Calorie Non Disclosure

nippybadger

Hi all

Anyone here have an occasional breakfast at Frankie and Bennys or similar?

We’ll treat ourselves to a veggie fry up once in a while, but having started logging calories in MyFitnessPal, today we’ve been stopped in our tracks because as far as we’ve been able to find, Frankie and Bennys don’t publish the calorie content of their dishes. So we don’t know how to go about making an entry.

I notice that “some” Frankie and Bennys dishes are listed in MyFitnessPal, though the veggie fry up does not seem to be there and I wondered how these have been listed and how to get a new one added? (Apologies if this is a silly question. We’re still very much finding our way around the app.)

Mind you... given that the ordinary fry up is listed as 1000 calories! I almost don’t want to know how much less the veggie option actually turns out to be. I don’t say it can’t still be a treat now and again. But I suspect those occasions are now going to be even rarer than they already are.

Those of you who still eat out occasionally despite the challenge. How do you handle logging the details afterward, if the restaurant doesn’t disclose how many calories are hidden in those tasty treats?

Badger Out.

manderson27

You could message them directly on their fb page. They might be able to give you a number. I see they are bringing out a lighter menu that is 650 calories or under.

Ellevated

You could try adding each individual item (eg. vegetarian sausage, hash brown) to your food diary plus whatever they fry it in (probably sunflower, vegetable or rapeseed oil) to get an approximation of the nutritional info.

Bear in mind that your estimation of how much oil they use may well be under. Estimating portion sizes every day with every meal is a terrible idea, just FYI, but in this case you can at least get a vague idea which us better than no idea at all.

Then you can decide if you really want to continue eating it, knowing that it's a conservative estimate. If you do, that's fine but if it's part of your routine (albeit occasional) I recommend adding it to your diary first and planning the rest of your meals for the day around that.

Whenever I can't find the nutritional info for a larger restaurant chain it makes me wonder why and reconsider if I still want to eat there, knowing they're not being transparent about how (un)healthy their food is.

texasredreb

I add each individual component that I can identify and then a healthy dose of oil and salt. I try to over-estimate, but most often even when I try to over-estimate, I wind up under-estimating.

WinoGelato

Search for the database for a similar dish, if it’s from another restaurant look it up on their website and see if the description sounds similar. If it’s a home made entry, consider that restaurants usually add more oil or butter than home cooks do and adjust accordingly. Or log what you estimate the individual component ingredients to be and again, add extra oil or butter to the mix.

Restaurant meals can be a calorie bomb but when I go out for a big breakfast I then usually am not hungry again till dinner so it takes the place of two meals in my day.

nippybadger

Thanks all. I agree about it making me wonder why they don’t disclose. I mean it’s not as though we don’t already know that a fry up is a huge calorie hit. If you decide to treat yourself, you go in knowing full well that it’s an indulgence. So when it comes to it I’ll just add up the individual items as you suggested. Then chuck in some extra for luck. I reckon that if their fry up is 1000 (choke!) then the veggie version will still be 700. Lol.. this rare treat just got rarer.

Yeah I saw the new “light” menu. Nothing there for your Badger.

kimny72

Having your menu broken down for nutritional content by a lab can be an enormous endeavor, and quite expensive. If a restaurant doesn't feel that their typical clientele are asking for that information, it's probably just not worth it to them.

Also if a restaurant tends to change up their menu frequently or prepare dishes quite differently based on what they have on hand or what's selling, the calorie counts printed would be useless anyway. It's really only places that have a fixed menu and use cookie cutter recipe and portion cooking where posting calories is useful.

Terytha

Honestly I'd assume it as the same calories as the regular. Especially at restaurants, vegetarian dishes have as many or more calories because they use more fats to add flavor.

I've yet to see a vegetarian dish be significantly less calories.

nippybadger wrote: »

Thanks all. I agree about it making me wonder why they don’t disclose. I mean it’s not as though we don’t already know that a fry up is a huge calorie hit. If you decide to treat yourself, you go in knowing full well that it’s an indulgence. So when it comes to it I’ll just add up the individual items as you suggested. Then chuck in some extra for luck. I reckon that if their fry up is 1000 (choke!) then the veggie version will still be 700. Lol.. this rare treat just got rarer.

Yeah I saw the new “light” menu. Nothing there for your Badger.