Help! Just had a 576 calorie fajita! What do I change?

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rianna412
rianna412 Posts: 12
in Food and Nutrition
I was cooking fajitas for dinner tonight and I thought I did everything right - I grilled boneless, skinless chicken and seasoning on my george foreman and only ate 2 ounces. I bought whole wheat tortillas, I have weight watchers cheese and reduced fat sour cream.

For ONE tortilla, MFP calculated 576 calories:

http://m.imgur.com/29eVS0j

What did I do wrong? How can I make this lower calorie? It was 576 cals, 13 g fat, 83 g carbs. Am I using the wrong tortillas? Should I completely omit cheese and sour cream? Help!
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Replies

  • debubbie
    debubbie Posts: 767 Member
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    In my fajitas, I use the Flatout wraps I think they are 90 calories a wrap and they come in a variety of flavors. I use Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream to save calories and add protein to the meal. Another trick I like using is to sometimes use a Laughing Cow cheese wedge (35 calories) to spread cheese on my wrap. I like to add spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms to my wrap as the veggies help to add bulk to the wrap without adding crazy amounts of calories.
  • shuasmith
    shuasmith Posts: 38
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    First question is did that one full you up? If not, was there more meat and cheese than the were vegetables? Adding a bunch of vegetables to meat and cheese helps full you up while not costing a bunch of calories. I don't suggest cutting anything out of your diet yet but rather find alternate ways to fill out your meal. I made a pan of zucchini lasagna that in its entirety had just over 1000 calories. And I used real cheese and a pound of turkey. A serving was under 150 cals so 4 was less than your one fajita and it was delicious. The trick was the only thing in it that had real calories was the turkey and cheese.

    If you are thinking of cutting something from that recipe, cut the tortilla. Add extra vegetables and throw it in a bowl.

    Lastly if it did full you up, great! Sounds like a great dinner!
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,624 Member
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    Either you entered things in wrong (thus wrong calorie count) or you used calorie-dense foods, which is fine.\

    Just because something is "healthy" doesn't mean it's super low calorie.

    It's a carb-heavy meal. Whatever, that's still only a quarter of my intake while on a deficit. Ideally this should not make or break your day.

    Also, you're not consistent with measuring things. Half a serving? Half a serving of what? How big was the chicken breast? Is the macro and calorie count only for the chicken or does it use spices/seasoning you added? Is that someone else's random database entry?

    You also used boxed rice, which might make the count higher. I can have my normal 110ish grams of cooked rice and it's not that many calories. I use brown rice though.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    I'd probably just swap out the tortilla for a corn tortilla - so many less calories. Maybe ditch the rice (okay I probably wouldn't really - but if I didn't have the calories that would be dropped) But seriously for dinner I don't see anything wrong with a 576 calorie fajita if it filled you up.
  • SamLD88
    SamLD88 Posts: 111 Member
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    Why did you add a full cup of rice to your tortilla?? How the heck can you even roll it up? When I make them, I usually put a tablespoon or two of rice in with lots of meat and veggies. I usually pick one or the other for the dairy products (sour cream or cheese), too.
  • mikeyboy
    mikeyboy Posts: 1,057 Member
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    Help! Just had a 576 calorie fajita! What do I change?


    You're bathroom schedule.
  • rianna412
    rianna412 Posts: 12
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    Thanks everyone! The one did fill me up, but it still was a little concerning!

    As far as the measurements - I cooked 16 ounces of chicken breast total, with seasoning. I couldn't figure out how to measured exactly how much seasoning I ate, because I used one packet on all 16 ounces. I created a recipe using 16 ounces chicken with one packet seasoning, considering a serving 4 oz.

    Then in my tortilla, I used half of that serving (2 oz)...if that makes sense. So when I added the "recipe" to my log I used half a serving.

    I think I might go buy low calorie tortillas. I love Mexican food and ill probably use them often, I just thought whole wheat was good enough! Whoops!
  • Eanna_S
    Eanna_S Posts: 6
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    I think you just need to use lower cal items for it, maybe switch the tortilla for a wholegrain wrap, which are about 200 cals, and use light mayo ect, :)
  • rianna412
    rianna412 Posts: 12
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    Also for the rice: I didn't put it in the tortilla, it was a side. The package said a serving is 2/3 uncooked or 1 cup cooked rice, so I just followed that. To be fair it was a decent portion of rice so I will probably halve that in the future!
  • rianna412
    rianna412 Posts: 12
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    I'm not gonna worry too much today because I only had 300 cals for breakfast and nothing else until now (was too busy all day, bad I know) so I'm still at a calorie deficit for the day, but going forward these are good tips :)
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
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    The rice did you in. nearly 200 cals. For that many cals, I would eat more chicken. It will fill you up longer and tastes better than rice.

    Are you sure you had one serving of cheese? That is a lot of cheese for 2 oz of chicken.

    I usually do corn tortillas which are 110 for 2 tortillas.
  • SamLD88
    SamLD88 Posts: 111 Member
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    Also for the rice: I didn't put it in the tortilla, it was a side. The package said a serving is 2/3 uncooked or 1 cup cooked rice, so I just followed that. To be fair it was a decent portion of rice so I will probably halve that in the future!

    Ah, that makes sense! Well, if that was a good dinner, by all means, enjoy it! I usually split my calories as follows:

    I have about 1800 a day.

    Breakfast: ~300-400 cal
    Lunch: ~400-600
    Dinner: ~400-600
    Snacks: ~200-400

    Homemade mexican is still way less calories than restaurant mexican, so I wouldn't worry too much about it :) If you can tolerate artificial sweeteners, you could get the low-cal tortillas; you could also reduce meat to 1 oz or so and increase veggies; could also reduce to 1/2 cup rice.
  • bschneider5
    bschneider5 Posts: 4 Member
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    If one fajita filled you up and it was 576 calories, I don't see the big deal. Eat two of them, you'll have to go to the gym and earn the calories back. The sour cream and rice I would have cut way back on.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,624 Member
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    Thanks everyone! The one did fill me up, but it still was a little concerning!

    As far as the measurements - I cooked 16 ounces of chicken breast total, with seasoning. I couldn't figure out how to measured exactly how much seasoning I ate, because I used one packet on all 16 ounces. I created a recipe using 16 ounces chicken with one packet seasoning, considering a serving 4 oz.

    Then in my tortilla, I used half of that serving (2 oz)...if that makes sense. So when I added the "recipe" to my log I used half a serving.

    I think I might go buy low calorie tortillas. I love Mexican food and ill probably use them often, I just thought whole wheat was good enough! Whoops!

    Makes much more sense, this is what I do if I need to incorporate a few ingredients together and cooking it in bulk. Just make sure you used the raw chicken data if you weighed/measured it raw.

    Just play around with different ingredients, lower-fat choices to help make the meal less calorie-dense, tweaking how much of things you use. Adding more veggies also helps.
  • erikfarrar
    erikfarrar Posts: 35 Member
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    Honestly, try getting used to just ditching the "wrapping" with lots of stuff. Eat fajita filling with a fork, and lose the wrap; invest in some iceberg lettuce to wrap all your sandwich items in; etc.

    Other good tips: decline the rice with Chinese, Indian, etc. Leaves a lot more calorie (and stomach) room for other, tastier stuff. Or, a the very least, substitute quinoa or something similar.

    I haven't bought a loaf of bread or tortillas, I don't think, since I started with MFP. You really won't miss that stuff.
  • Lelah77
    Lelah77 Posts: 177 Member
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    I often decide on tortilla OR rice. The Fajita filling is so dang good on its own, I can eat it with just the rice if I really want rice. Flour tortillas are surprisingly calorie dense! Sneaky, sneaky!
  • Pete1964AK
    Pete1964AK Posts: 85 Member
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    La Tortilla Factory make pretty decent low cal, hgh fibre tortilla/wraps. Only 80 calories, I'm not a fan of rice anyway, so that's an easy ditch.
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,417 Member
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    I ate a 700+ calorie burrito bowl for dinner!

    Course it had 140gm cooked chicken, 130gm black beans, 175gram lettuce(4:3 romaine to iceburg), 170gm lightly sauteed peppers and onions, 40gm reduced-fat cheddar, 31g reduced-fat sour cream, 45gm medium salsa and 2oz guacamole(from a pre-measured mini cup). Plus seasoning mix on chicken and a touch of oil in the pan for the sauteed veggies.

    It was awesome, full of protein snd good fat and deliciousness. Five hours later I am still full and contemplating skipping my yogurt and fruit :tongue:
  • Walter__
    Walter__ Posts: 518 Member
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    Stop using measuring cups/spoons. Use a food scale instead.

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