Fast Food Greater Than 1000 Calories

24

Replies

  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    No... this was not suppose to be surprising other then companies are making smaller meals with more calories. If I ate a hamburger and milkshake I would of expected it to be less then 1000 kcal. Now it can be over 2000.

    These are the largest, most calorie dense portion sizes of the items that most of these places offer... 24 oz shakes, XL fries, multiple patty hamburgers... it is quite possible to eat a small burger and milkshake at any one of these restaurants for less than 1000 cals.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I mean if you order something called a "quadruple bypass burger" I assume you know what you're getting yourself into.

    (I think I may have clogged an artery just typing that)

    I hate how my quadruple bypass burger, sold at a restaurant with calorie counts next to every item (at least that's how fast food is here), has all those hidden calories and sat fat grams! So tricky!

    Maybe people should use common sense.

    Indeed, I don't see anyone who eats those items complaining that they thought they were low cal and super healthy (in terms of nutrients per calorie).
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    cee134 wrote: »
    No... this was not suppose to be surprising other then companies are making smaller meals with more calories. If I ate a hamburger and milkshake I would of expected it to be less then 1000 kcal. Now it can be over 2000.

    These are the largest, most calorie dense portion sizes of the items that most of these places offer... 24 oz shakes, XL fries, multiple patty hamburgers... it is quite possible to eat a small burger and milkshake at any one of these restaurants for less than 1000 cals.

    Absolutely.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    There are people that would eat an entire blooming onion and think, hey it's an onion, it won't have alot of calories. But... 1954 kcal.
  • hlltwin
    hlltwin Posts: 55 Member
    I think by now most people are aware that taking an entire onion, battering it and deep frying it is a snack best shared among friends. When I see people at places offering them, most people are sharing them, not sitting down to eat the whole thing solo.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    There are people that would eat an entire blooming onion and think, hey it's an onion, it won't have alot of calories. But... 1954 kcal.

    Anyone who missed the batter and oil has bigger problems to worry about than their waistline. That requires some outright dementia level *kitten*.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    hlltwin wrote: »
    I think by now most people are aware that taking an entire onion, battering it and deep frying it is a snack best shared among friends. When I see people at places offering them, most people are sharing them, not sitting down to eat the whole thing solo.

    There are people that would eat an entire blooming onion...
  • hmltwin
    hmltwin Posts: 116 Member
    edited August 2016
    cee134 wrote: »
    There are people that would eat an entire blooming onion and think, hey it's an onion, it won't have alot of calories. But... 1954 kcal.

    The times that I've had blooming onions, I never thought they wouldn't have a lot of calories. They are quite large, covered in batter and deep-fried. I've also never eaten one by myself. When I've eaten them, I shared them with three other people. It's still a lot - 500 calories - but not quite as much.

    I'm not saying no one ever thought they were low in calories, but there's no excuse for it now. Most menus at these places have the calories right there next to the food item.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Alluminati wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    cee134 wrote: »
    No... this was not suppose to be surprising other then companies are making smaller meals with more calories. If I ate a hamburger and milkshake I would of expected it to be less then 1000 kcal. Now it can be over 2000.

    These are the largest, most calorie dense portion sizes of the items that most of these places offer... 24 oz shakes, XL fries, multiple patty hamburgers... it is quite possible to eat a small burger and milkshake at any one of these restaurants for less than 1000 cals.

    Absolutely.

    Mmm-hmm.

    Last time I had fast food was when I stopped at a Culver's after spending the morning biking 60 hilly miles around the Madison area and was on my way back to Chicago.

    Got a single Butterburger and small fries, plus a diet coke. Apparently that's 680 calories. If I'd been concerned about calories (I normally have around 500 calories for lunch), I'd have skipped the fries or had a slightly smaller breakfast or dinner than normal, no biggie. I splurge much more than that often enough, and not normally on fast food, which I tend to have about once or twice a year (nothing wrong with fitting it in, though, my preferences are just different).
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    There are people that would eat an entire blooming onion and think, hey it's an onion, it won't have alot of calories. But... 1954 kcal.

    I used to work at Lone Star, and we served both a Bloomin Onion and Cheese Fries. In 3 years of waiting tables I never saw a single person order these to eat alone, and that was before nutritional info was so easily available.

    While I wouldn't say never, I would doubt that there are a significant number of individuals would would order a battered deep fried onion and try to claim they didn't know it was going to be caloric because "onion".

    If those individuals exist, well... perhaps they should get some common sense and use it. I hardly see how this is the fault of the restaurant or something that the restaurant needs to change on it's menu...
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    There are people that would eat an entire blooming onion and think, hey it's an onion, it won't have alot of calories. But... 1954 kcal.

    Anyone who missed the batter and oil has bigger problems to worry about than their waistline. That requires some outright dementia level *kitten*.

    Yup.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    edited August 2016
    I guess your state fair is different then mine.
    Krispy Kreme Hamburgers
    Fried Pepsi
    Fried Butter
    Fat people aren't the only ones who order this.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    I guess your state fair is different then mine.
    Krispy Kreme Hamburgers
    Fried Pepsi
    Fried Butter

    Pfft, I'll wrap butter in cheese and eat it. What of it?
  • hlltwin
    hlltwin Posts: 55 Member
    edited August 2016
    Not having been to the state fair, I couldn't say. I will say this: I call certain foods "fair foods" (You know the ones, deep fried pickles, deep fried oreos, deep fried twinkies, fried dough). I know those aren't healthy. I don't expect them to be healthy. I know that they are full of fat and sugar and calories. No one orders fried pepsi thinking - "Health food."
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    I guess your state fair is different then mine.
    Krispy Kreme Hamburgers
    Fried Pepsi
    Fried Butter

    And? What is the point? This has become a trend in the last few years at State Fairs, to create indulgent foods and deep fry them. If an individual consumes any one of those (which I've had the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger- with bacon and it was delightful), it would be a once/year thing at the State Fair, not an every day occurrence. Even if you are seeking out the best cuisine at all 50 State Fairs, you've eaten some crazy fried monstrosity for about 15% of the 365 days in a year...
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    hlltwin wrote: »
    No one orders fried pepsi thinking - "Health food."
    ? I never said people who order this food are thinking it's healthy or low calorie. I am saying they may think it's higher in calorie but it may be much higher then they actually think.
  • hlltwin
    hlltwin Posts: 55 Member
    I'm saying that they probably knew what they were getting into with the first bite... heck, with the first glance.
  • hmltwin
    hmltwin Posts: 116 Member
    edited August 2016
    cee134 wrote: »
    I guess your state fair is different then mine.
    Krispy Kreme Hamburgers
    Fried Pepsi
    Fried Butter
    Fat people aren't the only ones who order this.

    What I eat at a fair and what I eat on a regular basis are two drastically different things. I'll get a bag of garlic butter popcorn every year at the Garlic Festival. Normally... something like that is far too heavy for me to eat.

    The last fair I went to, I got a Blooming Onion to share with my sister - but it was our biggest meal of the day. We had a light breakfast and a salad for dinner. I've also had bacon wrapped deep fried chicken at fairs and fried dough. These aren't foods that are for every day. These are foods for, "I'm at a fair. Ok, how do you even fry a drink? I'll try some fried Pepsi."

    You can't judge what people eat at a fair and say, "People don't realize how bad this stuff is!" Some people are perfectly aware the Fried Butter is bad (how could they not be?). They're at a fair and eating fair food. Sometimes it's fun to try something insane that you wouldn't normally eat.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    hlltwin wrote: »
    No one orders fried pepsi thinking - "Health food."
    ? I never said people who order this food are thinking it's healthy or low calorie. I am saying they may think it's higher in calorie but it may be much higher then they actually think.

    Ok... what are you proposing then?

    That these foods are taken off of restaurant menus and state fair offerings?
    That calorie counts are published (they usually are for chain restaurants)?
    Something else?
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    This was my moment in McDonalds when I started on MFP. I was looking at the menu board and was contemplating a chicken sandwich at about 380 calories not bad. I was thinking about maybe getting some fries too when I noticed the "as a meal" up to 1330 calories. I stopped eating french fries and drinking sweet tea that day. I rarely eat there anymore either. I went on to lose over fifty pounds and eat so much differently now than I used to eat.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    I'm proposing that people are misjudging their calories, MFP people have a better idea because they actually track their calories. But it is still very very easy to misjudge calories.

    Which, by the way was not the reason I started this thread. I started it because any one thing being more then 1000 kcal is ridiculous.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    This was my moment in McDonalds when I started on MFP. I was looking at the menu board and was contemplating a chicken sandwich at about 380 calories not bad. I was thinking about maybe getting some fries too when I noticed the "as a meal" up to 1330 calories. I stopped eating french fries and drinking sweet tea that day. I rarely eat there anymore either. I went on to lose over fifty pounds and eat so much differently now than I used to eat.

    That must have included regular soda as the regular fries aren't 900+ calories
  • hmltwin
    hmltwin Posts: 116 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    This was my moment in McDonalds when I started on MFP. I was looking at the menu board and was contemplating a chicken sandwich at about 380 calories not bad. I was thinking about maybe getting some fries too when I noticed the "as a meal" up to 1330 calories. I stopped eating french fries and drinking sweet tea that day. I rarely eat there anymore either. I went on to lose over fifty pounds and eat so much differently now than I used to eat.

    That must have included regular soda as the regular fries aren't 900+ calories

    The regular (medium) fries are 340 calories. I'm trying to figure out what the drink would have been.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    I'm proposing that people are misjudging their calories, MFP people have a better idea because they actually track their calories. But it is still very very easy to misjudge calories.

    Which, by the way was not the reason I started this thread. I started it because any one thing being more then 1000 kcal is ridiculous.

    Most people don't track calories to begin with. If you aren't tracking calories, then you don't have a benchmark by which to say whether or not the calories in a large sonic shake are reasonable for you or not. That's one of the things that I think is interesting about all these restaurants posting calorie counts on their menus. If a person doesn't know their TDEE, doesn't have a calorie target to shoot for (whether trying to lose, gain or maintain), and doesn't know the calorie count of the foods they eat on a daily basis that they prepare themselves - then how is knowing that a Panera Bacon Turkey Bravo has 399 cals for a half sandwich - helpful for them?

    I still don't understand why it is ridiculous that the biggest, most extravagant items on these menus are >1000 cals? If they were 500 cals, then imagine what the calories would be for the small portions?
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    hmltwin wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    This was my moment in McDonalds when I started on MFP. I was looking at the menu board and was contemplating a chicken sandwich at about 380 calories not bad. I was thinking about maybe getting some fries too when I noticed the "as a meal" up to 1330 calories. I stopped eating french fries and drinking sweet tea that day. I rarely eat there anymore either. I went on to lose over fifty pounds and eat so much differently now than I used to eat.

    That must have included regular soda as the regular fries aren't 900+ calories

    The regular (medium) fries are 340 calories. I'm trying to figure out what the drink would have been.

    Exactly. Maybe it included a dessert? That never was crazy inflated
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    No... this was not suppose to be surprising other then companies are making smaller meals with more calories. If I ate a hamburger and milkshake I would of expected it to be less then 1000 kcal. Now it can be over 2000.

    This confuses me. None of what you posted would be a "smaller" meal. They all look (and sound) calorie laden. My problem before MFP is that I just didn't think about it. It's easy to put away a lot of calories when you aren't really thinking about it.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    hmltwin wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    This was my moment in McDonalds when I started on MFP. I was looking at the menu board and was contemplating a chicken sandwich at about 380 calories not bad. I was thinking about maybe getting some fries too when I noticed the "as a meal" up to 1330 calories. I stopped eating french fries and drinking sweet tea that day. I rarely eat there anymore either. I went on to lose over fifty pounds and eat so much differently now than I used to eat.

    That must have included regular soda as the regular fries aren't 900+ calories

    The regular (medium) fries are 340 calories. I'm trying to figure out what the drink would have been.

    I think the poster said sweet tea. Sure, if you get the super size sweet tea, and the large fries, then it is possible to envision that a value meal could be "up to" 1330 calories. But if you get just the sandwich, small fries, and a diet soda, then it is possible to have a meal with a reasonable calorie count. I eat a McDouble, one of the happy meal fry orders that my kids don't eat, and a diet coke and it is less than 500 cals.
  • hmltwin
    hmltwin Posts: 116 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    cee134 wrote: »
    I'm proposing that people are misjudging their calories, MFP people have a better idea because they actually track their calories. But it is still very very easy to misjudge calories.

    Which, by the way was not the reason I started this thread. I started it because any one thing being more then 1000 kcal is ridiculous.

    Most people don't track calories to begin with. If you aren't tracking calories, then you don't have a benchmark by which to say whether or not the calories in a large sonic shake are reasonable for you or not. That's one of the things that I think is interesting about all these restaurants posting calorie counts on their menus. If a person doesn't know their TDEE, doesn't have a calorie target to shoot for (whether trying to lose, gain or maintain), and doesn't know the calorie count of the foods they eat on a daily basis that they prepare themselves - then how is knowing that a Panera Bacon Turkey Bravo has 399 cals for a half sandwich - helpful for them?

    I still don't understand why it is ridiculous that the biggest, most extravagant items on these menus are >1000 cals? If they were 500 cals, then imagine what the calories would be for the small portions?

    Even before I started counting calories, I was hearing that the guideline was 600 calories per meal. It's not perfect, but it gives you something to shoot for when you go out to a place that has the nutrition information published.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    hmltwin wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    This was my moment in McDonalds when I started on MFP. I was looking at the menu board and was contemplating a chicken sandwich at about 380 calories not bad. I was thinking about maybe getting some fries too when I noticed the "as a meal" up to 1330 calories. I stopped eating french fries and drinking sweet tea that day. I rarely eat there anymore either. I went on to lose over fifty pounds and eat so much differently now than I used to eat.

    That must have included regular soda as the regular fries aren't 900+ calories

    The regular (medium) fries are 340 calories. I'm trying to figure out what the drink would have been.

    I think the poster said sweet tea. Sure, if you get the super size sweet tea, and the large fries, then it is possible to envision that a value meal could be "up to" 1330 calories. But if you get just the sandwich, small fries, and a diet soda, then it is possible to have a meal with a reasonable calorie count. I eat a McDouble, one of the happy meal fry orders that my kids don't eat, and a diet coke and it is less than 500 cals.

    Possibly forgetting the Apple Pie? What meal from McDonald's is complete without one of those things? Do they even make them anymore?
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    cee134 wrote: »
    I'm proposing that people are misjudging their calories, MFP people have a better idea because they actually track their calories. But it is still very very easy to misjudge calories.

    Which, by the way was not the reason I started this thread. I started it because any one thing being more then 1000 kcal is ridiculous.

    That's not what you said in the OP, though. You said that there are "way more calories in foods than what we think" and proceeded to post pics of foods that one would have to be blind to not realize contained buttloads of calories.
    And some posts are basically saying "No **kitten** Sherlock!" :lol:

    1000 or more calories for a restaurant meal is par for the course. I actually think I would be lucky to get away with only 1000 calories (not counting the labeled healthier options on the menu, of course).