What foods surprised you the most, calorie-wise?

25lbsorbust

Both low and high, what foods were you not expecting to be what they were?

My #1 I found out today.. 10 fritos scoops is 160 calories! What? Excuse me?!

Another big one was corn.. retrospectively the two are related, but 600+ calories per cup is absurd.

extra_medium

Sadly , peanut butter. Especially when I went by grams rather than my normal gigantic tablespoon servings.

sparklyglitterbomb

definitely Frito's (I go by grams, though.. even more sad) but I find a few added to chili or whatever will add the flavor and I don't need a ton.

Peanut butter was a sad day.

Fish was a nice surprise. Pretty decent calorie range there

oh. and my fave spring mix. If I wanted to, I could eat a mixing bowl full and barely hit 100 cals.

dewd2

Corn has 600 calories per cup??? I see that listed but I don't believe it. I can eat a TON of corn. And based on my box of Green Giant Frozen Corn, it has just over 100 per cup.

For me the realization that my 'healthy' yogurt had nearly 300 calories was a real eye opener. I immediately stopped eating it and saved 1200 calories per week.

christi576

Magic food. Sweet potato, the ones that are yellow on the inside. Low calorie tons of vitamin A very filling

annette_15

Purple sweet potatoes... I used to just log them as regular sweet potatoes, and they are literally twice as much... I love them, but I just cant justify spending the calories on them. Also salmon makes me sad at how high it is in calories. Not really surprised at any processed high fat, high sugar foods... I always knew they'd be very high in calories. Strawberries are awesome tho, super high volume food!

JessicaMcB

Being Halloween searching the calorie content of those peanut butter pumpkins was sheer pain lol.

Willbenchforcupcakes

It wasn't really a surprise based on the overall size of the sandwich, but I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich at the Houston airport last week and laughed when I saw the label say 1000+ calories (it was something like 1080). Mind was blown at the sheer amount of peanut butter on the thing.

lightenup2016

Fage 2% Greek yogurt, plain. Only 150 calories for 7 oz, and 20 g of protein. I add 60 calories of honey with cinnamon, and that's a lot of protein for 210. It really helps fill me up.

U2R2

Pop Tarts. First look....200 calories....not bad. Closer look....serving size, one pastry....awww mannnn....why two per package if one is a serving.

On the positive side, Miracle Whip is only 40 calories per one tablespoon serving. Even more surprising was a weighed tablespoon turned out to be a tad more than I would normally put on a sandwich.

cocoastral

sainsbury's milk chocolate cookies. they're my girlfriend's favourites so she always brings them over, just bigger than my palm, and only 210 calories ! i was worried they'd be worse than that and i'd have to sit there and watch her eat them every saturday but i can indulge on one too with that.

julie_broadhead

The deli sandwich pinwheels I used to get at the grocery store. 1,000 calories for a dozen pinwheels.

fitoverfortymom

Peanut butter. Guacamole. Sad days.

Laughing Cow cheese. Spinach and mushrooms. Happly days.

trisH_7183

Cookies,pizza......beans..regular salad dressings,the list goes on.

Alatariel75

Good news! Corn is totally not 600 calories per cup. You've found a bad entry.


Muffins blow my mind. They're like the TARDIS of calories.

crzycatlady1

Most condiments/dressings are really calorie heavy and that surprised me-when I began my weight loss phase I figured out I was eating around 400 calories just in honey mustard sauce every time we went to Arbys

Machka9

25lbsorbust wrote: »

Another big one was corn.. retrospectively the two are related, but 600+ calories per cup is absurd.

What kind of corn are you eating?

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2850/2
A cup comes in at about 130-ish calories.


Pears surprised me ... I mistook them for being light and low cal. Turns out they are denser and higher cal than I thought.

crzycatlady1

sparklyglitterbomb wrote: »

definitely Frito's (I go by grams, though.. even more sad) but I find a few added to chili or whatever will add the flavor and I don't need a ton.

Peanut butter was a sad day.

Fish was a nice surprise. Pretty decent calorie range there

oh. and my fave spring mix. If I wanted to, I could eat a mixing bowl full and barely hit 100 cals.

I love Fritos and use them as a topping like you do vs eating a serving by itself. My favorite way is with Progresso's light chicken enchilada soup (a whole can is under 200 calories), with hot sauce drizzled in and then topped with a half serving of fritos. I eat this for lunch several times a week and it's sooo good!

Kristi26

I'm surprised the calories in something pretty regularly honestly. This morning, my surprise is the banana banana bread from allrecipe. 229 calories in one little slice. Sigh.

Nikki10129

Very sad when I found out the calories in the bread I was buying was about double the calories in the bread I buy now, that bread was so delicious

I was pleasantly surprised about the calories in wine, such a beautiful thing!

RoxieDawn

Pop tarts.. cause you only 1 out of the pack as the serving size.. Why don't they individually wrap the pop tarts?

Raptor2763

bad surprise = chicken wings and just about anything with processed sugar. I had NO IDEA how much fat and empty calories were in them
good surprise = eggs; absolutely protein-laden
OH - REAL BAD SURPRISE - turns out I have a sensitivity to salt; I puff up like there's no tomorrow and it's days before I can lose the accumulated water.

Mary_Anastasia

YOGURT, CHIA, and BEANS! I was always trying to make healthy meals by incorporating these things, and then wondering how each small meal is 500-600 calories! The cookies at Wawa also have over 400 calories per cookie

I was pleasantly surprised at how few calories APPLES and GREEN BEANS have, as well as BROTHY SOUPS and ALMOND MILK

Francl27

Everything. Seriously. Even veggies. 40 calories for 100g of carrots is not 'few calories'. Worst surprise maybe was bagels. 400 calories in a plain bagel. Sheesh.

I think that the only thing I always assumed was worse than it is is caramels. I always thought they were like 50-100 calories each.. but nope, typically only 25-30. And maybe shrimp and white fish.

shaybee377

Good surprise: Shrimp, crabmeat, crawfish... I live in Louisiana, and this made me very happy!
Bad surprise: Peanut butter, hummus, pretty much any condiment that isn't plain mustard or hot sauce- I was always aware of the caloric content, but when you weigh that stuff out, it is really depressing to see how small one serving is haha

RogerToo

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Pop tarts.. cause you only 1 out of the pack as the serving size.. Why don't they individually wrap the pop tarts?

Hi
Simple answer, the expense of wrapping singles would cost them more and Mainly due to the fact that they want You to eat tow at a time and they know that toasters all have two or four slots It they wrapped singly they would sell fewer boxes. I was amazed at how many things that trumpet a decent calorie count end up with the calorie count being for 1/2 or less of a single package.

Cheers
Roger

fitoverfortymom

Ooohh. Soup has been a blessing for sure. I eat soup several times a week.

Salad dressing got a big "booooo" from me. Not even enough to make salad worth it. I'd rather have plain fresh veggies than a lame-o salad.

JeromeBarry1

On the low side, jicama surprised me. Sweet? Low cal? High fiber? Heck yeah!
On the high side ... nothing really surprised me because I already knew that corn and green peas were denser with energy than green beans. I no longer think that a big old russet potato is a side to a meal. It's a side to 3 or 4 meals, or a day's worth of nutrition alone. I guess I was surprised to find that my cornbread could be made with masa harina, with small tweaks to the recipe to make a more nutritious bread for some of my meals. The Ole Xtreme Wellness tortillas were a revelation.

French_Peasant

Francl27 wrote: »

Everything. Seriously. Even veggies. 40 calories for 100g of carrots is not 'few calories'. Worst surprise maybe was bagels. 400 calories in a plain bagel. Sheesh.

I think that the only thing I always assumed was worse than it is is caramels. I always thought they were like 50-100 calories each.. but nope, typically only 25-30. And maybe shrimp and white fish.

Oh my goodness, I agree on the "everything," and I had even paid some amount of attention to calories before I got serious last year. "This is bullcrap!!!" is a phrase that escapes my lips regularly as I look up calories, for example, when we made an unplanned stop at Logan's Steakhouse because my finicky daughter had a whim for steak--DO NOT get the NY strip, get the sirloin.

Every time I look at the baked goods at Panera: "this is bullcrap!" even though I probably have the calorie counts memorized, because I will curse them every time. I mean, what the heck? I will get an evil, demonic Cinnamon Crunch bagel with my 99 cent bakery good coupon (with Honey Walnut spread, OF COURSE) and have it for breakfast the next morning.

Also--what the hell, olive oil? What. The Actual. Hell?

French_Peasant

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

Ooohh. Soup has been a blessing for sure. I eat soup several times a week.

Salad dressing got a big "booooo" from me. Not even enough to make salad worth it. I'd rather have plain fresh veggies than a lame-o salad.

For salads, what I have been doing is making a vinaigrette in a squeeze bottle that I bring to work with me: half really good extra virgin olive oil, half really good balsamic, and a little dijon mustard to emulsify; fresh-cracked sea salt and pepper. I will get a big batch of mixed greens or romaine, put it on my scales, which I of course carry in my purse, and drizzle out 10 grams (about 45-50 calories) which is enough to give flavor to the entire batch when you toss it. There are variations you can do with lemon balsamic, pureed roasted shallots, etc. It's no quarter cup of Chunky Blue Cheese, but if using the best ingredients it's pretty awesome in and of itself.

kirstenb13

25lbsorbust wrote: »

Another big one was corn.. retrospectively the two are related, but 600+ calories per cup is absurd.

That is only for corn that is dried (like for making cornmeal), fresh sweet corn has only about 150 per cup.