Calorie shocker!

crysann1979

im in total agreement. gotta watch your macros.

ELEANOR43da

I was amazed at the sugar in bananas and used to eat 2 a day. I am diabetic. I have given them up . Most fruit are high ,but I keep telling myself natural sugar is not as bad. I always go over !!

thesifter

Vintage aged cheddar, so sad!

lovejonz82

The big shocker for me was orange juice. I use to have four servings of it (2 tall glasses) with breakfast easily. Once I started myfitnesspal and started looking at labels I was like whoa!! I had no idea that just 8 ounces had about 22 grams of sugar. Before reading labels I ate all types of food and had no idea that I was consuming so much of the wrong things.

SinomenJen

It's never the calorie count that shocks me. It's the sodium.

Yes!!! Especially even when eating out something healthy.

I am sodium sensitive and it killed me to try to bring it under 1500mg a day!

momRN2B

You're smart to be getting a handle on this whole food-labeling thing before you get any older! I've been reading labels for years and thought I was pretty savvy. Then, one day I was standing in line at the grocery and picked up a packaged large cookie. The calories didn't look too bad, until I read closer and discovered that a "serving" was 1/2 a cookie! Who ever ate half a cookie? Certainly not me. I'm glad I didn't buy the damn thing! I guess the lesson here is Read the Label, the entire label including "Serving Size".

same here, I have been reading labels for years and its a new trick. They make something that most people eat as one serving into two so If you are not careful when reading the label you think the calories are ok, not realizing its for 1 serving. I mean who drinks a half of a 16-20oz bottle or half a small chips bag, I mean really!

brraanndi

Like a jar of nuts. Has anyone ever gotten a jar of nuts and counted out X amount of pieces?

I actually do this with almonds all the time! 27 almonds makes a great, filling snack for ~150 calories!

LOL same here but before I started cutting down, I doubt I ever had just one serving of such a thing.

pinkgumdrop123

It's never the calorie count that shocks me. It's the sodium.

yup! its been a battle

CandiQueen

cheese was a big shocker for me, as was milk and peanut butter. hmm what else? I remember alternatively I was shocked at how MUCH vegetables you can eat for the amount of calories. You could pretty much each some veggies all day long and not meet your calories.

I was also super shocked at the difference in calories when you make something at home versus when you get it at a restaurant.

penutbuttercups01

I am a strong believer that not all calories are created equally, I am sure everyone has heard the old 200 calories of cookies isn't the same ad 200 calories of veggies.

Of course no one can go asking you to removed certain foods from your diet straight away but at least you are becoming aware of what is going into your body and further down the track you can make the decision yourself...

I dont really eat packaged foods anymore or any sort of junk... My "cheat" or "junk" meals are usually a meal at a holistic cafe or restaurant, and the foods I order aren't exactly very different from my daily diet, only maybe a little larger in portions.

So that way I am not so horrified by my caloric intake.
I chose to give up all forms of packaged & man made junk food & I do feel 110% better for it but of course that is me, and that way I am no longer shocked by the calories in any foods that i consume, and if something I do choose to eat that is very high in calories like for example quinoa I am not hesitant to do so because I know how nutrient dense that food is and how well it will fuel my body, especially with the intensity of workouts I perform on a daily basis.

sharonfoustmills

I ordered a "mini sized" M&M chocolate blizzard from Dairy Queen, and realized that it was 370 calories after I ate it! If you order the "small size", it's a whole 660 calories! Good thing that I ordered the mini size. Geez, I really have to avoid these kind of sweets. :noway:

Or work them into your numbers.....
I had finished Dinner last week, and still had 400 cals to go - I thought Mmmmmm - I can have a treat. Ended up sharing a chocolate bar (Reeses Crispy Crunchy Thing) with the hubby - Next time - Im hitting DQ

That happened to me one night too, had not felt well due to ear infection and taking loads of meds, was short 590 calories, so I had a caramello bar and a reeses cup! Do it all the time? NO! but once in a while if I have a big calorie gap, why not?

CrystalFlury

At the beginning--just about everything shocked me. I bought and ate SO many bad things throughout my life and never really realized how much junk I kept pouring into my body. For one thing, sweets were always my weak point, even now. When I first started counting/watching my food I was utterly amazed at the calories that were in ice cream. I was one of those people who would eat an entire pint of ice cream and think nothing of it. Little did I know 1/2 cup was a serving size and usually contained 210 or so calories! Kudos to you to begin watching your food more carefully even if you're not here to lose weight. You're going to become a healthier person and more educated for it. Happy to have ya here!

Binkie1955

don't overly worry about calories, worry about carbohydrates. you can't drink orange juice.

jmyers1230

I was shocked the first time I entered ONE banana! Most normal sized bananas are over 100 calories each! I know they are really good for you, but they are a high calorie fruit. I use them as the base for smoothies at home, along with frozen berries and just enough orange juice to keep the blender working.
Ranch dressing still gets me... especially on the days that I save up calories for a trip to BWW and end up using 2 containers of ranch to dip my chicken in. I love my ranch and make sure to measure it when I have a salad.
I was also surprised to find that using soy in my drinks at Starbucks really doesn't save many calories over just using milk but I have to switch it anyway since I can't have the milk. Luckily I skip the whipped cream (150+ calories per drink).
I'll never give up cheese. Cheese is a great pre-workout snack for me.

tootoop224

I'm in my first week of trying to get fitter. My first steps are to do more exercise, which I'm sticking with and doing well with.

I first thought I won't change my diet because even though I eat junk food I'm not overweight (poor excuse I know)

Since joining here and updating my food diary however I have come to realise just how much rubbish I do eat - and there are some foods/drinks I've added and looked at the calories and thought NO WAY it cannot be that much surely?!? Needless to say I am very unaware of what I put into my body and this IS going to change. I'll stick with my usual diet for the next week to see exactly what foods I need to cut back on and what foods I could do with more of.

Anyway, I was just wondering, when you first started eating healthy were there any foods/drinks that you thought were pretty low in calories and were shocked to find out how many they actually contain.

For me I was really shocked at how many calories orange juice contained.

I was shocked at flour tortillas, and please don't call me Shirley (no matter how you spell it). :laugh:

lindasew47

Hardee's cinnamon raisin biscuit...300!!! I thought I would treat myself for such a frustrating morning!!! No treat there...but it was already consumed!!! Not again.:blushing:

mockchoc

Orange juice. All the way! I was totally shocked. Even eggs I was shocked, jsut becuase I thought they were less calories. Cheese too.

Eggs aren't high calorie! They are only around 70 calories each.

Bejede

Bump

gloryglory63

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

Dunkirk

Not that I ever thought milk shakes were low calorie, but the most shocking thing I've discovered so far is that for a MINI (not even a small) peanut butter fudge shake, at Sonic, is 760 calories. I guess I knew they'd be high, but that really shocked me.

omg, that is outrageous! you can make them with skim milk and flavored yogurt at home pretty cheap and low in calories-- wasn't drinking many shakes anyway, but definitely not touching them now unless I make them at home

Frozen sliced banana blended with milk make an awesome banana thick shake. I guess you could add peanut butter to it.
Same with me, I can't even remember the last time I had a shake, but peanut butter anything is my favorite right now so I was thinking of looking for a good subsitute to make at home.