Pasta is SO calorific!
goatelope
Posts: 178 Member
That is all. Just marvelling at how many calories are in even a small bowl.
Think I’m definitely a volume eater!!
Think I’m definitely a volume eater!!
8
Replies
-
Yep. It's depressing. Peanut butter too! After I got a food scale, I was so sad about those serving sizes
7 -
Yep. The more I transitioned into volume eating the less I have eaten pasta. I am kind of surprised by that actually because I thought pasta and I would always be close friends. When I see it now instead of thinking of how delicious it is I think of how much more of something else I could be eating for those calories. I still eat it but just a lot less than I once did.12
-
Yeah.
I haven't made any since starting with MFP. I can't figure out how to make it work with how we eat. I had some once at a restaurant and it was a whole day's worth of calories.
Maybe one day when I'm on maintenance I can make spaghetti again.4 -
Still have it. If you want it, fit it in.9
-
Everybody has their own food priorities, but I still eat pasta and don't find it to be so caloric. I think sometimes people get confused on dry weight vs. cooked weight. They think the weight cooked is the nutrition label on the back of the box is the cooked weight, when in fact it is the dry weight. That pasta once cooked gets much heavier.
I find the standard pasta serving (2 oz/56gram dry) to be too small, but I tend to find that about the serving size of every food. However I've found somewhere around 80-90 grams, about a serving and a half, to produce a sufficient amount of pasta. That's about 300-320 calories. I can then dress it up with something low calorie (tuna, chicken, or turkey) and a low calorie sauce and get a filling dinner in around 500-600 calories. On most diets, that's a reasonable dinner. And I find it more filling than a lot of other dinners.24 -
I am a huge fan of zoodles (zucchini noodles) and shirataki noodles (in produce cooler)! I don't care for spaghetti squash as pasta, but love it as a hash browns substitute!6
-
Yup and high glycemic too.
Personally, I haven't eaten any pasta and very little bread or flour based products for this reason. Don't miss them and don't feel "deprived." Lots of other great things that I still eat & enjoy.5 -
I definitely don’t miss it enough to get upset about it - I don’t eat bread either (IBS), so low carbs isn’t new to me.
I guess that it was more the surprise. When you start weighing and paying attention, you realise where the extra calories come from - where you were going wrong without even realising. Like olive oil - I knew it was calorific but boy I got a shock when I realised it’s 120 cals per tablespoon!!
Agreed re peanut butter, too. I used to love it on a wheat-free bagel but those days are over!
I will still make it, but it definitely does affect me because I’m a volume eater, so I like a bigger portion, especially during the evening as I keep it light all day and then have a bigger (early) supper3 -
Plus how do Italian women stay so thin?! Olive oil + pasta?!?!4
-
I don't think it's too bad, I have it once or twice a week. I usually have 1000 calories allotted for dinner so it's easy to fit in. Plus my calorie intake is pretty high and flexible and I need the carbs so that helps. If it's not worth it to you, go for something else.. or add volume with vegetables, use zucchini noodles etc.2
-
-
This hasn't been my experience. It isn't any more or less calorific than any other grain based dish. A 600 calorie pasta dish looks fine to me and keeps me just as satisfied as any other satisfying 600 calorie dish. What's calorific is not the pasta, but the sauce, depending on how you make it. Thankfully I like tomato based sauce more and I like vegetables added, so the calories weren't shocking when I first logged it.13
-
amusedmonkey wrote: »This hasn't been my experience. It isn't any more or less calorific than any other grain based dish. A 600 calorie pasta dish looks fine to me and keeps me just as satisfied as any other satisfying 600 calorie dish. What's calorific is not the pasta, but the sauce, depending on how you make it. Thankfully I like tomato based sauce more and I like vegetables added, so the calories weren't shocking when I first logged it.
Agreed. It's not the pasta that wrecks my daily calories. It's the 27 liters of Alfredo sauce I want on top!
11 -
Everybody has their own food priorities, but I still eat pasta and don't find it to be so caloric. I think sometimes people get confused on dry weight vs. cooked weight. They think the weight cooked is the nutrition label on the back of the box is the cooked weight, when in fact it is the dry weight. That pasta once cooked gets much heavier.
Same here. I tend to enjoy meals that are a combination of protein, vegetables (that gives me my volume), and starch, with a little added fat, and I don't find that pasta is any more calorific or lower volume than whatever else I would want.
Of course, while I enjoy the pasta itself, it's mainly a vehicle for what I add to it/put on it for me, and I'm actually happy with a 2 oz serving (I'm only 5'3, however). I add lots of veg and meat (shrimp is a favorite) or beans, and cook them in a little olive oil. Or I make a tomato-based sauce (with or without meat) and add lots of veg.
Cream-based sauces were never my favorites and I found it easy enough to use less oil (unless I'm doing a pesto), so my sauces are typically not particularly high cal.7 -
This is how I get my fill of pasta:
Spray a pan with nonstick olive oil spray, throw in (per serving): 2 oz. Cremini mushrooms, 1 cup sliced zucchini, 4 oz. Lean ground turkey (or protein of your choice) cook thoroughly. Add 1 oz. (Preweight before boiling) Rotini or penne pasta that has been cooked and a 1/2 cup prepared tomato basil sauce of your choosing. I find it fills me up with volume and satisfies my pasta urges.6 -
I make a lot of skillet pasta dinners because it's easy and my kids never complain about vegetables when they're mixed up with other things. The pasta is probably less than 1/2- 2/3 the volume of the dish. I'm not currently eating at a deficit, but it fits in fine when I do, particularly when I use our favorite 150 calorie, high fiber pasta (which helps with satiety too). When people complain about calories, I'm envisioning a plate heaped high solely with pasta and some calorific sauce, which just seems unpleasant to me.7
-
I just made some pasta with my dinner (soup) and while it was one of the highest-cal on the list, I cut it down to .25 cup because I added a LOT of vegetables. I think I had over 1.5 cups of vegetables in the soup and it was a single serving. So I concur with try2again:I make a lot of skillet pasta dinners because it's easy and my kids never complain about vegetables when they're mixed up with other things. The pasta is probably less than 1/2- 2/3 the volume of the dish.
I mean I think today mine was a lot lower ratio but I also made up my carbs elsewhere. So as long as you like complex flavors, you will be fine in supplementing pasta with other valuable nutrients. If you're more into buttered noodles or chicken alfredo, yeah you might have to try new recipes.1 -
For pasta I think using one serving and then bulking everything up with a bunch of low calorie veggies and light sauce is good! Fills you up and it can be made to fit in your calories.6
-
<img src="https://www.cookingclassy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/skillet_chicken_creamy_spinach_artichoke_sauce5..jpg" alt="Skillet Chicken with Creamy Spinach Artichoke Sauce | Cooking Classy"/>
This is what I had for dinner tonight served over pasta(about 43g dry) and a side of roasted broccoli. It had spinach and artichoke in it. All of this for about 530 calories(I made six servings out of it instead of 4). I don't think that is a calorific dish especially considering it had olive oil, butter, parmesan, cream cheese and sour cream in the sauce. If I add all of my meals together I am still below 1200 calories and have to figure out what I can add to my day to bring my calories up.
7 -
This is what I had for dinner tonight served over pasta(about 43g dry) and a side of roasted broccoli. It had spinach and artichoke in it. All of this for about 530 calories(I made six servings out of it instead of 4). I don't think that is a calorific dish especially considering it had olive oil, butter, parmesan, cream cheese and sour cream in the sauce. If I add all of my meals together I am still below 1200 calories and have to figure out what I can add to my day to bring my calories up.
Only 530 cals including pasta (how ever much you ate)? Seems like a gross underestimate of cals to me.
I'd guess closer to 800-1000 cals/serving including the pasta, especially if you ate more than 1tbsp of the olive oil, butter, parmesan, cream cheese and sour cream sauce. OMG!!!!
5 -
This is what I had for dinner tonight served over pasta(about 43g dry) and a side of roasted broccoli. It had spinach and artichoke in it. All of this for about 530 calories(I made six servings out of it instead of 4). I don't think that is a calorific dish especially considering it had olive oil, butter, parmesan, cream cheese and sour cream in the sauce. If I add all of my meals together I am still below 1200 calories and have to figure out what I can add to my day to bring my calories up.
Only 530 cals including pasta (how ever much you ate)? Seems like a gross underestimate of cals to me.
I'd guess closer to 800-1000 cals/serving including the pasta, especially if you ate more than 1tbsp of the olive oil, butter, parmesan, cream cheese and sour cream sauce. OMG!!!!
It was all entered into the recipe calculator and entries have been double checked. All individual ingredients are ones that I have entered so I know they are correct. Dividing it in to 6 servings instead of 4 cuts the calories quit a bit and is still large enough for me.
6 -
@sgt1372
Here are the ingredients you mentioned...
2 T olive oil 240 cal
2 T butter 200
38g parm 136 (I used a little less that what the recipe called for)
4oz light cream cheese 280
1/4 c light sour cream 80
8 oz fettucine 800
Total in those ingredients...1736 cal. Calories for 6 servings 289.
Then add in the chicken(130), artichokes(23), milk(31) spinach and a few other small ingredients it came to 484 calories per meal. If I had of divided in to 4 servings it would have been over 700 calories. That is too many for my calorie allowance so I am willing to eat less in order to have good food and foods that I love. Before actively losing weight I did eat the 700+ serving. I have learned that I can eat less and still be satisfied and enjoy good food.9 -
If you say so but can you only eat just 1 serving? I'm skeptical but I'm not the one eating it. Never would.9
-
-
If you say so but can you only eat just 1 serving? I'm skeptical but I'm not the one eating it. Never would.
Yes...I did for dinner tonight along with some broccoli. Appropriate servings sizes for me is something that I have been working on. Surprisingly it has been easier than I thought it would be. I don't finish dinner and have that overstuffed feeling. I still have room for a dessert if I wanted one.
I will remember not to ask you over for dinner on the nights that I am serving that dish.
11 -
I'm having stirfry tonight subbing spiralized butternut squash "noodles" for Asian noodles or rice. I find that either squash or turnip noodles work well with a sweet-and-sour sauce.0
-
Looks delicious, Annie. With the chicken and broccoli I also think your smaller serving could feel like plenty.4
-
If you say so but can you only eat just 1 serving? I'm skeptical but I'm not the one eating it. Never would.
Yes...I did for dinner tonight along with some broccoli. Appropriate servings sizes for me is something that I have been working on. Surprisingly it has been easier than I thought it would be. I don't finish dinner and have that overstuffed feeling. I still have room for a dessert if I wanted one.
I will remember not to ask you over for dinner on the nights that I am serving that dish.
If you ever serve it for lunch you could invite me. I seldom eat more than 200 calories for dinner. I would only need about 3 pounds of broccoli with it to fill me up. I used to hate that slightly too full feeling now I really rely on it.0 -
If you say so but can you only eat just 1 serving? I'm skeptical but I'm not the one eating it. Never would.
Why wouldn't she eat "just" one serving? Chicken, pasta, sauce (I personally am not a fan of most creamy sauces but that has nothing to do with calories or fat), broccoli. Sounds like a good meal to me.6
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 426 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions