Calorie Destroyers

donjtomasco
donjtomasco Posts: 790 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I get that any food in moderation is fine and we can make room and adjust for fun caloric foods. But which foods are ones that for you can make you wonder after eating them "What the hell, was that really worth it?"

For me those would be french fries, potato chips (that come with sandwiches), salsa and tortilla chips, spanish rice versus mexican rice (huge difference in calories), and condiments, particularly ketchup which I love but must now account for.

I find myself plugging items into my diary before eating them to see if it is worth it. Most times it's not. I used to eat then check, now I am checking before eating.

What are yours?
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Replies

  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    Anything that doesn't taste lovely. I go for quality over quantity these days. I had some Cheetos yesterday. They were divine.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Just about everything that is 100+ calories per bite.

    Full fat/full sugar condiments

    Nuts & nut butters (also peanuts & peanut butter)

    Premium ice cream

    Pasta/rice/bread

    Chips/Fries (although I’m not a big chips or fries person so this isn’t a huge sacrifice for me)
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    Sugar. I like sugar but I can't afford 4 tsp in each cup of tea or coffee sadly. So I have to do with sweeteners.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    Nuts and nut butter. I don't love the taste, unless I'm really craving it, and I can make many peanutty things with PB2.

    A good dessert is totally worth my calories. A mediocre dessert is not. Same goes for good bread vs. mediocre bread.

    I have not yet met fast food or fried food that I consider worth the calories, with the exception of fresh potato chips.

    I don't think most beverages that have calories are worth it.

    Prepackaged salad dressing is not worth it. (I think many other prepackaged things aren't worth it either.) I buy high quality vinegar--the kind you get at specialty oil/vinegar stores--and dress my salads with a bit of that. I don't even think it needs oil.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Blended coffee drinks someone already mentioned, those for sure. Cream cheese and peanut butter also come to mind. Any supermarket "bakery" cookies or cakes are just a no these days - I'm thankfully to the point where I don't want them when I see them, as instead of anticipation, the feeling I get is impending disappointment :D
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    Birthday cakes, bakery treats, and... okay, one thing I like to have when I go out for Middle-Eastern food is a poached-egg-in-tomato dish called shakshuka. It's a breakfast food that gets dished up for lunch and supper too here, and it's one of those things that isn't inherently high calorie. (Yeah, you can throw in some fatty sausage or go to town on the olive oil, but in general, you're looking at around 300-400 calories per serving). The restaurant I go to gives you the option of having it come to the table in a pan or in a bread bowl. I normally opt for the pan. The bowl, if I use Panera's calories for it from the database, adds about another 500 calories. One time I splurged and got the bowl. So not worth it...
  • happytree923
    happytree923 Posts: 463 Member
    Donuts, most potato salads, those brownie bite things, granola bars
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,492 Member
    Juice or any liquid calories when there are low/no cal versions of all my favorite drinks. (Pop, flavored coffee drinks, juice, etc)
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    peanut butter
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    peanut butter

    :cry:
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    hesn92 wrote: »
    peanut butter

    :cry:

    I mean it's good and all but if it's going to cost me 180 calories I'll just pass.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Any fruit or vegetable.
    Hot dogs.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    cheese and crackers (and meats like salami). i can eat a huge amount of them and it zips through calories like nothing :/

  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Halo Top. So much enthusiasm here on MFP, so not worth even its meager calories. IMO only, of course: Feel free to eat my share.

    Most grocery store/packaged baked goods. Really not good enough to be worth even Halo Top calories. ;)

    I dunno. Using my shelled pistachio nut example: 8 pistachio nuts (30g) or 1 cup of Halo Top (250g)?

    I agree that Halo Top is pretty sad as far as ice cream goes but it makes up for that sadness with the fact that I can eat an appreciable volume of it. Just sayin'
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,226 Member
    edited December 2018
    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Halo Top. So much enthusiasm here on MFP, so not worth even its meager calories. IMO only, of course: Feel free to eat my share.

    Most grocery store/packaged baked goods. Really not good enough to be worth even Halo Top calories. ;)

    I dunno. Using my shelled pistachio nut example: 8 pistachio nuts (30g) or 1 cup of Halo Top (250g)?

    I agree that Halo Top is pretty sad as far as ice cream goes but it makes up for that sadness with the fact that I can eat an appreciable volume of it. Just sayin'

    If those were my only two choices, I'd take the nuts. Halo Top, to me, is not "bad" . . . just curiously unsatisfying, at any volume. I eat it, and feel like I ate . . . nothing. Not worth the calories (and I'm a volume eater, in general). I like the nuts.

    YMMV, and that's totally fine.

    ETA: BTW, I think your calorie counts are off. USDA says shelled, salted pistachios are 200 calories per quarter cup (35g), using the Kroger Private Selections entry. Halo Top says Vanilla Bean is 70 calories per half cup, so your cup is 140 calories (more or less, depending on flavor, but about that). I get 24.5g of shelled pistachios for 140 calories, which is a bit under 3T . . . more than 8 kernals. (8 nuts sounded wrong to me, so I looked).

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