Shockers when you started paying attention to calories?

I have a Pret right next to my office so I usually get either breakfast or lunch from there. Well their tuna sandwich is 510 calories. That might not seem like THAT many calories, but it is not even a HUGE sandwich. So within the hour I am hungry. But I'm really into tuna lately so I'll have it regardless.

Have you tried the powdered peanut butter. I mix with light cool whip and it taste great. There is also a chocolate peanut butter version. It makes a great peanut butter banana sandwich. only 45 calories per 2 tablespoons.

Haha, oh OP, I had a very similar shock to the system at Noodles and Co. I don't even eat there anymore since I wasn't 'that' into it in the first place. I'd certainly rather spend those calories on foods that meet my macros and that I enjoy more. I was really shocked also by pizza and most restaurant desserts. I know those should have been no-brainers, but seeing dishes that hit 2,000+ cals really stopped me in my tracks.

I started doing vanilla protein with frozen mango, and it is thick like a milkshake for a 3rd of the calories... just a tip

I knew about pop but not pizza, burgers and fries. My burgers and fries are about 1,000 calories so that alone is not good...

i rarely go out to eat anymore just because of the calorie shock.. it pisses me off because i love going out to eat, it's one of my favorite things to do.. the most annoying thing about going out to eat is when they advertise this low calorie meal option and it's like under 700 calories.. isn't a meal supposed to be under 700 calories in the first place? i have no idea what they are cooking with, but most of the foods aren't any better than what i make at home for half the calories.. it's like they have a calorie machine in their kitchen and just amp up the cals or something. just sucks that there are few places that you can go sit down, have a meal with your friends, not sweat every time you look up how many calories are in everything. by the time i'm finished looking up the whole menu to see what i can eat it's usually less than 4, very unappetizing options.. how hard would it be to add a turkey burger to a menu!? hopefully, eventually people will start coming up with actual healthy options at restaurants.

Texas Roadhouse for dinner the first day we decided to log our food, OMG!! I was eating enough to feed 3 people in ONE meal!!!

Two things that I noticed after starting logging on mfp were that there aren't quite as many calories in most foods as I thought (probably because I had no idea that I was able to eat as many as I'm allotted here) and the other thing that absolutely amazed me was the crazy amount of sodium that many things seem to have.

portions -- until you start to measure your servings you really don't know and you always eat more than you think. When I started measuring, itemizing and accounting for everything in my entree, salad or sandwich -- it was a real eye-opener when I stopped eyeballing it.

And I quit eating a few things almost entirely -- pasta, rice, peanut butter and table appetizers like bread and butter or chips and salsa.

"A standard meal at a fast food joint consumed 90% of the calories I should eat every day"

I think it has more to do with the evolving definition of what a "standard" meal is. A standard meal at McDonalds used to mean a hamburger, regular fries and a regular coke. That's 620 calories, 480 if you go with a diet coke. That's really not all that bad. But that's not what people want now. Today it's double quarter pounders and bacon double cheeseburgers with the large fries and large coke. When the Big Mac came out, it was considered a very large sandwich, only suitable for really big people, not your average Joe. It's even in the name of thing. Now, this one time king sized sandwich is dwarfed by half the items on the menu.

That is true, things have changed

Here's a slightly different end of the spectrum. P.F. Chang's bowl of Hot and Sour soup. Only 380 calories. No big deal, right? 7,980 MG of sodium. How's that for a heart stopping macro?

I have a Pret right next to my office so I usually get either breakfast or lunch from there. Well their tuna sandwich is 510 calories. That might not seem like THAT many calories, but it is not even a HUGE sandwich. So within the hour I am hungry. But I'm really into tuna lately so I'll have it regardless.

Bread and mayo! Make your own with light bread and light mayo or something.

Here's a slightly different end of the spectrum. P.F. Chang's bowl of Hot and Sour soup. Only 380 calories. No big deal, right? 7,980 MG of sodium. How's that for a heart stopping macro?

Holy s***!

Another thing to watch for is the sodium content of so called 'healthy' meals. Some of the 550 or less calorie meals at Applebees (or anywhere else), have over 3,000mg of sodium, for ONE meal. With high blood pressure, I'm not supposed to have more than 1200... that sucks. What I don't get is WHY they add that much salt...??? So we buy more drinks perhaps?

Makes it tastier. I mean, I grill chicken breasts at home.. and they're fine. But all that sodium, that makes them tastier in restaurants...

I've been looking at calories since I was a kid (I'm 34 yrs old). Two of my older sisters were always on a diet (they were always 10-20 pounds over weight). FYI: my mom never liked them looking so intently at calories and carbs, she always told them, "If you want to lose weight, eat my food." And, she was right. Her food is very healthy. Even her desserts! They were hooked on chips, donuts, soda, etc. I never really cared about it until I was 21 - 2001.

When I got older, the content of calories are just so upsetting, it's the sodium and lack of nutrition in certain foods that were shocking to me. I remember a few years back when I looked at McDs, Subway and Panera Bread's nutritional info, I was beyond upset and shocked. I hardly go to Panera anymore.. I felt like I was being played for a fool. McDs I sort of knew was loaded with calories, but still the calories and sodium in their fries were horrific! Subway (back then, I hate it now) was OK except for the sodium content. I also looked at sit down restaurants. Once I was at Dennys and got the healthiest things I thought, and afterwards when I looked at the nutritional profile I was very upset. I had all my calories for breakfast! :sad:

You live and you learn! I prefer eating at home nowadays so I can control the nutrition.