Panera cookie 420 calories. Really?!

Oh! And the chocolate chip cookie dough flautas (possibly spelled wrong) at my favorite tex-mex place are over 3,000 calories.

Nothing from Panera, Starbucks, and places like that surprise me anymore.

Yeah, most of Starbucks' lattes/specialty drinks and cakes ARE really caloric. However, I've found some good alternatives there, too. When eating on the run, I eat their Classic Oatmeal (it comes plain, with nutritionally labeled packets to add your own ingredients to it, or not), spinach feta wraps (tasty and high in protein) and dried (and fresh) fruit, fairly often.

But yeah, I skip the high calorie lattes, cookies, breads, and cakes there. They're not really that good, anyway, except the lattes...I do like/miss the lattes. haha!

This is exactly why we need restaurants to label foods with calories - especially chain restaurants. I live in NYC and every time I go to visit family and friends in CT, I get really annoyed that I have to pull out my phone to make decisions. Yes, it may deter customers from spending extra money on pastries, etc., but for most of us, it'll just help us make smart decisions. I always stick to lower-calorie menus if chain restaurants have them. One time at Pizzeria Uno, I got really angry because I thought the dish I always used to eat was only 555 calories; my mom thought this wasn't possible so we checked again and the information kiosk I saw this on said that the dish was 2 servings! Nowhere on the menu does it say this and it is not marketed as a dish to be shared. Note: I see that this is fixed on the website now and they have an "under 500 calorie" section.

I had a Grilled Chicken Bacon Wrap from McDonald's today for lunch thinking it would be "ok". I was S-H-O-C-K-E-D :noway: to find out that it has a whopping 400+ calories and 1330 mg (That is THIRTEEN HUNDRED THIRY) mg of sodium! Blehhhhhh....I should have known better. I really should have removed the bacon...and the ranch, and the cheese...I should have had a small salad dammit.
:ohwell:

Yeah. On one hand it is kind of sad. No amount of "balanced diet" is going to help you overcome 400-900 calorie "snacks." The bad news is that you really just have to cook (or go to artisanal places that charge more).

On the other hand, its also kind of freeing. No *wonder* we're obese--its not just because we have no self control and keep stuffing our faces like hedonists, its because our factory-made food (and restaurant sized portions) are a killer. Its actually kind of comforting to me to know that its not that I can't ever eat desserts. I just can't eat over-sized, factory-produced desserts.

Odd. I have space allocated for a 400 cal 'snack' every day. I can still hit my macros if I try (I don't all that often because it's not super important to me just now, but I can). If you can't manage to fit such a snack in, you must have a TDEE < 1600 cals or need to take more time to plan.

Also, I thought eating everything on your plate even though you can plainly see it's a huge serving is the definition of "having[sic] no self control and stuffing[sic] our faces like hedonists". Otherwise you'd stop at a reasonable portion and take the rest home or just not eat it. Right? Or are you someone who's been taught to always clean your plate?

Hello! I had dinner at Panera today. I was fighting my sweet tooth urge until the cashier notified me that I had a free pastry available on my rewards card and that it was about to expire. I quickly glanced at the treats area and decided the candy cookie had to be the least in calories so I chose that.

Unfortunately I devoured the cookie before I entered it into my food log. I was astonished when I found out that it was 420 calories!! Big lesson learned today-determine the calories on uncertain items before I eat them! Honestly I would have only had half!

What are some foods/treats that shocked you when you found out their nutritional value? Do you still eat them?

Had that cookie last weekend, but I looked it up on my phone before hand and knew the calorie count before I bought it. I split it in half and gave the other part to hubby All of their cookies/muffins/baked goods are higher in calories-their carrot cake muffin comes in at 650 calories. It's pure awesome and worth every single one :bigsmile:

I was shocked just this morning when my eye was caught by some red velvet muffins at the grocery store. They were not the HUUUUGE ones that could be split, this seemed almost "normal" sized, and it was 420 calories (coincidentally enough, or is it? :noway: )

um, you know that cookie is like the size of your face, right?

exactly.
recently i had a 1100 calorie Hurricane i was shocked at first, then i remembered that it came in a 32 ounce slurpee style go-cup.

so yep, that sounds about right

What about a cookie with the word "candy" in its name sounded low-cal to you?

What, excuse the term, the hell did you expect? :huh:

Oh! And the chocolate chip cookie dough flautas (possibly spelled wrong) at my favorite tex-mex place are over 3,000 calories.

No, Mango! It's too sexy!!

Way back when I was first starting to count calories, I was shocked that a muffin from Dunkin donuts has 150 more calories, than a glazed donut. Neither of them are healthy choices, I realize, but I somehow thought the LOWFAT blueberry muffin might not be so bad.... Yeah, 410 calories. Awesome.

I have Jos Louis every once in a while instead of a muffin because they are about half the calories OR a glazed doughnut if I really feel the urge. I love muffins but I just can't justify it. 400 calories and I'm hungry again in half an hour. For the same calories I have my overnight oats and I am good until lunch time

Frankly I'm shocked you're shocked.

Cereal remains the biggest shocker for me. The first time I weighed out one portion and saw how small it was I knew I was going to need some alternatives for breakfast.

This.

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup servings do nothing for me but piss me off. Not to mention I like the good sugary stuff like Captain Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Coco Pebbles, Lucky Charms etc..and used to eat them in bowls the size of my head.

420 maaaaaaaaaaaan....



You're gonna need that big cookie:laugh: