Foods with hidden calories/high calorie sneaky foods

deannalfisher · July 2018

nevermind18 wrote: »

Gin. Life is cruel. 😢 Also fruit, which we’re taught is healthy. Life is confusing.

since when is fruit unhealthy?

cwolfman13 · July 2018

nevermind18 wrote: »

Gin. Life is cruel. 😢 Also fruit, which we’re taught is healthy. Life is confusing.

Fruit is healthy...calories have nothing to do with the nutritional value of a food...I personally don't find fruit to be particularly calorie dense either.

cwolfman13 · July 2018

ladyhusker39 wrote: »

23rochelle23 wrote: »

Chicken thighs! One chicken thigh (normal size) is 450+ calories. I mean... I still eat them because they’re delicious but man they knock my calories out!

I'm thinking that must be including the skin. If you switched to skinless it would be a lot less than that.

I don't even think that includes the skin...I think it's likely a generic entry in the database. I eat chicken thighs all the time, and they aren't 450 calories for one.

kshama2001 · July 2018

23rochelle23 wrote: »

Chicken thighs! One chicken thigh (normal size) is 450+ calories. I mean... I still eat them because they’re delicious but man they knock my calories out!

ladyhusker39 wrote: »

I'm thinking that must be including the skin. If you switched to skinless it would be a lot less than that.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

I don't even think that includes the skin...I think it's likely a generic entry in the database. I eat chicken thighs all the time, and they aren't 450 calories for one.

@23rochelle23 what entry are you using? Seems high to me too. I don't think I've had a thigh as big as 5 oz once I subtract the bone and 5 oz is 329 calories for "Chicken, broilers or fryers, thigh, meat and skin, cooked, roasted" which comes from the USDA database.

23rochelle23 · July 2018

Hmmmm.... ok... well I haven’t weighed them (an mfp sin

) but 1kg bag and 5 in a packet (200gm per thigh by my math - I assumed the cals were by total weight not edible bit... so didn’t bother subtracting bone... I usually eat them all within a week so don’t bother with individual weights) - which is double the pictured weight (this is the exact bag I use)

Although... I’ve scrolled down the web entry for this packet and it says 5 “uses” so maybe they are ‘typical’ size of 106gm - although then it’s definitely not a 1kg pack

I’m wondering if my math is right off - they’re not particularly big - I’ve cooked them all now so can’t go weigh them accurately

... this may explain why I’ve been hungry this week lol

nettiklive · July 2018

Restaurant dishes and commercial bakery items like Starbucks or Whole Foods...it's how I learned that the 'indulgent' chocolate croissant - at just under 400 calories, which is what I expected - is in fact half the calories of the monster 700-800 calories 'healthier' bran muffin or whole-wheat scone o.O. Or how they manage to cram 190 calories into a cake pop, when a donut hole of the same size is only 60-70 cal

All those baked goods are waaaay too sweet though too so I suppose it makes sense, i just don't get WHY cram so much sugar and oil into it...it would taste BETTER with like half the sugar. Are most people's palates really that skewed that consumers prefer all these overly sweet or greasy foods?... It even goes for recipes - whenever I bake from a new recipe I always cut the sugar usually by 3/4 and it comes out perfect.

The other thing I don't get is how restaurants manage to cram 500-600 calories into a tiny container of salad dressing, when the same amount of pure oil would probably be less...

Strawblackcat · July 2018

nettiklive wrote: »

Restaurant dishes and commercial bakery items like Starbucks or Whole Foods...it's how I learned that the 'indulgent' chocolate croissant - at just under 400 calories, which is what I expected - is in fact half the calories of the monster 700-800 calories 'healthier' bran muffin or whole-wheat scone o.O. Or how they manage to cram 190 calories into a cake pop, when a donut hole of the same size is only 60-70 cal All those baked goods are waaaay too sweet though too so I suppose it makes sense, i just don't get WHY cram so much sugar and oil into it...it would taste BETTER with like half the sugar. Are most people's palates really that skewed that consumers prefer all these overly sweet or greasy foods?... It even goes for recipes - whenever I bake from a new recipe I always cut the sugar usually by 3/4 and it comes out perfect.

The other thing I don't get is how restaurants manage to cram 500-600 calories into a tiny container of salad dressing, when the same amount of pure oil would probably be less...

The donut hole is just a fried piece of yeasted dough with a thin glaze of sugar on top. The cake pop, while the same size, is cake (fat + sugar + flour) mashed together with frosting (fat + sugar) and coated in chocolate (more fat + frosting). So, while they're both the same size, the cake pop is much more dense.

yirara · July 2018

nettiklive wrote: »

Restaurant dishes and commercial bakery items like Starbucks or Whole Foods...it's how I learned that the 'indulgent' chocolate croissant - at just under 400 calories, which is what I expected - is in fact half the calories of the monster 700-800 calories 'healthier' bran muffin or whole-wheat scone o.O. Or how they manage to cram 190 calories into a cake pop, when a donut hole of the same size is only 60-70 cal All those baked goods are waaaay too sweet though too so I suppose it makes sense, i just don't get WHY cram so much sugar and oil into it...it would taste BETTER with like half the sugar. Are most people's palates really that skewed that consumers prefer all these overly sweet or greasy foods?... It even goes for recipes - whenever I bake from a new recipe I always cut the sugar usually by 3/4 and it comes out perfect.

The other thing I don't get is how restaurants manage to cram 500-600 calories into a tiny container of salad dressing, when the same amount of pure oil would probably be less...

Well, people seem to like Oreos for some reason, while they only taste of sugar and fat, with a bit of cocoa added and something slightly resembling cream.

Crafty_camper123 · July 2018

@nettiklive I get what you are saying. My thing with restaurants is how they can turn something relatively healthy like a turkey sandwich into an 800-900 calorie bomb! They must slather everything with butter and mayonnaise to get it that high. I could make a sandwich at home using two large slices of bread, and be generous with my mayonnaise and maybe hit 600 if I'm lucky. OR, how in the heck do they get a salad to be 1200+ calories!? If my meal is going to cost me around 1200+ calories no matter what I pick, I'm getting the dang cheeseburger! If I throw the bun away, and don't eat all my fries and I'm right in line with the "healthier" salad option.

The baked goods doesn't usually surprise me much though. I have quite a few recipes that would easily meet restaurant calories. I would agree that our palettes are used to a higher sugar content then in decades past. However, sometimes the sugar is needed to get it to bake up and taste right. Cakes don't rise up as much, and cookies aren't as chewy if sugar is cut back too much. I do try to cut it back on some things though, and it comes out fine.

Oreos consist of chocolate-y, sweet, crispy, deliciousness. Wouldn't it stand to reason that most baked goods only "taste of sugar and fat?". Those kind of are the flavor profiles that make any baked item like cookies, cakes, and pastries taste so good.

hippiesaur · July 2018

missperfectpitch wrote: »

Desserts in general, as you can be at over 100 calories with just a few small bites. Sometimes I still get surprised at how high calorie some items are, like these cupcakes I saw at Whole Foods a while ago. A couple of them are 920 calories, and they're not even oversized cupcakes.

It's always shocking to me that only a half of a cupcake like this has the same calories as a very filling breakfast...

petal1122 · July 2018

I have only recently started logging in MFP . I am horrified at the calories in olive oil . Just discovered that tonight after I used it to cook my meal. Too late I ate it but will use a spray in future .
Also peanut butter I now use one tablespoon. Almonds I now count out 12 for a snack . It’s really making me more aware of what I have been snacking on

hippiesaur · July 2018

petal1122 wrote: »

I have only recently started logging in MFP . I am horrified at the calories in olive oil . Just discovered that tonight after I used it to cook my meal. Too late I ate it but will use a spray in future .
Also peanut butter I now use one tablespoon. Almonds I now count out 12 for a snack . It’s really making me more aware of what I have been snacking on

Be careful with "one tablespoon" of peanut butter or "12 almonds" cause their actual weight in grams can be very different in some cases. It's much more accurate to log their actual weight since they are very calorie dense foods (it's a very common mistake to underestimate how much you eat of these). Get a food scale, it makes everything much more easier!

petal1122 · August 2018

hippiesaur wrote: »

petal1122 wrote: »

I have only recently started logging in MFP . I am horrified at the calories in olive oil . Just discovered that tonight after I used it to cook my meal. Too late I ate it but will use a spray in future .
Also peanut butter I now use one tablespoon. Almonds I now count out 12 for a snack . It’s really making me more aware of what I have been snacking on

Be careful with "one tablespoon" of peanut butter or "12 almonds" cause their actual weight in grams can be very different in some cases. It's much more accurate to log their actual weight since they are very calorie dense foods (it's a very common mistake to underestimate how much you eat of these). Get a food scale, it makes everything much more easier!

Yes I did actually weigh the peanut butter . I was easily using way more before . Will be very careful with it now . I have a good food scales as I cook and bake a lot ( baking not so much recently) Pity as I love it . Going to buy the oil spray today .

yirara · August 2018

Big shock (well, kind of) is that some of the database entries on the app look like the default setting is in 100 grams, but then lower; for items I've used before anyway. I made that mistake yesterday evening with vermicelli noodles: Looked at app, saw I could get 100 grams for my calories worth, cooked a meal that was absolutely disgusting and consisted of far too much noodle in the end. And then I found out I only should have used 80grams for the calories displayed. Oh well... tonight I'll use different cooking ingredients, and only 80gr. noodle.

MeganReid1991 · August 2018

MagnumOpus1 · August 2018

Certain sausage brands wanna be excited and make 160 cal sausages while others are responsible and make em 110ish. There's just no need for the extra 40 - 50. Stop it!

GOT_Obsessed · August 2018

International Delight flavored coffee creamers. No wonder I gained a lot of weight! I was glug, glug, glug pouring that stuff into my coffee. Now I measure 2 tbsp and no more! It's 70 calories, I imagine I was using 250 calories per cup of coffee.