Calorie shocker!

curvygirl512

hey orange juice was frightening for me too, and I've delegated it to the just once in a while with breakfast group

Same here. I also find that pouring 1/2 juice and 1/2 water satisfies my juice cravings.

MityMax96

It's not the calories in eggs that kill me, it's the cholesterol. I've since switched to egg whites in a carton. All protein, no cholesterol and only 15 calories per serving. Good luck and welcome aboard.

That is all I do.
Every once in a while, I will do a whole egg.....but not often

laursoar

I was horrified about Starbucks nonfat pumpkin spiced lattes! Even nonfat and without whip, it's 260 calories for a grande and 48g of sugar. While I didn't think they'd be great for you, I underestimated how bad they were. I think I drank them like four or five times a week last fall without considering calories at all. Now, I allot calories to have one a week as a dessert treat, even though I think I may cut to biweekly over time due to the sugar overload.

MityMax96

I was horrified about Starbucks nonfat pumpkin spiced lattes! Even nonfat and without whip, it's 260 calories for a grande and 48g of sugar. While I didn't think they'd be great for you, I underestimated how bad they were. I think I drank them like four or five times a week last fall without considering calories at all. Now, I allot calories to have one a week as a dessert treat, even though I think I may cut to biweekly over time due to the sugar overload.

Yeah , I cut out my Starbucks trips....
I even do non-fat, no whip, sugar free caramel, mocha, Grande....but even that is pretty steep.

So I just do my drip coffee mostly.

DebBee83

400 calories in a small order of fries from Arby's! That's more than the calories in their classic roast beef sandwich.

tjl2329

Been on here almost a year. Other day qent to jack in the box. A small onion ring contains 7 onion rings. 450 calories. Really double checked and they do. Omg waste of calories. Candy bar less than 300.

SteelySunshine

I stopped worrying about calories when I realized it's really really hard to go over on days where you are walking for 5 or more hours a day. It's a big campus and when I am not in school I am walking to get to all the errands I need to do. So, I just worry about moving at least 3 hours a day and as many as 5. Also eating less calorie dense food and concentrate on getting enough protein. Still counting calories even though I don't log as faithfully as I once did but, actually I look at labels a lot more now, cuz I am not always near my computer anymore to check the calorie count so no more eat now and ask questions later.

mmckee10

This is a good way to go about it. Just remember though...caloric density has nothing to do with nutrient density. Too many people on MFP and dieters in general cut out very nutritious and healthy foods because of calorie content...it's high calorie, so it must be "bad" mentality. Many foods that you most definitely should be eating because of their nutritional value are also very calorie dense. Conversely, many foods with very low calories have little to no nutritional value.

Also kepe in mind that you need fats...people get all freaked out when they see the fat number and go all low fat/no fat. Fat is an essential nutrient...you need it for heart health and overall organ function. Your brain is largely comprised of fat. Many nutrients are fat soluble, so you need to consume fats in order for your body to absorb these nutrients. Fat also regulates hormones and this is essential to being healthy and to weight loss.

Just seek balance in your diet (noun).

YES. Hi, My name is Megan, and I'm addicted to pistachios.. and cashews... and peanut butter! (not saying that these are the best foods.. but they are my little *omg.. that's ALL in a serving* foods)

saragd012

A slice of banana bread at starbucks is 490 calories. That shocked me for sure. I knew it was not a great choice, but really not many good options for breakfast at starbucks. Worst part was it was my highest calorie breakfast of the entire week but was the very least satisfying.

withoutaname

I was excited to find out that my go-to choice at Nandos is a pita wrap that's only 325 calories, but if I was to get regular sized fries with it, it'll be an extra 600-700 calories!!! And then I would always buy a bottle of coke with that too. No wonder I was gaining weight -_-
I went to Nandos the other day and got just one pita wrap and a bottle of water and it still filled me up.
It's all the extra foods and sides that I don't even need, that's where I found it all just adds up.

Also a few other things that shocked me were: Cereal, bread, pasta.

hevans1207

I think cereal for me was/is the biggest shocker. Not so much how many calories are in it, but how damn small my "bowl of cereal" has to be to only be a serving...come on now, I could easily eat 3 servings in my breakfast bowl.

ElizabethFuller

I work in a school and one of the teachers very kindly gave the technicians a packet of Marks and Spencers chocolate cookies to have with their coffee. Very kind. The pack had ten biscuits, there are five techs. Yippee, no fighting over the last one! After there was nothing left but crumbs someone read out the back of the pack. Each biscuit was over 240 calories so the two came to more than a lot of meals!!! Now, in the past, I could have eaten most of a pack of chocolate biscuits whilst watching TV in the evening! Eeek!

ElizabethFuller

I think cereal for me was/is the biggest shocker. Not so much how many calories are in it, but how damn small my "bowl of cereal" has to be to only be a serving...come on now, I could easily eat 3 servings in my breakfast bowl.

Particularly granola, which is the only cereal I like. It's the one thing that I've actually had to give up for the short term because of my portion control issues. :-( Although I do use it as a topping on yoghurt, where one spoonful is OK.

JeninBelgium

actually eggs aren't that high in calories and, if you take out the yolk, they are very, very low in calories
the shocking things are those which are healthy but stil energy dense (read energy dense as high in calories)
nuts, quinoa, muesli, dried fruit and cheese- yes all are rather obviously high in calories, especially cheese, but when you realise that a serving of hard cheese is about the size of a domino or two dice- that's what really brings it home

chickennugger13

I was shocked at nuts. As a vegetarian most of my protein sources are SO high in calories. More egg whites for me...

Solomino

My shocker was milk...1% and 2%..loaded with sugar. My sugar intake is 24 grams...having a bowl of cereal with a cup of milk in it is 12 grams gone. I love milk in my coffee, but no more. All these years I avoided cream but now I have to have it. I never exceed my fat intake but I always exceed my sugar. No wonder. Now I save my sugar for that mini chocolate bar or something else as a sweet treat.

heybales

My shocker was milk...1% and 2%..loaded with sugar. My sugar intake is 24 grams...having a bowl of cereal with a cup of milk in it is 12 grams gone. I love milk in my coffee, but no more. All these years I avoided cream but now I have to have it. I never exceed my fat intake but I always exceed my sugar. No wonder. Now I save my sugar for that mini chocolate bar or something else as a sweet treat.

I'm more shocked you found a cereal that has less sugar than milk.

Or when you say sugar, you literally mean the sugar stat, not the carb stat? Even though they both end up as glucose after digestion and processing.

dalguard

Granola is crazy.

One of the things I was shocked to learn was that a donut was less calories than a scone or muffin. Scones are so bland and muffins seem almost healthy. I've always preferred donuts but would stupidly pick something "smarter" when I was trying to be good.

cookiealbright

I try to eat a donut everyday! 203 calories breakfast & yummy!

Koldnomore

Started today on this one but started last week on another counter...anyway i love this one...But back to the question..yes tim hortons extra large coffee 4x4 which is four creams and four sugars and sometimes i add more sugar which brought it up to a whopping 600 to760 calories..i have been drinking three to four of these a day for two years ..No wonder i gained weight....

So guess what is no longer on my menu..? lol

Ah Timmies... the bane of my former existence.. XL 4 cream 2 sugar was mine. I normally had about 4 a day. Now I drink plain herbal tea (sometimes with a little honey) black coffee and water. I bought some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for a treat - it's amazing how GOOD black coffee can be when you have a GOOD coffee.

I hate how bad muffins are... It's crazy.. I used to have a muffin nearly every morning (with my calorie bomb coffee) and up until very recently I still had enough extra calories in a day to be able to have one every once in a while but at almost 400 calories a piece I have taken to eating Jos Louis' instead..they are only 250

Granola is also stupidly high in calories. I used to have some on my daily yogurt but now I can't afford it anymore either. Losing weight when you have a lot to lose is SO easy but what really sucks is just how much you have to cut out to keep losing weight. 1800 calories a day is almost nothing for me I miss 2300 and my big bowl of cereal bedtime snack!

I figure at some point I will just stay where I am as opposed to trying to cut more to try and lose the last few pounds. I don't know how people eat less than 2000 calories a day and stay happy.. I always feel like I'm starving.

Clarissa546

I actually was shocked how many calories Bananas have! Sounds weird I know, but I always thought fruit is so healthy and low in calories, and of course it's healthy but you really need to watch those calories there!

golfmonk

Well for me, there was not one specific food that shocked me but the serving sizes in general is what opened my eyes. I had no clue what x ounces of food looked like. It is no wonder I became overweight.

sbrownallison

Totally agree about the orange juice but if you think calories are shock you need to brace yourself when you get a food scale for portion size.:frown:

Ouch, so true! I'd been eating plain old-fashioned oatmeal for breakfast for years and always use a 1/4-cup scoop to measure out 1/2 cup of flakes. A couple of months ago, I saw a YouTube video of someone measuring out a food portion and then weighing that food, finding unpleasant surprises. Yikes, I immediately went to the cupboard and took my oatmeal over to the scale and weighed the "1/2 cup" I'd been using for years -- only to find that the weight measure (i.e. more accurate) was about 70% more than I'd been counting it, calorie-wise, with my volume method.

I should have remembered the lesson I learned a couple of years ago when I finally began to weigh peanut butter instead of measure it with a tablespoon measure. That particular unpleasant surprise was that my volume measure of peanut butter was really about twice the weight of a "2-tablespoon" serving size was. With a calorie-dense food like PB, that makes a huge difference. There's so much to learn!

PunkyRachel

I love drink eggnog (not spiked) in the holiday seasons. One cup of eggnog is 420 calories. In years past (before MFP) I would pour myself 2-3 glass in a day! adding up to over 1,000 calories by itself. Holy Cow!

sunshinenjjr

Well, I just joined today and entered what I was planning to eat/drink. I was shocked to learn I couldn't have even one coke or it would put me over my allotted sugars for the day. Super sad day in the life of a coke addict.

I feel your pain.

sbrownallison

I didn't have any illusions that Spam was low in calories. But I was truly blown away to find how just how many calories are in that yummy afternoon snack. On a Saturday afternoon of lounging, I'd love to take a can of Spam and slice it thin, then cook it on the skillet until it was just dark brown. Watching tv while snacking on that is the best. I hadn't done that in a while, and went to do it this weekend. I looked at the can and absolutely lost it. Six servings per can 2 180 cal/serving.

That's 1080 CALORIES PER CAN!!!! Never again.

Sweet Jebus, what would have been the sodium in this "snack"? Several posters have mentioned sodium, and in fact it truly is a shocker to read labels for this particular nutrient. I'm sensitive to sodium, so have read labels for years to check it. Any processed food has huge amounts of course but still surprising when you actually check the label.

Pete0725

A typical breakfast for me is: 4 pieces of turkey bacon (100 calories), 1 thin bagel (110 calories) and 2 scrambled eggs ~ 140-160 calories + 8oz of OJ for another 100 calories is a total of 470 calories.

With a daily limit of 1400-1500, I still have a good amount of calories left for the remaining meals.

a778c466

Pistachios shocked me with their calorie content. I suppose with nuts you should expect that but I love pistachios. I can never eat one serving of them so I generally have to stay away from them now.

4leighbee

I had a spinach salad with some crumbled bacon the other day ... thought it would be some extra calories but not a bad choice. Wrong. Holy moly - my sodium count went in the hole immediately, and the calories were high, too. Uh ... maybe bacon isn't worth it. Good to know. Oh, and coffee because of the way I fix it. I have three cups a day, at least - that's a couple hundred calories of sugar and milk.

Ke11er

Really early on I went out to eat with a friend at a famous neighborhood chain (not to pick on them, the lesson applies everywhere) and was completely and utterly shocked later when I logged my favorite Oriental Chicken Salad and learned that it was 1,390 calories! My jaw surely must have dropped. The take away for me was that salad isn't always the healthiest choice on the menu, and, that it was probably a good idea for me to preview some menu nutritional information before dining out until I figured this out better.