Shockers when you started paying attention to calories?

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  • alevelali27
    alevelali27 Posts: 10
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    Light canned whipped cream was a shocker for me, at around 50 kcal per serving (I thought it was a LOT more). I know it's not good for you, but it's great topped over berries if you really need to indulge

    Chocolate milk - about 300 kcal in a bottle for non-fat chocolate milk AND about 60 g of carbs AAGGHH...

    Amount of carbs in a banana OMG.

    I know a lot of people have said this, but I guess it bears repeating... muffins and milkshakes are infuriating -.- especially because I crave them both so much sometimes

    The amount of sodium in Panda Express dishes is insane (everything else about them is just as unhealthy as I had expected, I guess). The black pepper chicken is one of their "wok smart" options and has 1100 mg of sodium per serving o.O and that's not including what you get with your side of fried rice, etc.
  • l_ashley
    l_ashley Posts: 154 Member
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    Panera bread tomato and mozarella panini. I thought it was going to be low calorie because there was no meat, but it is 800 calories! Also any nuts ever.
  • ChrysalisCove
    ChrysalisCove Posts: 975 Member
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    Sandwiches shocked me b/c I had always considered that a "light" meal... but in reality I could have a big chicken breast & roasted veggies for the same calories! On a similar note, how many more calories there are in a wrap tortilla than in most breads.

    Muffins, pastries & ice cream... Not really surprising so much as just depressing.

    McDonalds Breakfast Burrito - this was a road trip staple for me. 2 burritos, a hash brown & a Coke is over 900Cal!! O.o
  • DerFlexo
    DerFlexo Posts: 11 Member
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    For me it was olive oil. I always thought it was a less-fatty alternative to butter (when cooking). But more than 80 calories for a spoonful? That's just insanity.
  • Spiderkeys
    Spiderkeys Posts: 338 Member
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    I was shocked when i did my old daily average food intake with MFP, I was easily over consuming 5,000 calories per day, and I used the wonder why I was so fat.
  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
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    Double doozie chocolate chip cookie sandwich from American cookie co. at the mall has over 600 calories in it... I knew a cookie sandwich with thick icing in the middles wasn't GOOD for me, but over 1/3 of my daily TDEE? That surprised me.

    This doesn't stop me of course, Just now I'll skip dinner and have a cookie sandwich instead. :P The tummy ache is WELL worth it

    I think I need one of these.
  • Savlona
    Savlona Posts: 84 Member
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    Cream based alcohol drinks were a bit of a shock. My husband wanted to share his Amarula Marula Fruit and Cream Liqueur with me. !00ml of that is 325 calories! That's just insane - I said no, I could have a pile of food for that!!
  • Restybaby2012
    Restybaby2012 Posts: 568 Member
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    I was shocked when i did my old daily average food intake with MFP, I was easily over consuming 5,000 calories per day, and I used the wonder why I was so fat.

    UGH...this^^
  • NahrasWay
    NahrasWay Posts: 78 Member
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    More than a specific food is the serving size of things. My serving sizes were so messed up that when I'd actually measure things out I was pretty sure I was going to be super hungry in like 10 minutes.

    My boyfriend and I ate a LOT of white rice almost every day and we would just fill a bowl with rice (probably 2 cups or more for each of us) and then have whatever our meat was (hardly, if any, veggies). When I started to measure things I realized how little a cup of cooked rice seemed.

    Salad dressings were another big one for me when I started to eat more salads (this was a long time ago) I needed them to be covered in something cause yuck green stuff .. and putting on a tbsp or two of whatever dressing was laughable cause it seemed like it barely flavored it. I'm much better with salads now though with just some olive oil and vinegar.

    Serving sizes of drinks surprised me a lot too when I first counted calories. I'd not think twice about drinking a tea or soda or an orange juice and then realized that those have more than one serving in them.
  • kittykat1994
    kittykat1994 Posts: 149 Member
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    I was oblivious to how many calories was in peanut butter. I used to cake bagels in it everyday!
  • Kayden1986
    Kayden1986 Posts: 189 Member
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    I am really trying to think here...when I was a kid (about 11) I used to eat McD and have a milkshake, fries and a burger. And in context with my age, I was way over my calorie limit on that day - seeing as a snack would of been a mars bar and dinner some sort of home made dinner with veggie pies or something. Yeah. edit: roughly a days eating was close to 2,600.

    Nowdays, I have a very nutritious diet and I get told that every day its boring, but they dont have to eat it. I will say though, because of it - I have maintained and/or gained muscle whist others have er....not.
  • jabberwockgee
    jabberwockgee Posts: 49 Member
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    Milkshakes from Sonic. Even the mini milkshakes, which seemed like such a good and healthy choice, are about 450 cals. I mean, what do they make it with, pure lard?

    450 calories would be about .26 pounds if it was pure sugar...
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I love eating at Panera Bread. Everything there is so so good. Today I stopped in to get a sandwich to go for lunch. After I was done eating it, I went to log and I found out it is 830 calories!! More than 2/3 of my daily calories. By lunch time I had already gone over calories for the day. I'm assuming their bread has a lot calories cause the rest really shouldn't have amounted to too much. Next time I'm getting a salad there instead of a sandwich!

    Check the nutrition on their website first... the salads are not necessarily better... especially if you count dressing.

    I'll add that huge awesome cream cheese croissant I used to eat at the bakery here. I'm guessing it's close to 800 calories (can't find the nutrition info) now that I know better. Yikes. I've been craving it too, but I'll pass (although it would probably fill me up for hours).
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    A shock in the opposite direction: watermelon! It's so sweet you would expect it to be like mango or bananas, but it's only 46 calories per cup!
  • missarielbaby
    missarielbaby Posts: 41 Member
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    Definitely Ruby Tuesday's Chicken Parmesan Pasta. I use to get it almost every week for dinner/lunch. 1318 calories and 70g of fat!!!!
  • kaseyr1505
    kaseyr1505 Posts: 624 Member
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    I think the biggest thing for me was how much more "bang for your buck" you get when you start paying attention. The first week I was tracking, I was so hungry, because I didn't really change what I ate, just how much I ate. Then, I started paying attention to macros and realized I could feel full, eat well and have a tiny treat.
  • basslinewild
    basslinewild Posts: 294 Member
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    Milkshakes and mayonnaise!
  • Pathend2
    Pathend2 Posts: 142
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    Sodium. Sodium everywhere. It's obscene.
  • Sobus76
    Sobus76 Posts: 242 Member
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    biggest shocker to me is when i first started MFP and seeing how many calories i was woofing down at a fast food places on my way to work, made me disgusted.
  • buzz3d269
    buzz3d269 Posts: 87 Member
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    Sodium. Sodium everywhere. It's obscene.

    Yes! I was so surprised when I started looking at it, about how much sodium I was eating. Bread has so much - that was a big shocker for me!

    I was pleasantly shocked to find that strawberries are low cal, I assumed, based on how yummy and sweet they are, that they would be higher! And fiber, I had no idea that I was getting so little fiber in my diet until I started paying attention.

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