Surprisingly good/bad food!!

Chrisdoc1984
Chrisdoc1984 Posts: 29
in Food and Nutrition
This is just something I wanted to start out of curiosity more than anything else.

I was wondering if there have been foods that have surprised you once you started logging them on MFP.

My absolute favourite meal for a long time was always a pack of the spicy sausage tortellini from asda, a pot of the dolmio tomato and pepperoni stir in sauce, and about half of a Matteson's spicy sausage chopped through. OK, I knew that it wasn't exactly a salad but I was shocked the first time I logged it on MFP and it tallied up at about 1400 calories in a bowl (and when I was bigger, I used to have it with a baked potato, and usually garlic bread, eek!), so that was taken off the menu. I had thought that my home-made mac & cheese would maybe be around the same and so kept that as a 'treat' for when I was really hungry, when I sat and logged all of the ingredients, nope, it came in at a whopping 2100 calories, so no more mac & cheese either (not even on a cheat day). On the other side, I had always though that something like chili-con-carne would be really high but when making my home-made chilli, by the time I had logged all of the ingredients and divided the total by 5 (I portion, and freeze), it was only 550 calories.

Has anyone found anything like this since they started using MFP?
Any foods that you would recommend avoiding? or things that are better than first thought?
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Replies

  • AnsiStar
    AnsiStar Posts: 165 Member
    In all fairness you could lighen your sauage pasta and mac and cheese quite easily, just tweak the ingredients :) *
  • eldamiano
    eldamiano Posts: 2,667 Member
    This is just something I wanted to start out of curiosity more than anything else.

    I was wondering if there have been foods that have surprised you once you started logging them on MFP.

    My absolute favourite meal for a long time was always a pack of the spicy sausage tortellini from asda, a pot of the dolmio tomato and pepperoni stir in sauce, and about half of a Matteson's spicy sausage chopped through. OK, I knew that it wasn't exactly a salad but I was shocked the first time I logged it on MFP and it tallied up at about 1400 calories in a bowl (and when I was bigger, I used to have it with a baked potato, and usually garlic bread, eek!), so that was taken off the menu. I had thought that my home-made mac & cheese would maybe be around the same and so kept that as a 'treat' for when I was really hungry, when I sat and logged all of the ingredients, nope, it came in at a whopping 2100 calories, so no more mac & cheese either (not even on a cheat day). On the other side, I had always though that something like chili-con-carne would be really high but when making my home-made chilli, by the time I had logged all of the ingredients and divided the total by 5 (I portion, and freeze), it was only 550 calories.

    Has anyone found anything like this since they started using MFP?
    Any foods that you would recommend avoiding? or things that are better than first thought?

    On the tortellini packet it clearly states that half a pack contains 400-500 calories. How could you be surprised?
  • ElizabethFuller
    ElizabethFuller Posts: 352 Member
    Granola. I love Sainsbury's strawberry granola, a portion is 50g and when I weighed my bowl it contained about 150g. With the milk that came to about 800 calories.
    When I weighed out the 50g the portion hardly seemed worthwhile so I gave up eating it.
    I do sometimes have 20g scattered over a plain yoghurt with a teaspoon of honey (but it's not the same!)

    You can make a pretty good lower cal. Macaroni cheese by not putting butter in the white sauce, just use cornflour and skimmed milk but use a full fat strong mature cheddar. Don't use low fat cheese, you'll wreck the flavour. My family didn't even notice the difference when I cut the fat down in the recipe!
  • KnM0107
    KnM0107 Posts: 355 Member
    Calorie count doesn't make foods good or bad...
  • Swiftdogs
    Swiftdogs Posts: 328 Member
    Calorie count doesn't make foods good or bad...

    While that's true, change the intent of the question to "worth it" and "not worth it." For me, lean beef and pork were pleasant surprises.
  • Panthers89
    Panthers89 Posts: 153 Member
    Although high in sodium, beef jerky is surprisingly low in calories and high in protein. I have tried to eat this as my "late night munchie" rather than pizza or ice cream over the past few years.

    You can eat practically anything green - leaf lettuce, escarole, kale, collard greens - and you can add sausage or ham with beans and this is a filling meal and doesn't cost too many calories.

    Whitefish can fill me up for a meal, whether baked or fried, and again surprisingly low in total calories. If you like salmon, there are a lot of recipes for baking or grilling on the internet that really makes outstanding meals and low calories.

    Finally, one of my biggest surprises when I first started counting calories, was my homemade marinara sauce. It hardly has any calories, and the natural sugars from the tomatoes and vegetables in the sauce is nutritious. I know that this will sound weird, but I can eat a serving of my marinara sauce by itself for a snack - nothing else.

    These are just a few of my favorites - I hope this helps.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Surprisingly, no foods are inherently good/bad! :grumble:
  • emilyisbonkers
    emilyisbonkers Posts: 373 Member
    kfc mini breast fillets.. like a 110ish calories each i think
  • tedrickp
    tedrickp Posts: 1,229 Member
    Cooked bacon. The calories on the package always blew my mind how high it was - but I never realized it meant uncooked.

    I didn't realize how low the cals can go if you cook to cripsy and render out a lot of fat.
  • MissKitty9
    MissKitty9 Posts: 224 Member
    I think we all know what "good/bad" means in this context, just food that surprised us when we first logged it? (I see there's already shaping up to be an argument over how no food is inherently "bad", which I agree with, but clearly that's not what the OP means :smile: )

    My surprise was avocados---I knew they were fatty (good fats, of course!) but I didn't realize they were over 200 calories for a whole one.
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
    Peanut butter! (I'm glad I don't like it very much)
  • geeberfever
    geeberfever Posts: 19 Member
    Woah!! I hadn't realized that either! Pretty crazy, but still a solid food!
  • mrbat
    mrbat Posts: 12 Member
    Shocked at cottage cheese, and the sodium content. Also really ticked apples have so much sugar. I thought apples were supposed to be a healthy snack.:noway: :noway:
  • Matt24442
    Matt24442 Posts: 324
    In all fairness you could lighen your sauage pasta and mac and cheese quite easily, just tweak the ingredients :) *

    Or twerk them
  • 100toloose
    100toloose Posts: 151 Member
    Okay,I knew it was bad ... But it is the baddest...I shouldnt even eat fast food to begin with,but yesterday after a month and a half I drove by BK and gave in for my most favourite ever! Angry whopper ! And I did not have fries,neither soda. i thought I will may be hit 450-500 cals.. OH NOOOO! __WHOPPIN' 830 CALS.... Imagine that! So ,I quit once again from drive through.. dont judge,Im not an idiot.. might be little naive..* LITTLE* so Im paying for it today! I learned my lesson.. I log before I eat......
  • tedrickp
    tedrickp Posts: 1,229 Member
    Oh potatoes are surprisingly good IMO

    All my friends were on their sweet potato kick. Talking that Glycemic Index jibberjabber (eye roll), but white potatoes hold their own!

    LESS cals than Sweet Potato actually and a 2008 study done by the University of Sydney ranked the white potato #1 on the satiety scale. AKA it fills you up!

    Also more potassium than a banana!
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,336 Member
    In all fairness you could lighen your sauage pasta and mac and cheese quite easily, just tweak the ingredients :) *

    Or reduce the portion size and fill the plate with veggies.
  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    Those little Brach's Neopolitan candies. About as big as an individually wrapped caramel, and 53cals/15fat.
  • Breepa123
    Breepa123 Posts: 66 Member
    I had one of these revelations only in the opposite direction. My boyfriend makes gumbo that is to die for, and his "secret" is to fry the ingredients in Crisco before he dumps them into the pot and simmers everything. That coupled with the pure deliciousness meant I was guessing that it would be around 800 calories a serving without the rice. But I watched him make it once and I weighed/measured all the ingredients as he went, and it turns out its a respectable 350 (give or take) calories per serving. If I go easy on the rice, I can easily fit it into my day. Unfortunately it is amazingly high in sodium, but I don't have any problems with blood pressure or anything so I mainly care about the calories.
  • AnsiStar
    AnsiStar Posts: 165 Member
    Shocked at cottage cheese, and the sodium content. Also really ticked apples have so much sugar. I thought apples were supposed to be a healthy snack.:noway: :noway:

    ...they still are
  • kellyskitties
    kellyskitties Posts: 475 Member
    Milkshakes.... from Sonic.... during the "every flavor possible on earth" flavor combo thing they did last summer. I wanted them all, I tried some, I started food logging, I quit them pretty quick. too hard to fit in when I started at 1200 calories (no longer at that level - but it did add to the pain)
  • AlongCame_Molly
    AlongCame_Molly Posts: 2,835 Member
    Sigh. There is no such thing as good/bad food, just high cal/low cal. And calories are not bad, relatively speaking.

    That said...Hostess Fruit Pies. 480 cals a pop, OMG!
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    i had this mushroom and quinoa thing from trader joe that was surprisingly bad. i seriously thought it was going to be better tasting but i couldnt even finish it :embarassed:
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Shocked at cottage cheese, and the sodium content. Also really ticked apples have so much sugar. I thought apples were supposed to be a healthy snack.:noway: :noway:
    Why aren't apples a healthy snack? What's wrong with sugar?
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Shocked at cottage cheese, and the sodium content. Also really ticked apples have so much sugar. I thought apples were supposed to be a healthy snack.:noway: :noway:

    :huh: Not sure why apples are suddenly unhealthy.
  • julie_emma1
    julie_emma1 Posts: 146
    Most surprising to me was italian sausage (at least the brand we used to buy). We used to put in our spaghetti sauce instead of ground beef sometimes, just for a change. But then when I started using MFP, I realized that the italian sausage we were buying was much higher in calories and saturated fat than the equivalent quantity of ground beef!

    Another thing that surprised me was the sodium content in store-bought baked goods (e.g. bread, bagels, etc.)!
  • corgicake
    corgicake Posts: 846 Member
    My food surprise was that cottage cheese has more bulk per calorie but regular cheese has more calcium. That and I was consistently floored by how little sodium was in a lot of food being touted as healthy compared to what it took to keep headaches at bay last summer. Eventually I resigned myself to hiking my calories twice and eating pizza, lol.
  • MsMimidoll
    MsMimidoll Posts: 249 Member
    In all fairness you could lighen your sauage pasta and mac and cheese quite easily, just tweak the ingredients :) *

    Or twerk them
    Lol now I'm going to be seeing twerking mac n cheese in my head for awhile
  • Phoenix_Warrior
    Phoenix_Warrior Posts: 1,633 Member
    In all fairness you could lighen your sauage pasta and mac and cheese quite easily, just tweak the ingredients :) *

    Or twerk them
    Lol now I'm going to be seeing twerking mac n cheese in my head for awhile

    And now, for some reason, they are shaped like Miley Cyrus in my head. D:Nooooooo
  • CassieReannan
    CassieReannan Posts: 1,479 Member
    PASTRY! I never knew how many calories were in just one sheet :noway: I cut that out immediately.

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