Calorie shocker!

Cheese and eggs aren't 'bad' though. They're both great foods.

Quite a few surprises there were, but the big ones for me were bananas, fresh orange juice and just how high cheddar cheese was. Cutbacks in these areas helped, but it's definitely an eye-opener.

Sausages. I always thought of them as... well, meat I guess, but never fatty meat :noway:

Glad I'm not the only one who is being shocked at the amount of calories in certain foods. Well I put in my orange juice earlier I wanted to cry thinking of how much exercise it'd take to burn those calories.

I haven't read the whole thread, but just jumping in to say - I love orange juice and I used to have a big glass every morning, and I too was quite shocked at the calories.
So, now I measure 100ml into a glass and top it up with very cold water - it's really nice, you get an acidic/sweet hit, and it's only 40 calories. It was strange for about two days but now it is just the norm.

Almost everything is a shocker! I've been on Weight Watchers for 2 years and got tired of paying for it because I wasn't tracking like I should. Then I decided I should do SOMETHING so I didn't gain it all back and here I am! Since WW doesn't look at calories - only fat, fiber. carbs and protein, everything has been a big shock! For example, a pack of apple slices is 90 calories whereas that was ZERO WW points. Needless to say, my snacking on fruits and veggies is not as beneficial as it was before. I think those have been the biggest shocks - just how much things that used to be zero points can add up when you're just looking at calories. On the flip side, exercise earns me far more calories than it did WW activity points. I do miss the "floating" points for the week, I wish we had "floating" calories.

LOL - floating calories. THAT would be nice!

Well, the good new is that we have exactly that. :flowerforyou:

To lose weight, we're eating at a deficit. All WW does is assign you points allowances that will keep members doing that. They factor the satiety quotient and the calories through the fat, protein, fiber, and carbs) and assign a point value. If you "eat your points," you are eating at your assigned deficit to meet your rate of loss goal. They didn't used to count the starchy veggies and fruits as zero points and there has been some controversy about doing it now. But they are "as beneficial" to you as before, just not on paper, if that makes sense. However, when I did WW once, my group leader (a really cute Southern lady) said, "Honey, we didn't all get here from eating apples. If you want a large one, well, you eat a large one."

If you want to eat a little of the cushion, those are your bonus points, and you can still lose weight as long as you don't eat more than you burn, but you will lose a little slower.

If you log exercise, those calories are also "floating" - you can choose for yourself whether to eat them or any part of them back.

Yes you can have "floating calories"! Just aim to be on target for the week instead of meeting it exactly every day. For example, I plan to go out for a meal tonight and will undoubtedly have higher calorie intake and no gym trip either, so I just eat a bit lower the other days of the week to balance it out.

On topic: my major shockers have been:
- Drinks, particularly cordials, full fat latte, alcohol (this seems to be a pretty common response!)
- Pitta bread / flat bread - one can be 250-300 kcal and doesn't seem that big
- Cheese, I knew it was high calorie but not that high
- Oils, so high cal for 1 tablespoon!
- Pasta and rice, mainly just due to portion size way too high

I am a bit of an idiot for not realising the calories in either cheese or oils as I knew they were mostly just fat, which is very calorie dense. But somehow I did not put 2 and 2 together...

Agree with everyone else that there is no point in cutting things out completely if they are high calorie. You can do a simple switch like full fat to skinnny latte, or make sure you have a sensible portion size. I still like pasta, I just make sure I only have 75g pasta and plenty of healthy sauce plus a side salad. That is plenty filling enough really. No need for a huge plate of stodge!

(edited to correct my horrible spelling)

I feel ya I drank at least a liter a day for years. Decided to change my habits in February, stopped soda in march and am now down 62 pounds. It gets easier.

Here's another Shocker, Quinoa are crazy high in cal's

But Quinoa is super healthy for you.... Use this in place of rice or potatoes and your getting a lot more nutrients for your calories.

I have discovered that drinking your calories is pretty foolish if you are on a diet. juices, smoothies, regular sodas, sugary teas and coffee are a waste of calories. I have water, black tea and coffee and diet sodas, and now I get to eat more!! also, there is not a huge difference in cals between some diet foods and the regular versions, which are always more satisying. for example, buying diet cereal bars to have when you want something sweet. they are 90 to 130 cals for a small one, and don't taste as good as some normal chocolate. i have a cadburys freddo bar which is 20p in the uk and only 95 cals. and is real chocolate.

Also crisps are the same. Baked low cal crisps taste crap, and are about 100 cals. And they don't taste like crisps, so you still want crisps when you've finished them. But a 25g bag of normal crisps is 130 cals. 30 cals is not much of a saving. I buy the walkers multipack, 20 packets of different flavours for about 3 pounds and have a pack a day. I would never give up crisps or chocolate, I just have the sensible choice and log it in. concentrate using the majority of your cals on protein sources served with some green veg and you will be surprised how many cals you will have to play around with. then you can use them on bread, chocolate, crisps etc. Peanut butter is the one thing I miss most though, its just not worth 130 cals to have 20g, which fits on a teaspoon!! i am tempted by PB2 though, despite the price.

I also miss hard cheese, like peanut butter it is rarely worth spending your calories on. I just don't have it.

I also miss hard cheese, like peanut butter it is rarely worth spending your calories on. I just don't have it.

What? Natural nut butters are one of the best sources of healthy fats out there! Totally worth "wasting" calories on! Not to mention, perfect calorie fillers!

Thats the fantastic thing about calorie counting, really knocks into you. Over here in the UK there is a show called Secret Eaters, and it gets people to guess how man cals they eat each day, average people say is 1500-2500 (they are obese btw). They are then filmed and secretly followed and logged then at end of week they are shown what they actually ate, most are about 5000 cals.

I know when i don't count calories I can easily eat 4000 without noticing. Things like that really add up.

I wasn't shocked by a specific food per se. But I was shocked to see that I often ate my entire daily recommended caloric intake in one meal. Sometimes I ate two meals a day that were each 1500-2000 plus calories! I was blissfully oblivious to just how many calories they contained. This usually involved Pizza Hut breadsticks with cheese....I could eat a whole order myself everyday. Damn breadsticks...

Not much typically shocks me any more, but I had 8 traditional wings and fries as part of the lunch special at Buffalo Wild Wings yesterday, and was truly shocked at the 2,070 calories and 170 grams of fat it contained. Typically hot wings are around 100-125 calories a piece. For some reason theirs are over 200 a piece. Definitely not worth it!

Gatorade sports drinks. I never realized how they were ruining all my efforts.

The cals in these surprised me too.

I was shocked by watermelon, because I could eat a whole one in a day. It's not too sweet and it's so watery, but I shouldn't have thought that means I can eat my head in it :laugh:

Peanutbutter surprised me. I add a full tbsp to my stir fry sauce and I never knew I was adding close to 100 calories. Boo.

Oats were surprisingly high too, but I was eating 50g when really 40g is more than enough, and I refuse to remove something that's wonderful for your health to lose weight. It seems counter productive. Same goes for nuts, seeds, healthy oils like coconut or olive and avocado. All calorie dense but in my opinion too good to remove.

The sodium in soy sauce blew my mind wide open, that was my biggest shock.

I juice daily unless I'm low on money. Juice can be VERY high in calories but I find life loses it's colour when you don't have it. I feel so much more content when I start my day with juice. But the trick is, for me, to eat your fruit, and juice your vegetables. Two boiled carrots for example, will have lost a fairly substantial amount of their nutritional value, steamed and stir fired to a lesser extent, but cold pressed carrot juice has it all. If you want a glass of orange juice, you have to juice three oranges, and that's loads of calories. But if you juice four carrots with a clementine and a wedge of lemon, it's pure joy. And it doesn't leave your mouth all sticky. Sometimes I dilute my juice too, if it's particularly packed with flavour. You can have a ton of juice if you enjoy the taste of juiced celery - I do, but I have to have it with lime.