Shockers when you started paying attention to calories?

Rubie81

Cereal. Because a real bowl of cereal is not the same thing as a serving of cereal, at least not in my world. I would eat a giant bowl with lots of milk and it turns out a bowl of cereal was like 500 calories.

YES! :grumble:

Rubie81

I have a Pret right next to my office so I usually get either breakfast or lunch from there. Well their tuna sandwich is 510 calories. That might not seem like THAT many calories, but it is not even a HUGE sandwich. So within the hour I am hungry. But I'm really into tuna lately so I'll have it regardless.

seltzermint555

My shocker was how many calories I squander on lattes, frapuccinos and all those delicious coffee drinks!!! Not to mention the money I've squandered on them too;)

I keep it in moderation now. My bank book and belly are much happier this way

Totally agree! I used to work at a stressful office job one block from Starbucks, and I wasn't counting calories at the time...I got a white chocolate mocha or cinnamon dolce latte 3-4 times per week, so that's at least $12/wk on Starbucks.

That's over $600 per year. On Starbucks.

I am really frugal so it kills me now to even think about that. I could pay for my husband and my car insurance for an entire year, or 2-3 MONTHS of groceries for that amount of money.

donnarogers6211

Have you tried the powdered peanut butter. I mix with light cool whip and it taste great. There is also a chocolate peanut butter version. It makes a great peanut butter banana sandwich. only 45 calories per 2 tablespoons.

vastiris

Pasta - Not that I didn't know there were a lot of calories, just that I didn't realize how small serving sizes really were. And I used to eat it ALL THE TIME, thinking it was better than a lot of other options.

Olive Oil - again, not that I didn't know it was pure fat, but how much you have to factor in while cooking recipes.

Wine - oh, you 6oz serving size. you mock me.

MissLeelooDallas

Haha, oh OP, I had a very similar shock to the system at Noodles and Co. I don't even eat there anymore since I wasn't 'that' into it in the first place. I'd certainly rather spend those calories on foods that meet my macros and that I enjoy more. I was really shocked also by pizza and most restaurant desserts. I know those should have been no-brainers, but seeing dishes that hit 2,000+ cals really stopped me in my tracks.

0somuchbetter0

Everything from the Cheesecake Factory. I mean everything. Appalling.

hmanley66

I started doing vanilla protein with frozen mango, and it is thick like a milkshake for a 3rd of the calories... just a tip

fnbhealthy

You are right! Everyone should do this regardless if you have to lose weight or not. I was in shock when I logged my food in just breakfast and lunch and I was way over my calorie intake! And I know I won't be running on the treadmill all night to bring it down. This really makes you think.

srv524

I knew about pop but not pizza, burgers and fries. My burgers and fries are about 1,000 calories so that alone is not good...

seltzermint555

Pasta - Not that I didn't know there were a lot of calories, just that I didn't realize how small serving sizes really were. And I used to eat it ALL THE TIME, thinking it was better than a lot of other options.

For me pasta was a surprise in the other direction. Coming of age in the 90s everyone was either a raving fan of pasta or they shunned it (possibly because of creamy alfredo sauces and such). I thought of it as a "bad food" to eat only in tiny portions and now have realized it's not as evil as I was led to believe.

BUT...I feel that way about cereal. I see a lot of people have mentioned it already, but I used to think a SMALL bowl filled less than full with cereal and then milk just enough to cover it, was probably 1 serving. More like 2-3 even with that truly small bowl.

I cringe when I remember myself, at my heaviest, switching from my go-to single brown sugar Pop Tart and 8 oz of milk (not the best choice around) to what I thought was a better option...a bowl of frosted shredded wheat with milk and about 8 oz of orange juice or grapefruit juice. Not IMO a better option! And I didn't even like it very much!

Now I sit down to a 230 calorie breakfast of egg taco with chipotle sauce and half a plate of cantaloupe along with my coffee. It is eye-opening!!

kdotie

i rarely go out to eat anymore just because of the calorie shock.. it pisses me off because i love going out to eat, it's one of my favorite things to do.. the most annoying thing about going out to eat is when they advertise this low calorie meal option and it's like under 700 calories.. isn't a meal supposed to be under 700 calories in the first place? i have no idea what they are cooking with, but most of the foods aren't any better than what i make at home for half the calories.. it's like they have a calorie machine in their kitchen and just amp up the cals or something. just sucks that there are few places that you can go sit down, have a meal with your friends, not sweat every time you look up how many calories are in everything. by the time i'm finished looking up the whole menu to see what i can eat it's usually less than 4, very unappetizing options.. how hard would it be to add a turkey burger to a menu!? hopefully, eventually people will start coming up with actual healthy options at restaurants.

jennk5309

Oh, I'm sure that sometimes having chocolate mousse cheesecake is worth that caloric price tag!! lol

LianaG1115

Texas Roadhouse for dinner the first day we decided to log our food, OMG!! I was eating enough to feed 3 people in ONE meal!!!

danbleedblue

My favorite beverage, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley Ale is almost 30 calories per ounce. Yikes

paintlisapurple

Two things that I noticed after starting logging on mfp were that there aren't quite as many calories in most foods as I thought (probably because I had no idea that I was able to eat as many as I'm allotted here) and the other thing that absolutely amazed me was the crazy amount of sodium that many things seem to have.

ThinLizzie0802

Cheese
I guess it wasn't really a shocker, I knew it was going to be a lot of calories, but I was amazed at how many calories I could lob off of a salad, sandwich, bowl, etc by not including cheese. And I love cheese.

birdsetfree

portions -- until you start to measure your servings you really don't know and you always eat more than you think. When I started measuring, itemizing and accounting for everything in my entree, salad or sandwich -- it was a real eye-opener when I stopped eyeballing it.

And I quit eating a few things almost entirely -- pasta, rice, peanut butter and table appetizers like bread and butter or chips and salsa.

hannamarie88

"A standard meal at a fast food joint consumed 90% of the calories I should eat every day"

I think it has more to do with the evolving definition of what a "standard" meal is. A standard meal at McDonalds used to mean a hamburger, regular fries and a regular coke. That's 620 calories, 480 if you go with a diet coke. That's really not all that bad. But that's not what people want now. Today it's double quarter pounders and bacon double cheeseburgers with the large fries and large coke. When the Big Mac came out, it was considered a very large sandwich, only suitable for really big people, not your average Joe. It's even in the name of thing. Now, this one time king sized sandwich is dwarfed by half the items on the menu.

My husband was stunned when I told him his sandwich, which I think was a double quarter pounder with cheese or something -- had more calories than a Big Mac (which I used to enjoy and still do on very rare occasions...). -- 550 cals in it is not that bad since I don't drink Cokes or eat fries... literally just the sandwich if I get a terrible craving, which is not often.

Edit: For more details

ch3vyington

"A standard meal at a fast food joint consumed 90% of the calories I should eat every day"

I think it has more to do with the evolving definition of what a "standard" meal is. A standard meal at McDonalds used to mean a hamburger, regular fries and a regular coke. That's 620 calories, 480 if you go with a diet coke. That's really not all that bad. But that's not what people want now. Today it's double quarter pounders and bacon double cheeseburgers with the large fries and large coke. When the Big Mac came out, it was considered a very large sandwich, only suitable for really big people, not your average Joe. It's even in the name of thing. Now, this one time king sized sandwich is dwarfed by half the items on the menu.

That is true, things have changed

Seabee74

PIZZA !!!
My wife and I used to order a Large Pizza and I would usually eat all but a couple slices that she would have.. 400-500 calories per slice.. OMG I spent money on Pizza and Bigger Clothes.. No More lol...

BigTireFlipper

Here's a slightly different end of the spectrum. P.F. Chang's bowl of Hot and Sour soup. Only 380 calories. No big deal, right? 7,980 MG of sodium. How's that for a heart stopping macro?

Restybaby2012

Ive been here a couple years. Ive lost more than 100 pounds and was / am doing good but...........

I fell off the wagon as they say about a year ago and got LAZY. Yup.....LAZY...there is NO other excuse to offer. I picked up (said lovingly) about 30 freakin pounds. What an eye opener. However...it was an educational process for me and I now know what went wrong, how and why.

For me the hugest (is that a word?) MISTAKE and SHOCK is / was MY idea of what is 4 oz and what the SCALE says is 4 oz. What I say is 1/2 cup and what IS a 1/2 cup.

HOW could I have been so off? SOOOoo incredibly-edibly OFF on "questimating"? I have a hunch what Ive been considering a 4oz piece of meat MAY have been more like a 10 oz piece. What I considered a half cup was more than likely a cup and a half or even 2cups.

I am shocked, appalled even at the calories I had to have been consuming by being THAT off on measurements. I kept the healthy eating side of things so to speak but had to have been way the heII over on calories.

NOT a mistake soon to be repeated and Ive already started losing and feeling better.

Francl27

I have a Pret right next to my office so I usually get either breakfast or lunch from there. Well their tuna sandwich is 510 calories. That might not seem like THAT many calories, but it is not even a HUGE sandwich. So within the hour I am hungry. But I'm really into tuna lately so I'll have it regardless.

Bread and mayo! Make your own with light bread and light mayo or something.

Francl27

Everything from the Cheesecake Factory. I mean everything. Appalling.

Their skinnylicious menu is delicious and under 600 calories. Just saying.

Francl27

Here's a slightly different end of the spectrum. P.F. Chang's bowl of Hot and Sour soup. Only 380 calories. No big deal, right? 7,980 MG of sodium. How's that for a heart stopping macro?

Holy s***!

TrailRunner61

Another thing to watch for is the sodium content of so called 'healthy' meals. Some of the 550 or less calorie meals at Applebees (or anywhere else), have over 3,000mg of sodium, for ONE meal. With high blood pressure, I'm not supposed to have more than 1200... that sucks. What I don't get is WHY they add that much salt...??? So we buy more drinks perhaps?
Once I reallyyy got into counting calories, I was also shocked at how much a 'serving' was. For example, 1/2 cup of oatmeal does not measure as one serving, listed on the package. It's a lot more! I started weighing my food with a scale by grams. There is a big difference!

Francl27

Another thing to watch for is the sodium content of so called 'healthy' meals. Some of the 550 or less calorie meals at Applebees (or anywhere else), have over 3,000mg of sodium, for ONE meal. With high blood pressure, I'm not supposed to have more than 1200... that sucks. What I don't get is WHY they add that much salt...??? So we buy more drinks perhaps?

Makes it tastier. I mean, I grill chicken breasts at home.. and they're fine. But all that sodium, that makes them tastier in restaurants...

MissBabyJane

All kinds of cheese.

Also I hate food that is labeled as "healthy option" and sometimes is even highter on calories

fittoday14

I've been looking at calories since I was a kid (I'm 34 yrs old). Two of my older sisters were always on a diet (they were always 10-20 pounds over weight). FYI: my mom never liked them looking so intently at calories and carbs, she always told them, "If you want to lose weight, eat my food." And, she was right. Her food is very healthy. Even her desserts! They were hooked on chips, donuts, soda, etc. I never really cared about it until I was 21 - 2001.

When I got older, the content of calories are just so upsetting, it's the sodium and lack of nutrition in certain foods that were shocking to me. I remember a few years back when I looked at McDs, Subway and Panera Bread's nutritional info, I was beyond upset and shocked. I hardly go to Panera anymore.. I felt like I was being played for a fool. McDs I sort of knew was loaded with calories, but still the calories and sodium in their fries were horrific! Subway (back then, I hate it now) was OK except for the sodium content. I also looked at sit down restaurants. Once I was at Dennys and got the healthiest things I thought, and afterwards when I looked at the nutritional profile I was very upset. I had all my calories for breakfast! :sad:

You live and you learn! I prefer eating at home nowadays so I can control the nutrition.