Ever eat an enormous number of cals at a restaurant without realizing? (aka the 1000 cal dessert)

Tubbs216 wrote: »

Emilia777 wrote: »

DawnieB1977 wrote: »

Emilia777 wrote: »

@auddii That sounds SO perfect! I wish that was more commonplace. It would really gap the bridge between standard restaurants/fast food and juice bars/smoothie places (which are not my thing - don’t get me started on calories in Booster Juice!)

@DawnieB1977‌ I lived in the UK for two years and love Costa! It was definitely expensive to eat out though, especially for someone coming from Canada so that the exchange rate was less than favourable.

My kids love Costa (they're 5 and 3. My 10 month old obviously doesn't know where we are lol). They always ask to go there. Caffe Nero is good too, but it doesn't do babyccinos. Where in the UK did you live?

I was in the Middle-of-nowhere in East Sussex, aka in the countryside close to Hailsham. My school has a campus there. This is about 2 hours south of London, which is where I’d spend most of my time. I also spent a year in St. Andrews, Scotland. Suffice to say I love the UK And your kids sound adorable. I even had a Costa card at the time. I am still sad that I forgot to buy one of their awesome giant mugs. There were way more nice coffee-type chains there than there are in Canada. Whereabouts are you?

I lived in Brighton and Burgess Hill before moving to Canada 12 years ago!
When we go back, we love to eat in pubs. Kids aren't allowed in pubs in Canada, so our teens think it's cool to be able to. Also, lots of curries!!
But it is SO expensive!

My grandparents used to live in Burgess Hill.

I grew up in York, went to uni in Canterbury (and lived in France for a year), did my MA in Guildford, then worked just out of London for 2 years, but met my hubby down here through a friend and moved here. I did my teacher training at Brighton uni. I love being by the sea


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Yeah, it's normal for kids to eat in pubs, although obviously there are some pubs I wouldn't take my kids into!

DawnieB1977 wrote: »

Tubbs216 wrote: »

Emilia777 wrote: »

DawnieB1977 wrote: »

Emilia777 wrote: »

@auddii That sounds SO perfect! I wish that was more commonplace. It would really gap the bridge between standard restaurants/fast food and juice bars/smoothie places (which are not my thing - don’t get me started on calories in Booster Juice!)

@DawnieB1977‌ I lived in the UK for two years and love Costa! It was definitely expensive to eat out though, especially for someone coming from Canada so that the exchange rate was less than favourable.

My kids love Costa (they're 5 and 3. My 10 month old obviously doesn't know where we are lol). They always ask to go there. Caffe Nero is good too, but it doesn't do babyccinos. Where in the UK did you live?

I was in the Middle-of-nowhere in East Sussex, aka in the countryside close to Hailsham. My school has a campus there. This is about 2 hours south of London, which is where I’d spend most of my time. I also spent a year in St. Andrews, Scotland. Suffice to say I love the UK And your kids sound adorable. I even had a Costa card at the time. I am still sad that I forgot to buy one of their awesome giant mugs. There were way more nice coffee-type chains there than there are in Canada. Whereabouts are you?

I lived in Brighton and Burgess Hill before moving to Canada 12 years ago!
When we go back, we love to eat in pubs. Kids aren't allowed in pubs in Canada, so our teens think it's cool to be able to. Also, lots of curries!!
But it is SO expensive!

My grandparents used to live in Burgess Hill.

I grew up in York, went to uni in Canterbury (and lived in France for a year), did my MA in Guildford, then worked just out of London for 2 years, but met my hubby down here through a friend and moved here. I did my teacher training at Brighton uni. I love being by the sea


image uploading

Yeah, it's normal for kids to eat in pubs, although obviously there are some pubs I wouldn't take my kids into!

No way! I grew up in Guildford!

And just for you Emilia...my eldest daughter and her friend in Costa in Eastbourne


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Tubbs, I was only in Guildford for a year, for my MA. I liked it there. We used to go to Old Orleans for happy hour

Went out to eat at a place called Brother Sebastians where the waiters dress up in monk's robes and they play gregorian chant music while you wait to be seated, anyway after appetizers, bread, meal, wine and dessert I was soooo out of the ball park and miserable full. I think my total for just that meal was over 2000 and I had already consumed 800 before dinner. I tried to plan ahead and log ahead but I wasnt counting on the wine, bread and dessert. Eventhough I doubled my calories for the day I still started fresh the next morning and stayed on track. Every day is a new day.

I worked at Pizza Hut through most of school, and made the mistake of checking the nutritional information of the food I ate almost daily because it was free and I was broke. It was bad. Like, I'd eat a whole meaty P'zone plus some breadsticks throughout the night, and whatever sugary concoction of a pop I would add flavored syrups into. To break down the bad news:

690 calories per serving (1,380 for a whole P'zone)
260 calories from fat (520 cal)
11 g saturated fat (22 g)
70 mg cholesterol (140 mg)
1490 mg sodium (2,980 mg)
32 g protein (64 g)

Again, I'd eat something like this every time I worked, which was anywhere from 2-7 days a week. Or go in when a manager I liked was working and get food to go because again, I was broke. Just thinking about all the grease makes my stomach hurt.

If you eat out only occasionally (I eat out once every month or two), then I say the hell with calories for that night and resume counting the next day.

dym123 wrote: »

I always assume whatever I eat at a restaurant is going to be at least twice the calories of what I normally eat in a meal. I plan for it, enjoy my meal and move on.

^This^

I pretty much assume that anytime I walk into a restaurant, 1000 calories will be a minimum. As many have already posted, for that reason I try to limit eating out to actual occasions.

gamesandgains wrote: »

BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »

This one got me.



Grilled chicken breast, some rice. Sure there's a little cheese and some tortilla strips...

1310 calories.

That's crazy... Even at a glance would've guessed 850-900 TOPS.

Rice = 200
Chicken = 200
Cheese = 100 maybe?
There's a creamy dressing under that cheese. Let's give it 150.
Oil/butter in rice (at least a tablespoon) = 119
Oil/butter to grill chicken = 119
Tortilla Strips - Probably 300 (looks like 2 servings)
Salsa - 50

= 1,138.

The difference can easily be a half tablespoon more oil in the rice, on the chicken or something in the creamy sauce.

Emilia777 wrote: »

So, I had to share this. I was at Swiss Chalet the other night (love their chicken, not gonna lie) with the bf and the kitchen was backed up because of a new employee. Long story short, we were offered a complimentary dessert to make up for the long waiting time. Silly naive souls that we are, we ended up getting the hot fudge brownie sundae, as we figured it can’t be that bad if you split it with someone.

Yeah, no. I ate slightly less than half, simply because it was so rich, and we took bets on the calories (he said 600, I said 730). We then looked it up on the inter web, and behold: 1090 calories, 130 g of sugar (lord, that’s sweet).

Moral of this story: always look up calories before you order. The rest of the meal was pre-planned and worked out fine.

Did anything like this ever happen to you?

my small DQ blizzard this past sunday. it wasn't a scheduled stop. i figured the small might have 400 calories or so.... nope. over 700!

lol

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auddii wrote: »

Emilia777 wrote: »

@Francl27 Those creme brûlées must be either giant or overloaded with sugar (or both). I distinctly recall having this in Paris when I was studying abroad and it came in a tiny 2” diameter 1/2” tall ramekin: it was the perfect portion size, and not overly sweet. I wish more restaurants in North America reduced serving sizes, especially for desserts. This ties in with what @DawnieB1977‌ is saying. And @CrabNebula‌ .

I've seen a newer chain of restaurants (at least, only been in Texas for a few years) called Seasons 52 that has seasonal and local foods on the menu. All menu items are under a certain calorie limit (450ish I think), and you can get multiple courses (we usually split an appetizer before the main course) and not feel quite so bad. And deserts come in a shot glass. It's the perfect amount to get the satisfying flavor but not enough to stuff yourself after your first two courses.

I was actually going to post about Season's 52 dessert shot glasses before I saw your post. Those were my restaurant shocker--they're literally about 3 bites of dessert, which seems like a very reasonable portion. Except almost all of them max out their 450 calorie max! It just seems like a lot for a couple of bites. Now when I go there I just ask for some fresh berries and a dollop of whip cream in the shot glass.