I found this interesting... Actual calorie counts

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Replies

  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Not at all surprising.

    None of this is an exact science.

    Unless of course you want to live the rest of your life in a lab.
    This. Everything is an estimate, nothing is exact. Even your calculated calorie goal is just an estimate that could be off by several hundred calories. Generally, food labels have an error margin of 20%. Why? Because food is agricultural, it is IMPOSSIBLE for every single food ingredient to have the exact same number of calories, every time. Even meats, fruits and vegetables are just estimates. You can have 2 identical looking carrots, identical size and weights, and they can have radically different calorie and nutritional counts.

    Unless you only want to eat synthetic, lab created food (which doesn't exist, anyway,) you will never get 100% accuracy, and it's laughably unrealistic to expect it to be.

    Thank God: a voice of reason. (This is why you are on my FL!)
  • ksuh999
    ksuh999 Posts: 543 Member
    Original article with more stuff explained:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/opinion/calorie-detective.html?_r=1&

    What a moron thinking that vegan sandwich was 228 cals. Two slices of bread are at least 180 calories. And tofu is calorically quite dense. I found the nutrition label online and it's a crock of crap. 15g of carbs? That's not even one piece of bread!

    Muffins are also calorie bombs. Always have been. My wife makes homemade ones where she drastically cuts back the sugar and fat and they still end up about 250-300 cals each. Problem is that flour is really calorically dense too.
  • SniffyDoodle
    SniffyDoodle Posts: 129
    Great. Now I can never eat out again. Thanks. lol

    I said this to hubby last week! Not because of calories, but because you just never know what you're eating anymore! There was a show on BBC 3 last week called The Horsemeat Banquet and they were analyzing foods from takeaways. It was really gross. There was a lamb dish that when they tried to analyze the meat...they couldn't figure out what it was. It wasn't beef, it wasn't chicken, pork, horse, or lamb. I'll eat at home from now on thanks!

    OMG that's frightening!!!
  • Dottyb1940
    Dottyb1940 Posts: 188 Member
    bump
  • kelly_c_77
    kelly_c_77 Posts: 5,658 Member
    Ugh, disappointed but not surprised.
  • bhb301
    bhb301 Posts: 338 Member
    This is very interesting
  • 2ht2hand1e
    2ht2hand1e Posts: 116 Member
    Thanks for sharing!
  • mfoster1019
    mfoster1019 Posts: 152 Member
    Interesting video...but not surprising that there are that many inaccuracies.
  • maddythorn
    maddythorn Posts: 8 Member
    wow that was pretty good. I always wondered about some restaurants and the accuracy of the calories in the food. Thanks alot for posting this video....
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    This was a great video. Thanks!

    What is odd is that I lost 1.1 lbs a week against a goal of 1.0, every week (+/- 0.2 or so), for 11 weeks on MFP. I did not weigh my food, I did not use a fitbit and ate back all of my exercise cals, and I used nutrition labels at face value. Everything was estimates, but I lost approx 10% more than expected without fail. Makes me wonder if people aren't over thinking all of this.
  • Bakkasan
    Bakkasan Posts: 1,027 Member
    On the subway thing, my brother worked at one and his district got mystery shopped all the time. If they were putting more on than a serving without being specifically asked to they got dinged.

    Of course where I live now they would put a gallon of mayo on and not think anything of it.
  • vegetablecupcakerunner
    vegetablecupcakerunner Posts: 1
    Interesting :)
  • CaffeinatedGlitter
    CaffeinatedGlitter Posts: 201 Member
    wow! thanks!
  • elainecroft
    elainecroft Posts: 595 Member
    As soon as I saw that sandwich with 2 slices of bread (100 calories each) listed at 248 calories total - Yeah, that's not gonna happen...

    And, the muffin was even worse than I thought!
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,320 Member
    wow, that was VERY interesting. Thanks for posting!

    I have known in the back of my mind as I count grapes and weigh my food on a digital kitchen scale that ultimately there is a wide margin on error. I guess this is one more reason to hone my intuitive eating skills. :flowerforyou:

    Your measuring of grapes with a scale is likely better than what you find on the label of many foods.

    Just a note, when fast food has been tested, most of it is really close to the posted calories. I trust the "healthy" stuff's numbers much less.
  • Osu2k1
    Osu2k1 Posts: 116 Member
    Wow! That was interesting! Thanks for sharing!
  • Jeeenjohnson19
    Jeeenjohnson19 Posts: 54 Member
    I am SO glad i can trust subway, love their food! :D
  • MindyG150
    MindyG150 Posts: 1,296 Member
    WOW, very interesting!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Well to be fair, the muffin had no label! And yeah, 238 calories was totally unbelievable on that sandwich. I'd totally contact the company and complain though.

    But I doubt that restaurants measure everything, except subway, so it's not really surprising for chipotle and starbucks.
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
    Thanks, interesting.
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    http://www.break.com/index/the-truth-behind-calories-2430067

    Thank you for posting that link.

    It's nice for folks to see how calories are MEASURED and will understand that there's little connection between MEASURING calories in a calorimeter vs using a formula or an exercise machine ESTIMATE calories.

    The pages of MFP are littered with folks who are "stuck on a plateau", sure that they're "eating no more than XX calories" and they want to know how they can stop their body from "hanging on to calories". Perhaps, with information provided by clips like this, folks will accept that they're not special snowflakes who have discovered perpetual motions and will accept that to lose wright they need to eat less and exercise more.
  • Lisa_Rhodes
    Lisa_Rhodes Posts: 263 Member
    bump for later... looks interesting.
  • justkiesh
    justkiesh Posts: 7 Member
    ZAMN! That "vegan healthy sandwich" was the worst!!
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I kind of suspected this all along. I think this is why it's so important to listen to your body's needs. Eat when you're hungry - when you feel your stomach growling. And stop when you are satisfied. NOT FULL. But satisfied. Thanks for sharing!

    Why can't I eat till I'm full?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member


    The pages of MFP are littered with folks who are "stuck on a plateau", sure that they're "eating no more than XX calories" and they want to know how they can stop their body from "hanging on to calories". Perhaps, with information provided by clips like this, folks will accept that they're not special snowflakes who have discovered perpetual motions and will accept that to lose wright they need to eat less and exercise more.

    It's actually funny because in most cases, people get told to eat more.
  • queenbea77
    queenbea77 Posts: 404 Member
    Bump for later cant wait to see what everyone is talking about
  • paintlisapurple
    paintlisapurple Posts: 982 Member
    Wow thanks for posting this OP it was verrrrrrrry interesting. (Tofu sandwiches?! Really?) Whew on the subway sandwich, and no starbucks out where I live so no worries.
  • ajhugz
    ajhugz Posts: 452 Member
    I always thought chipoltle wasn't accurate. I get the same thing each time and depending on who's holding the spoon i get way more. Very cool video. Thanks for sharing.
  • mamax5
    mamax5 Posts: 414 Member
    I am SO glad i can trust subway, love their food! :D

    Me too! I am now suspicious of restaurants :huh:
  • saxmaniac
    saxmaniac Posts: 1,133 Member
    Great video. But the conclusion... "Why post it at all, if the accuracy isn't enforced?"

    Uh, because YOU STILL DON'T NEED TO EAT 2773 CALORIES!

    A 20% error is better than a 100% error.

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