When food is to good to be true....

My thoughts are you need to re-evaluate your relationship and thoughts on food if the above situation is giving you a feeling of "cheating".

You ate some food. That's all.

I'm not really sure what you are asking. It's quite possible you've eaten more than 470 calories since restaurant meals can vary greatly depending on things like portion size, ingredients, etc. that are not weighed and measured each time. It's also possible you ate less.

I'm not sure why a 470 calorie meal would make you feel like you cheated, but just stick to your calories and see what happens. You'll never know if the plan is working if you don't give it a shot.

No such thing as 'cheating'

I know what you mean. Generally you probably eat more frequent "lighter" meals and you did not expect to feel so full after this 470 calorie meal. The fact you feel stuffed has you second guessing if it was accurate. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Don't sweat it either way. You made a healthy choice with what you had to work with. That's what matters

I always feel that way after eating the Chili's "Lighter Portions" steak and avocado meal with garlic and salad. I'm stuffed and my desire for something sort of forbidden is satiated.

Good for you! And I in no way want to be Debbie Downer, but I was reading about a Tuft's University study about how they counted restaurant calorie counts and found a lot of them undervalued by 100 calories. They found one undervalued by 1000 calories! So I can appreciate why you'd be suspicious.

But the proof is in your measurements, right?

I'm not getting into the idea of cheating -- in the end, you're only doing things that promote or discourage your goal.

My caveat to you is that when you're not actually weighing your food, the actual food you can receive -- whether at a restaurant or in a package -- can be greater than it says it is. This is especially true at restaurants. I've seen cites that say that they can be off as much as 20-30%. So, when it says 470 cals, it could actually be something closer to 600. So, to truly know, you need to weigh all your food.

As for 470 cals being satisfying, oh yeah, that's totally possible. I find that when I made meals with a high level of protein, moderate fat and low carbs (especially the non-starchy variety -- like spaghetti squash), they can be incredibly satisfying, especially if the veggies are high in fiber. One of my favorites is spaghetti squash, chicken and vodka sauce -- a modified chicken cacciatore. It's awesome and fall below that threshold -- and very filling.

abetterluke wrote: »

470 calories is awesome. Why would you feel bad about that?

I believe she doesn't trust the calories listed by the restaurant. And I don't blame her. I am positive the chef is not weighing the portions and sauces etc...
If I felt like I just consumed more then 450 calories.....I'm sure I did.
We are told here to weigh everything and I have learned from doing this that even an apple can vary as much as 50 cals.
She shouldn't beat herself up but that realization is important.

hamelle2 wrote: »

abetterluke wrote: »

470 calories is awesome. Why would you feel bad about that?

I believe she doesn't trust the calories listed by the restaurant. And I don't blame her. I am positive the chef is not weighing the portions and sauces etc...
If I felt like I just consumed more then 450 calories.....I'm sure I did.
We are told here to weigh everything and I have learned from doing this that even an apple can vary as much as 50 cals.
She shouldn't beat herself up but that realization is important.

Yeah the chef will weigh the meat but that's pretty much it.

Can go the other way though, I had lunch at Uno a couple weeks ago and had a side of broccoli that the website claims is 85 calories, but looking at my plate, it was more like 40 calories tops (no butter, nothing, just steamed). So, there's that.

The worst offended for restaurants is steak info. You often find restaurants (Chili's, Uno's) giving you 200-220 calories for a 6oz steak, but it's hard to believe that it could be so little, unless it's basically fat free, which I doubt restaurants bother doing.

It's one of the reasons I hate eating out now, to be honest.

Do you feel like you were disloyal to your bland food at home? JK

I felt like this coming off a VLCD (medically supervised). If I had one extra helping it seemed too much. But then when I added the calories it was just fine.