Eating at Restaurants

jlsironen
jlsironen Posts: 39 Member
edited September 23 in Health and Weight Loss
Since joining this site early January, I've paid close attention to how often we eat at restaurants. I've changed how I grocery shop and even though I don't plan dinners for the week, I make sure to have enough on hand so that my husband can't say "but there's nothing to make here, let's just go out." We've already saved tons of money, yay!

In addition to the monetary cost of eating out is the caloric cost. I had absolutely no idea how horrible many restaurant foods are! For example, Cheesecake Factory: The Factory Burger is 737calories. Yikes right? But it's a burger and to be expected. HOWEVER....same restaurant, Grilled Turkey Burger is 1,331 calories!!!! Holy smokes a grilled turkey burger!?!?!?! I've begun researching the places we go/have gone here in Athens and it is absolutely shocking. Appleby's has a low fat chicken quesadilla that's 740calories, where their sizzling chicken skillet with everything including tortillas is only 360cal.

Don't even get me started on Chili's, if you go there you'd better do your homework or you'll be up to 2,000 calories halfway through your meal!

Anywho, it was a wake-up call to me and I wanted to make others aware who haven't looked into restaurant nutritional information. Now, anytime we go out I take about 5 minutes to look over the menu online, find a few things that I like or that sound good, check out the nutritional info and go from there. It's saved me thousands of calories in just a month's time and is well worth it. You never know what's lurking in a "healthy" sounding food!

Replies

  • appleshells
    appleshells Posts: 165
    My husband and I are doing the same thing. We have become very, very aware of the high calories at restaurants. If we want to go out to eat we usually will look up the restaurant and choose what we have before we go.
  • MissAnjy
    MissAnjy Posts: 2,480 Member
    My husband and I are doing the same thing. We have become very, very aware of the high calories at restaurants. If we want to go out to eat we usually will look up the restaurant and choose what we have before we go.

    definitely a good idea. i always pre-select my meal using the online menu & nutritional guide at restaurants. Then i workout & make sure it's in my budget :)
  • That_Girl
    That_Girl Posts: 1,324 Member
    I agree! Thankfully, around my area, they are starting to put the calories right next to the menu item which helps a TON.

    Red Robin is great for that...
  • IndyRick
    IndyRick Posts: 172
    Agreed. And, I've found I can usually find SOMETHING at a restaurant that will fit my calorie goal. HOWEVER....the sodium is a HUGE issue. That is more of a struggle, for me.
  • Jaypea15
    Jaypea15 Posts: 71 Member
    Agreed, healthy bars and snacks are just as bad too. I find the same problem here in the UK. When I eat out I usually go the vegetarian route, as long as it is not covered in cheese etc.

    I do find though Mc Donalds are good, in respect of all the calorific values are put on the boxes. I can have a Big Mac without cheese, a small fries and diet coke for 720 ish.

    All the best in your journey :)
  • Enigmatica
    Enigmatica Posts: 879 Member
    As if the calories aren't ridiculous enough, be sure to look at the sodium content on restaurant foods as well. UGH!

    I've cut way back on restaurant fare in the past 3 years and don't miss it a bit. I get much more excited by pints of organic strawberries and blueberries than any restaurant.
  • cbhockeymom
    cbhockeymom Posts: 1
    wow that is amazing good luck with your goals...:flowerforyou:
  • garedds
    garedds Posts: 251
    We only have 5 restaurants where I live--3 chinese/canadian local owned, 1 mom and pop shop, and 1 subway. Needless to say we dont' go out to eat much! If we want to go elsewhere it's over an hour away. It has been good for our family since moving here 18 months ago!
  • timanda2
    timanda2 Posts: 149
    I agree! Thankfully, around my area, they are starting to put the calories right next to the menu item which helps a TON.

    Red Robin is great for that...

    Last time I went to Red Robin I asked or nutritional info. and they said they didn't have any.....hmmm....Where do you live?
  • eellis2000
    eellis2000 Posts: 465 Member
    I have been eating grilled chicken sandwhich's from sonic thinking they were a healthier choice. I looked them up yesterday to find yes they have less fat but almost twice the amount of cholesterol!!!! 80mg of cholesterol just in the chicken.
  • royam01
    royam01 Posts: 123
    Yeah! I started picking out what to eat before we go and then I just think "Whats the point? I can make something good here AND have a glass of wine for the same amount of calories!" Sodium is a big thing too. I had buffalo wild wings yesterday and even though I only ate half of my meal the sodium almost put me over my limit! I have started ALWAYS eating just half of my meal and bringing the other half home for the next day. Its really working for me :)
  • nattyb044
    nattyb044 Posts: 11
    I just looked up the infor on the sizzling chicken skillet on the Applebees site and the calories in that meal is actually 1360 for everything. Just thought I would let you know.
  • luv2ash
    luv2ash Posts: 1,903 Member
    It has been one of the secrets to my success--that is for sure!
  • adriayellow11
    adriayellow11 Posts: 140
    Agreed. And, I've found I can usually find SOMETHING at a restaurant that will fit my calorie goal. HOWEVER....the sodium is a HUGE issue. That is more of a struggle, for me.


    Yes my nutritionist told me that the sodium is waaay higher whenever I eat out at restaurants than if I eat at home and that it was throwing my stats off significantly. She also said that if I eat out more than twice a week not to treat it as a treat but to make sure I order something that I would choose at home. I don't enjoy restaurants as much now, knowing that I triple my sodium/calories for them!
  • seniorfaye
    seniorfaye Posts: 295 Member
    I would love to go online and do that , but most of the restaurants that we go to are not name brand.. We ate out last night and I thought to get the smoked chicken would be better than the fried fish. I think it must have had more grease in it and it made me sick. I did good on everything else on my plate. Since that was going to be within my calorie range I ate it. But it was not worth being sick.
  • Gin460
    Gin460 Posts: 3
    I agree that restaurants are dangerous for calories. I order only salads when we go out to eat. But even a salad can be as much as 500 calories! My husband and I stopped at Fudruckers last night. I had the Napa Valley salad, which is quite delicious with romaine lettuce, apples, grilled chicken, almonds, and dried cranberries with with balsamic vinegarette dressing on the side. That was 453 calories!
  • jessieinblue
    jessieinblue Posts: 287 Member
    Hands down, The Cheesecake Factory is THE worst chain restaurant. Anywhere. They recently added one to the local mall here, and I cringe every time I walk past it and say a little prayer for everyone in there.

    A friend of mine recently went on a business lunch there and told me afterward that she ended up eating everything she ordered (rather than taking some home) because the meeting was stressful. We went online and calculated her totals. I still have the post-it here:

    Calories: 2775
    Sodium: 3035

    That was from half an appetizer, a *lunch portion* chicken entree, and a slice of cheesecake. No sides. She drank water. It would be easy to go there and rack up much more than that.

    Of course, there's no way of knowing how many grams of fat or sugar were in there, because TCF has yet to tell us! Really disgusting.
  • shadyman
    shadyman Posts: 15
    We don't go out much any more, goal weight 200lbs by march 26th.. when we do go out it is just a salad for me till I get home then a turkey burger or something I have made in the freezer..:smile:
  • jlsironen
    jlsironen Posts: 39 Member
    I just looked up the infor on the sizzling chicken skillet on the Applebees site and the calories in that meal is actually 1360 for everything. Just thought I would let you know.

    This is the one I saw :) It may be modified from "everything," sorry for the mix up!!!
    Sizzling Chicken Skillet
    grilled, marinated chicken breast with steamed peppers, squash, mushrooms and onions, served with pico de gallo, roasted tomato salsa, salsa ranch dressing, shredded lettuce and warm wheat tortillas (man now I want one!)
  • lmburi
    lmburi Posts: 22
    I totally agree! I've started looking at my favorite things to order at restaurants and figuring out how to make them lower-cal at home by using leaner and less proteins and loading up on veggies. With the right substitutions, I find I can make a way better turkey burger or quesadilla or whatever and slash the calories. I've also looked for places that do have low cal options so that when I do want to eat out, which sometimes I just want to do, I know places that I can go and still enjoy the dining out experience.
  • mrb_9110
    mrb_9110 Posts: 189 Member
    One thing I really appreciate was Applebee's under 550 calories menu. The teryaki (spelling?) Vegetable plate was delicious and filling, but yes the amount of sodium was awful!
  • wyld4eva
    wyld4eva Posts: 58 Member
    Hey girl I hear you, going out can be tricky you think you are making a good choice and you can be very suprised when you look up those calories and soduim. I read somewhere on this site this girl made a resturant cheat sheet for her car. Anywhere she could possibly eat she had a list in the car of acceptable meals and all the nutrition info on them. I will be working on that for myself in the near future. Plus thier are apps for smartphones.....that give a quick guide for nutrution for alot of restaraunts. They may not be 100% accurate I haven't really compared directly to the places websites but at least it is a close estimate.
  • jlsironen
    jlsironen Posts: 39 Member
    I use the iPhone app for this site, I like it better to log food because when you put it in it automatically shows you the calories. you don't have to put it in then delete it because you chose the wrong thing. It was a lot of restaurants in it!
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