Surprise calorie bombs!

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2

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  • heyjude345
    heyjude345 Posts: 66 Member
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    Tumaro's tortillas are the bomb! Lots of yummy flavors for 60 calories each.
  • AnnaVee84
    AnnaVee84 Posts: 345 Member
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    Lots of "healthy" foods surprised me, actually.

    walnuts - 50 cals for 4 HALVES
    bananas- 105 for a whole one
    avocados- 100 cals for half
    Peanut butter - 95 cals for 1 tbsp.

    Crazy! I thought I was doing good by eating those foods. O_o

    definitely calorie sticker shock at first, along with olive and coconut oil, but these are good options for high monosaturated fats or high protein in your diet! don't shy away from them if you are able to include them, they are still good for you!

    Hummus also gets me - 150 cals and 11 g fat for the lil snack pack. Gah!
  • robingmurphy
    robingmurphy Posts: 349 Member
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    200 calories in a cup of rice. I can eat multiple cups of rice easily. Now I exert portion control and include maybe 1/2 cup with lots of veggies.
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Flour surprised me.. I mean I knew it wasn't low, I just never thought it'd be so high! Same exact thing for restaurant food. Sigh.

    Also..we switched to light beer and straight liquoir as opposed to full on beer (except for guiness, 135 calories are well worth it!) And mixed drinks.
  • Stephlb627
    Stephlb627 Posts: 16 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no one food really surprised me...but a night of chatting...noshing on apps blew me away...

    It's not like I had a complete plate of coconut shrimp...I had 2, then 2 of this 2 of that etc..

    I though oh 1200 calories maybe...it ended up being over 2k...:sad:

    Thiis is one of the reason's I prelog now...even if I have to tweek it afterwards no more surprises like that...

    Yes to the pre -logging even if you have to tweak. I have also found that checking a restaurant's website before going out helps.
  • Lovee_Dove7
    Lovee_Dove7 Posts: 742 Member
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    sistrsprkl wrote: »
    I think I have a pretty good understanding of nutrition but sometimes I still get completely shocked. My husband just brought me home a tofu and eggplant bowl from Panda Express and when I logged it, it came to 840 calories! Yikes, that's like 1/2 of what I should eat for the day. I honestly would have guessed around 550. Just shows the importance of accurate logging. What are some calorie counts that have surprised you? (iced coffee from Costco is another one that really surprised me)

    I wonder, do they really prepare the dish so that it's only 840 cals? Is it all prepackaged? do they weigh out portions? I so rarely eat out I don't even know how Panda express works.
  • Carnhot
    Carnhot Posts: 367 Member
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    Yoghurt raisins. Love them, but have to hide them from myself.
  • desiresdestiny
    desiresdestiny Posts: 175 Member
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    Nut butters
  • Iguessicandothis
    Iguessicandothis Posts: 2,132 Member
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    Everything shocked me! Including all the ones you guys have mentioned. I used to regularly make a box of Kraft Dinner, add tons more cheddar cheese and salsa to it, and eat the whole thing for lunch. That was probably more calories than I now eat in a day. I went to the movies the other day and shared a small popcorn with my hubby. We used to share a large bag (1200 calories) and get candy and nachos too! It's been a real eye opener.
  • Nery_Tay
    Nery_Tay Posts: 81 Member
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    Costco Pizza! I never expected it to be as much as it was when I bought it. I also was surprised in some of the food items from restaurants I have eaten and not knowing they were as bad as the menu made them look.
  • FitOldMomma
    FitOldMomma Posts: 790 Member
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    Walnuts and almonds! When I first started logging my food I was truly shocked at how calorie dense these two nuts are. I still eat them, just in moderation.
  • OyGeeBiv
    OyGeeBiv Posts: 733 Member
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    Vlasic Zesty Bread and Butter Pickles - 35 calories/ounce
    Kosher Dill Pickles - 3 calories/ounce

    Found out about the bread and butter pickles *after* I ate 3 ounces of them, not realizing there would be such a difference between them and dills.
  • hgycta
    hgycta Posts: 3,013 Member
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    Ice cream cake. One year my boyfriend got some for his birthday and I cut myself a very small slice expecting 500 calories at worse. It turned out to be more like 1,000... and it was small, mind you! I probably used to eat at least 5,000 calories worth of that stuff with the slices I used to cut, and then that second helping I went back for. Same thing holds true with pecan pie. Truly devastating.

    I was also surprised how a "terrible" Cookies & Cream large milkshake from Chick-fil-A is 660 calories while a large Oreo Chocolate Shake from Sonic is 1,730 calories. Quite the difference!

    I also noticed some others already mention fruit/dried fruit, but I'd like to emphasize my horror with logging bananas and banana chips! Yikes!
    Lastly, I noticed someone mention Dunkin Donuts muffins. I was surprised how a blueberry muffin was 460 calories but the reduced fat blueberry muffin was still 410 calories! For something being marked "reduced fat" you'd think (or I would, at least) that it would be more than just 50 calories difference, or AT LEAST under 400 calories!!!
  • SimplyMicheleR
    SimplyMicheleR Posts: 89 Member
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    I have been shocked by a lot of foods, but I am surprised how many people are cutting out healthy fats, the ones that help your body in so many ways, because of calories! I would rather have a handful of nuts for a snack over something else that appears to be "more" because those nuts keep me feeling full longer than the same amount of calories in a granola bar or something else!

    I suggest people start thinking more about quality over quantity.

    Another tip - when eating things like Ice cream, put your serving in a small bowl. I use a custard cup. then use an ice tea spoon to eat it versus a tablespoon. You eat it slower, and your brain registers it as more since the bowl is full, and the "small" serving becomes more than enough. Rushing through eating leads to me overeating.....
  • cessi0909
    cessi0909 Posts: 654 Member
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    Even though it knew it would be high in calories I was still shocked to find a quesadilla I ordered from chilis had over 1700 calories in JUST THE QUESADILLA! That didn't include the salad I had or any side items.
  • JanetMMcC
    JanetMMcC Posts: 410 Member
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    Re the 410-cal reduced-fat muffin: Reduced-fat baked goods often up the sugar. I don't know what Dunkin Donuts uses, but one common replacement for fat is applesauce.

    And those big muffins most places serve these days are 3x the size of a standard muffin-tin muffin.

    Even things I expect to be high-calorie can surprise me. We were out at TGI Friday's and I looked up their brownie with ice cream, thinking it would be maybe 600 calories, and I could eat half and stay under budget. 1200! Luckily, I was with two guys who were willing to fall on their spoons and eat one-third of the dessert each. (I took 1/3 of the brownie and less than that of the ice cream, but logged a full 33.3333 percent.)

    But there be fewer surprises by the end of the year -- restaurants with at least 20 outlets, even groceries or gas stations with at least 20 outlets for prepared food will have to display calorie counts on menus and menu boards. Vending machines, too, if a company owns at least 20.
    http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm217762.htm

    A few restaurants already do this (I noticed it at Panera), and some others will roll out the counts before the December 2016 deadline.
    The chef for Rouse's, a Louisiana grocery chain, told me in November that they were planning to put up the counts early this year in their prepared food areas.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/health/chain-restaurant-calorie-counts/

    And for those upset at banana totals - buy small bananas! A 5" banana is about 75 calories.

    I also like the freeze-dried fruits in individual packages. Those tend to run 35 to 45 calories.
  • cessi0909
    cessi0909 Posts: 654 Member
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    Oh and back when I first started logging I wasn't changing what I was eating and just actually logging it -- a little embarrassed to admit I would eat 2-3 PB & J sandwiches for lunch a few times a week. Holy sticker shock when I logged that!
  • KwonJiYong69
    KwonJiYong69 Posts: 66 Member
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    Chocolate spread. Yeah it isn't healthy or low cal anyway but yknow where it says 'each table spoon contains 85cal'? Well on the back it says that's for 15g. 15g is a non heaped TEASPOON.
  • cmarangi
    cmarangi Posts: 131 Member
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    IloveJAM3 wrote: »
    Lots of "healthy" foods surprised me, actually.

    walnuts - 50 cals for 4 HALVES
    bananas- 105 for a whole one
    avocados- 100 cals for half
    Peanut butter - 95 cals for 1 tbsp.

    Crazy! I thought I was doing good by eating those foods. O_o

    Be careful on cutting out some of these foods because of the calorie count. Even though they are higher calorie there are studies that show we eat less calories when we choose these types of nutrient dense foods because they are more satiating. For example, 50 calories of walnuts will satisfy us more than 50 calories of chips. So it's good to make room in your diet for foods such as these.
  • blossomingbutterfly
    blossomingbutterfly Posts: 743 Member
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    Muffins surprise me the most, honestly.
    That and Second Cup drinks, haha. I miss my winter/holiday lattes but just not worth the calories!