm looking at you, granola.)
On the flip side, I've been really pleasantly surprised by how much good food I can eat if I'm the one cooking it. I can make a really good pizza for 500 calories. I didn't have to give up cheese or bread. So long as I immediately give away most of the batch, I can easily fit a couple of homemade cookies into my day's calorie allotment. I still use olive oil and butter in cooking. I don't have to eat bland diet food to lose weight.0
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