Have you been surprised by the nutrition of restaurant food?

All the time, any-more I check here or the restaurants website BEFORE I leave to go to eat!..Save you alot of hassel

Applebee's Fiesta chicken. Grilled chicken, rice. Good choice, right? Nope over 1000 calories.

Oh yeah! I went to a restaurant and had a cheeseburger with guacamole and salsa on a bun. When I checked later, I found out it was nearly 1,100 calories and 60g of carbs. The day before, I had a homemade cheeseburger with guacamole and salsa and it came out to 670 calories and 30g of carbs. That's why I rarely eat out anymore unless I really plan for it and realize I will have to do some extra workout time to compensate. You play, you pay.

Speaking as a chef I can tell you that many restaurants look for those repeat customers by serving extreme servings with added calories and fat. Fat adds flavor...butter adds flavor through FAT....go online and look up 80% of any major restaurant, look at the calorie, fat, carb and sodium counts. Many places with wings will add a bit of salt and butter to their sauce to get you to not only eat more but to want to drink more as well. I figured up on here a meal for a restaurant I worked at years ago and one plate of food was 1600 calories, with 140 grams of fat, 2343 mg sodium and so bad for you...so very bad.

Always look up a restaurant's nutritional info before going. I go by this: If the place doesn't have nutritional info, either don't go or overestimate.

OMG Burger King one thing of honey mustard dipping sauce from what I remember was like close to 90 calories!

Sometimes I'm surprised when the item has less calories than I thought.

I first noticed it with a salad from applebee's!!! I seriously think there is something like the opposite of the sensa sprinkles that ADDS calories to food!!! I can't imagine how salads, side veggies, etc can be so much higher in calories when you go out to eat than if you were to have prepared the same meal at home!!!

You probably don't want to look up the sodium content on something like that. I've been surprised both ways on nutritional information from restaurants. The "healthy" stuff is loaded with crap you don't even think to worry about and so much of it is just fillers with no real value. The occasional "junk" can surprise you, too. Somehow, two semi- regular tacos at Taco Bell (one Volcano and one Doritos for the #stealataco promo) managed to be one of the least worrisome fast food meals since I've started on here.

*this*
2 weeks ago I was meeting friends for lunch at Chili's. The day before I dl'd the NI menu and went thru it paying especially close attention to sodium (NA). Many of the things that appear relatively OK (even the lower calorie section) have 50-100+% RDA of NA! Of the dozens of entrees, less than half a dozen have less than 1,000 mg NA (roughly 40%DV), and that's before adding dressings, sauces, and sides! I got the Carib. salad... my new fave. Interestingly enough, the tostada chips aren't so bad, just use the salsa very sparingly. Wanna real shock? Look at NA for anything with the word 'buffalo' in it, OMG!
Last week I wanted to treat myself because I worked so long that I neglected to eat much all day. I looked at a couple of fast menu NI menus and Burger King surprised me by having some of the lower NA options. I got a Triple Whopper no pickles/ketchup and it had less than 700mg NA. That 200+ mg less than Wendy's JUNIOR bacon chzburger! I used to eat 2 of those at a time, never again!

So today I went to Chili's with some friends and got Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers, I was expecting it to be bad but got quite the shock when I looked it up later: Crispy Honey-Chipotle Chicken
Calories-1680
Fat-73
Carbs-203
Wow, thank goodness I only ate half, but now I need to convince myself to throw the rest away and be done with it! As I start trying to eat a healthy diet, I need to learn to look things up before I go out to eat!

Hmm, totally out of topic, but I have been hearing a lot of people buzzing about chipotle. What is it, exactly? Lol, Sometimes i feel like I live under a rock or something.

It is kind of astounding how they fit that many calories into food that when cooked at home is 30-40% fewer calories for even more food. It's some kind of restaurant houdini maneuver.

Sodium content is astoundingly bad too.

Definitely look things up in advance, but if you can't and you want to keep your total calories lower, go for grilled lean meats like fish or chicken and vegetable sides.

I went to Chipotle too the other night and got a steak burrito... I looked it up beforehand, so I didn't end up accidentally consuming the whole 880 calories of it (and 96% of my daily sodium intake.) I actually HATE eating out. Except for Red Robin and cheap Chinese buffets, which, hold me down and back, please.

It's expensive and it's bad for you. Always. I went to Denny's once and I remember feeling faint when I realized that my three pancakes were like 1500 calories or something equally obscene.

I have never understood why they put an ice cream scooper full of butter on your pancakes, toast, waffles, etc., when you go out. Do people actually EAT that????????????????!

I hate it. I want to say, "I'm here for LUNCH, not for freaking. Three meals worth of calories in a tiny plate worth of food!"

Fortunately, when I began here, I went on line before attempting to visit any restaurant looking for healthy choices before going out to eat. It is truly an eye opener.The sodium content alone is astounding, even on the healthier choices. I very rarely eat out as a result, and when I do, I always pre choose my food before I go, and stick to it.

The whole entire Outback menu is depressing.

Yeah, its crazy! That is why I try to look it up prior to going so I know what I am eating.