Restaurant frustration

simpsonr
simpsonr Posts: 10
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
So I was invited to join my husband and friend for lunch, which I reluctantly agreed to do because it was a good business contact for me. I thought I would be doing myself a favor ordering the grilled vegetable plate, and imagine my surprise when I came home and checked the nutritional info on their web site to discover the grilled veggie plate has 837 calories! aaaaaahhhhh. That makes me crazy; I feel like I should have just ordered junk.:angry:

Replies

  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
    Yikes! I'd be frustrated too! How is a vegetable plate 800+ calories? Are they possibly counting bread that came with the veggie plate?
  • CrazyCatLadee2
    CrazyCatLadee2 Posts: 65 Member
    Restaurant portions are always two - three times the size they should be. Next time cut your meal in half and ask for a box right away for the other half - then you are only eating half those calories.
  • sk_letsdothis
    sk_letsdothis Posts: 44 Member
    I totally understand when I looked u one of my favorite salads at a chain restaurant and found out that the "SALAD" was 1100 calories...WTH! Maybe I shoulda got the burger because it was about the same amount of cals :/ That's why now, before I go out to eat, I plan what I'm going to get and I'll know how many calories it is already!
  • rebchandler
    rebchandler Posts: 45
    Isn't that crazy?! We eat out a lot...and I'm always shocked at calories. I'm better off eating a burger at most places...rather than their salads or chicken sandwiches! But it's usually doable...I just have to check each restaurant before entering to see what I can order...thank goodness for smart phones...
  • NineInchGirl
    NineInchGirl Posts: 169
    Wow and you said grilled! I wonder where all the cals came from cuz..the reason we choose grilled,,is cuz we are trying to cut back on all the deep frying junk. But yeah, like other members said..try to look up the meal prior to going to the restaurant and nowadays most restaurant got their whole menu online + the nutritional value so you can plan ahead and have no surprises :) Also when i order a salad i also ask them to give me the salad dressing on the side. So instead of having them pour half the bottle on my food, i can control the portion you know. And if its one of those rich creamy dressing then i just dip my fork in the dressing and then get some salad with that same fork that was dipped in the dressing. So you wont eat all the cals from the dressing and still have the taste of the dressing in your mouth... Hope it helps :) Always expect, the unexpected!!! :)

    Ps: Since restaurant portion sizes are ridiculous, sometimes i order from the kids menu and if they don't want, i offer them to pay full price..i just don't want a ginormous plate of whatever that could feed a party of 5 ...and that gives them no choice but to agree :)
  • Mirabilis
    Mirabilis Posts: 312 Member
    Last night I went to the Keg. They have their nutritional info online and a meal builder. If you check off what you're having, it deconstructs the meal for you and gives you the nutritional info for each component. Basically, if you don't want to eat the 10 oz of garlic mashed potatoes, you can set up the meal in your food journal the same way but only eat half of those.

    That's the good part.

    The bad part is that they don't list cholesterol (Mirii don't be so naive.. they're a cholesterol factory!) and their counting might be just a little creative. I don't know if that's true or who watchdogs them though.

    Their menu might vary from country to country too.

    Mirii
  • Ryhenblue
    Ryhenblue Posts: 390 Member
    I find that a plain burger and fries is one of the healthiest options on the menus. I stay away from the healthy options because more times than not they are worse.
  • SabrinaM85
    SabrinaM85 Posts: 99
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fda-calories-20100825,0,356520.story


    Check out this link! Hopefully soon we won't have to do any guess work when we go out to eat!!
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