Misleading food! What did you underestimate?

Peanut butter. Oh how I love thee..

All the sugar in fruits and vegetables

basically all of my cookie recipes. The chocolate chip ones by an embarrassing amount. Lol.

My friends and I were out all night driving home, and decided to stop at Ihop. Not the healthiest choice :P. phone was dead so no mfp . So I chose a GARDEN OMLETTE. Literally, tomatoes, peppers, onions mushrooms and cheddar...so i got home and checked....how is that 920 calories?! Crazy. I thought maybe 500 calories and that was pushing it. What are some foods you underestimated?

An Ihop omelet got me too - until I read the description and figured out why it was so high. They put pancake batter in the eggs to make the omelet light and fluffy. TOTAL SABOTAGE!!!

OMG! pancake batter in the eggs?! MADNESS!

Grits... 500 calories for a generous serving of a SIDE ITEM!! Sneaky!

Definitely nuts and granola. Sometimes I eat them right out the bag without thinking. But you can easily eat enough calories for a whole meal - thinking that it's okay because they are "healthy".

Oh, and bananas! I didn't realize that there was so much sugar in them! My trainer told me to limit myself to eating maybe 2 or 3 per week. I was eating them daily in my oatmeal for breakfast.

I fortunately noticed this before I bought it, but I was looking at muffins for a snack, saw the label, said like 270 calories. I thought, "270 calories, that's not too bad." Glad I also noticed that the serving size was 1/3 of a muffin. Dafuq? Who eats a third of a muffin?

Healthy Paleo snacks! If it's healthy then I can eat it when I want, yeah right, I ended up eating tons of carbs and over 2600 calories a day. No wonder I started to gain :ohwell:

Not sure if I over or underestimate here, but rice is hard for me to log since the label is typically based on dry rice... who eats dry rice? LOL. Any suggestions on how to calculate? I guess it depends on how much water and how long the rice is cooked. :grumble: I'm on rice eating strike.

It's also hard for me to log Indian food... there are so many spices and a lack of nutrition info available online.

Ummm....adding water and heat to rice doesn't change the calorie content of the rice. So, you measure it dry, then cook it. If you measure 1/4 cup dry and it comes out as 1/2 cooked...then you ate and log 1/4 cup dry. Same with dry beans.

There is NOTHING at I Hop that is a good choice! I Hop puts pancake batter into the omelets. Seriously - just ask a server. Not good for those eating gluten free because I am pretty sure it doesn't say "we put high calorie, wheat-based pancake batter in your omelet." LOL

Yeah, do your homework ahead of time when traveling. Basically, I check the websites of the restaurants I most frequently eat at. I have a list of what I'd order if the opportunity to eat out comes up (but I basically cook at home when I'm trying to lose weight.) And pack yourself some snacks that you can eat if all else fails. I pretty much always have a Kind bar or something similar in my bag, and I know an iced coffee w/o sugar will tide me over at a restaurant if my friends and I stop somewhere.

I know if I go to Olive Garden, I get Apricot Chicken. If I go to Denny's I get an egg-white omelet. If I go to McDonalds, I get a grilled chicken wrap without sauce or mayo. If I go to California Dreaming, I get a CD salad and eat half. Starbucks...skinny iced coffee...etc. etc. etc.

I don't eat out often, I work long hours. But I plan ahead. If I am driving and stop at a gas station/rest stop for food, I know what my choices are and I PLAN. It's all about making informed choices and PLANNING. A Diet Coke and a bag of baked chips is better then grabbing a muffin out of the bakery case.

And if you are someplace new? Ask the server - What's in this omelet? Can you make it with no butter or grease, can I get egg-whites only? Can you use 1/2 the usual amount of cheese? Laugh and say, I'm trying to not blow my diet...if you are nice about it they will usually bend over backward to accommodate, and then tip accordingly! A six-egg omelet (very common) is 432 calories just in the eggs! But 6 egg-whites in an egg-white omelet is only 102 calories (using Large sized eggs.)

Bean and Cheese Burrito from Alberto's. I figured, harmless right? WRONG! I almost fainted when I saw it was 1020 calories and 2250 of soduim! :noway:

WHAT???? :noway: oh man!!! :sad:

I went back to raw vegan (and lost most of my weight) before joining MFP. I joined to help with those last few lbs and started logging. I almost fell off my chair when I first realised that my green smooth was 600 calories! When your 4'11 and having it as well as 3 meals it makes a huge hole in your calorie allowance!

My green smoothies vary from 400+ to almost 800 depending on what I put in it, but it makes a huge shake (usually 2 tumblers) at the higher calorie range and is my whole breakfast, but yes. it is a shock every time because I don't calculate the cals till I put everything in it. it is different almost every time i make it.

Buffalo wings. How can something so tiny and worthless be hundreds of calories for so few wings.

Restaurant omeletes usually have at least 3 eggs and a ton of cheese. I always ask for egg whites only and cheese on the side. Plus they saute' all of those veggies in oil or butter before they put them in the omelette.

I always underestimated fruit. I'm more aware now but it was a problem for me before.