Have certain foods ever surprised you with their calorie content? Good or bad?

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  • weightliftingdiva
    weightliftingdiva Posts: 522 Member
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    I love potatoes too. I roast red potatoes with herbs and olive oil a lot, and find I get a lot of bang for my buck. They're cheap and have good (albeit carby) nutrition too. I think they get bad press because of the stuff people load on them - cheese, sour cream, butter etc.
  • sparkynazca
    sparkynazca Posts: 169 Member
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    I had a cup of baby lima beans the other day. I about fainted when I logged it and saw that it was 220 calories. Not that it killed my diet or anything, but I was so used to eating broccoli or some other very low calorie vegetable, and the number absolutely took me by surprise!
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    It didn't surprise me with its calories but when I was shopping today, I saw salt-reduced salt. Literally salt that was 50% salt and 50% some potassium stuff.
  • amykhughes
    amykhughes Posts: 25 Member
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    Twizzlers. I thought they were a decent choice as far as candy calories are concerned but the package from the checkout lane was over 500 calories (it was king size, but seriously not a huge package). Um, no! If I'm going to blow 500 calories on candy, it will be chocolate!
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
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    I haven't been surprised by calories really, but portion sizes. I get the Lindt Hello My Name Is chocolate bars and a serving is FOUR pieces - the pieces are really big. I usually am satisfied with one. On the other hand, the whole grain club crackers I love - the serving size is half an ounce. I wish there was some sort of regulation across serving/portion sizes, they can be so misleading.
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,518 Member
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    stevencloser wrote: »
    It didn't surprise me with its calories but when I was shopping today, I saw salt-reduced salt. Literally salt that was 50% salt and 50% some potassium stuff.

    I love this stuff.
  • brightsideofpink
    brightsideofpink Posts: 1,018 Member
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    Oooh, I agree about some portion sizes. After many years of eating far more than a serving of something, I find myself pleasantly surprised when I eat something and think its a fair portion, only to find its actually less than a single serving.
  • woofer00
    woofer00 Posts: 123 Member
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    Crispy/Fried chicken wings, w/sauce - 150 per wing

    And on the other end, cucumbers/cauliflower/squash
  • rbfdac
    rbfdac Posts: 1,057 Member
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    Not a surprise by any means, but more of an aggravation: the amount of calories in a dang restaurant salad. Any restaurant, really, they're all oozing with hidden (or not so hidden) calories!
  • Milvardea
    Milvardea Posts: 52
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    Home made pizza. You think it has a million calories in it, but you can eat almost half of the pizza and not hit 600 calories (depending on what you put on it). Homemade crust and sauce and home shredded cheese. If you make it right, you can splurge without actually splurging. I LOVE pizza, so this was a big help to me. :wink:
  • lfrazier2482
    lfrazier2482 Posts: 82 Member
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    The standard Saturday night watch a movie treat for my Son and I during the Summer was going to Dairy Queen and getting a large Blizzard. This was usually after a 12-16 ounce steak, potato salad and grilled asparagus drenched in olive oil. I was particular to the Heath Bar Crunch. That alone comes in at 1260 calories. Yikes!
  • MamaRiss
    MamaRiss Posts: 481 Member
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    [quote/]
    WRT "holy hell why so high?!" pile. Turkish delight. Like, I know why it's so high. I get it. But when I make my own and cut it into 40 little squares and THOSE are still 40+ cal each it makes me sad (ditto fudge)[/quote]

    Oh my, I love Turkish delight. Especially with Bosnian (or turkish) coffee. It's a good thing it isn't readily available here
  • stacyjh1979
    stacyjh1979 Posts: 188 Member
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    I was shocked at how many calories were in a chicken taco salad. It varies from one place to another but some of them (especially with the edible bowl which I don't eat) are anywhere from 700-1300 calories. That's just insane...and it's chicken! On the flip side I LOVE the fact that broccoli is only 30cals for 1 cup (85gm). I will eat two cups of broccoli and be pretty darn full for 60 cals. Win win!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Milvardea wrote: »
    Home made pizza. You think it has a million calories in it, but you can eat almost half of the pizza and not hit 600 calories (depending on what you put on it). Homemade crust and sauce and home shredded cheese. If you make it right, you can splurge without actually splurging. I LOVE pizza, so this was a big help to me. :wink:

    I had a whole pizza for 700 calories the other day, but yeah, I went light on the toppings.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    Milvardea wrote: »
    Home made pizza. You think it has a million calories in it, but you can eat almost half of the pizza and not hit 600 calories (depending on what you put on it). Homemade crust and sauce and home shredded cheese. If you make it right, you can splurge without actually splurging. I LOVE pizza, so this was a big help to me. :wink:

    I had a whole pizza for 700 calories the other day, but yeah, I went light on the toppings.

    My pizza usually ends up being more calories than take-out. :cry: It's worth every one though.
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,286 Member
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    I was surprised when I realized how much calories I was downing in my coffee creamer! Bye by creamer! I found a yummy vanilla bean protein shake and now I use that instead of creamer and sweetener.
  • Zerodette
    Zerodette Posts: 200 Member
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    Breakfast cereal- it was mostly a portion size shock. Those big bowls I'd been pouring myself since I was a kid? Easily 3 to 4 servings.

    Potatoes also shocked me, because I had it drilled into my head for so long that they make you fat. No, smothering them in sour cream, cheese and butter and eating until I was stuffed made me fat.
  • SteampunkSongbird
    SteampunkSongbird Posts: 826 Member
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    It might sound daft but I was really shocked at how many calories is in just one tbsp of vegetable oil.
  • habeebz921
    habeebz921 Posts: 10 Member
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    Cookies, chicken skin, cheese slices and flora spread were all higher than expected and would bump up my calories.
  • bootssowhite
    bootssowhite Posts: 93 Member
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    I had always assumed that because avocados are healthy, they would be low in calories, but not so much. I was surprised by how many calories I can drink and how many calories are in such a small amount of sugar. I make my own lemon/limeade, and I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I like my lemonade tart enough to make my eyes water, but a liter still came out to 350 calories. Also, the portion size to calorie ratio really surprised (and disheartened) me. So many things that look decently healthy based on the calorie count can only do that because the portion size is unrealistically small. (I'm looking at you, granola.)

    On the flip side, I've been really pleasantly surprised by how much good food I can eat if I'm the one cooking it. I can make a really good pizza for 500 calories. I didn't have to give up cheese or bread. So long as I immediately give away most of the batch, I can easily fit a couple of homemade cookies into my day's calorie allotment. I still use olive oil and butter in cooking. I don't have to eat bland diet food to lose weight.

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