700 calories left

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zehrjordan
zehrjordan Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I have 700 calories left for dinner and my whole family is getting Chinese, I would like sesame chicken and fried rice. Does anyone one know roughly how many calories that would be? Portions aren't huge but pretty good sized

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  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
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    200 cal for a serving of fried rice and 500 for the chicken is probably reasonable. Depending on what others ingredients they use in the chicken that might actually be kind of high.
  • Tried30UserNames
    Tried30UserNames Posts: 561 Member
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    According to Panda Express's website, their sesame chicken is 420 calories and fried rice 520. PF Chang's website says their lunch portion of sesame chicken is 730 calories and fried rice 220.

    So I'd say it can vary a lot depending on the ingredients and the portion size. Does the restaurant your family is going to have a website with its nutrition information?

  • zehrjordan
    zehrjordan Posts: 19 Member
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    No which is stupid, I'm completely guessing I could be eating 1200 calories in this meal
  • spiffychick85
    spiffychick85 Posts: 311 Member
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    If it's one meal don't stress and just enjoy it. As long as splurging calorically isn't a daily habit where you're having to guess wildly about calories then you'll be fine....now sodium and water retention may cause a jump on the scale. I know for me if I even smell soy sauce I have a temporary gain on the scale for 2 days :D
  • dadsafrantic
    dadsafrantic Posts: 183 Member
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    don't do it. have a popcorn.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    I would order the rice and chicken, then eat half of it, take the other half home

    warning, that Chinese is high in sodium, so you may see the scale go up tomorrow
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited May 2017
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    zehrjordan wrote: »
    So I have 700 calories left for dinner and my whole family is getting Chinese, I would like sesame chicken and fried rice. Does anyone one know roughly how many calories that would be? Portions aren't huge but pretty good sized

    What's your normal deficit?

    If you do eat 1200 for this dinner what will 500 calories less on your deficit mean long term? My deficit target is 7000 per week. The daily deficits vary quite a bit for me because I know there are several days that time doesn't always allow me to eat to plan. I don't worry at all about going over by a few hundred in a given day.

    Of course with Chinese i expect the scale to show retention for a few extra days, but again the long term process works so well that I don't get bent out of shape because of an enjoyable meal with the family and some totally expected water weight that I am absolutely sure will go away. Because it always does.
  • kittybenn
    kittybenn Posts: 444 Member
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    I am a huge Chinese food lover, and control it by making my own brown rice at home and limiting whatever else (Gen. Tso, orange chicken, sesame chicken, etc.) to one cup. I serve myself and put the rest in the refrig for my husband's lunch the next day. I'm guessing at the restaurant you could eat a small amount of fried rice and a reasonable amount of the sesame chicken and take the rest to go for another day, to throw away or to give to one of your family members to take home. I usually find that the first few bites are the best anyway!
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    dadsafrantic wrote: »
    don't do it. have a popcorn.

    So incredibly sad and unnecessary.

    OP, eat maintenance today.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited May 2017
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    zehrjordan wrote: »
    So I have 700 calories left for dinner and my whole family is getting Chinese, I would like sesame chicken and fried rice. Does anyone one know roughly how many calories that would be? Portions aren't huge but pretty good sized

    Define "good sized". Before you go, take a good hard look at a measuring cup. Compare it to the size of your first (or something else you'll be bringing with you). Depending on the recipe, 1 cup of fried rice is going to be in the ballpark of 250 to 300 calories. (1 cup of plain rice would be about 200 calories.)

    For the sesame chicken, do a similar eyeball estimate of portion size then look for entries in the database for sesame chicken from other Chinese restaurants. I found entries suggesting that 1/2 cup would be about 200 calories - which sounds pretty plausible. Unfortunately, most of the entries are for "1 box" or "1 bowl" which is useless. Similarly, Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers entries will be useless. Real restaurant food is far more calorific than that.

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