Stealth Calories -- annoying as *kitten*.

jrochest
jrochest Posts: 119 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I had to take a meeting over lunch, and found myself unexpectedly stranded and hungry before my cut-and-colour appointment (which would take a couple of hours). I normally have a protein bar in my bag, but not today. So, with 10 minutes before the appointment starts, I run around the corner to a little local coffee shop; they have nothing but sweets and ciabatta sandwiches, so I figure I'll just have a latte, which will give me the calories from milk and will keep me running until dinner. At the last minute I settle on a chia latte - which I assume will be made with a chia tea bag, as per usual, and I can sweeten it with Splenda.

Nope. They made it with Toroni syrup (which I've never seen done before, didn't even know it was a option). So: for a drink, I just 'spent' 300. freaking. calories. For a DRINK. And not a particularly good one at that. Not so bad if you were expecting it, but I feel like I've been overcharged.

Grumble grumble grump.

Anyone else been recently ambushed by 'stealth calories'?

Replies

  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Life happens. Live and learn. At most coffee shops, a chai latte is made with a chai concentrate of some sort. If you want it made with a tea bag, you should ask specifically for it.
  • sophia162
    sophia162 Posts: 115 Member
    Yeah, also, I really dislike it that it's hard to figure out the calories in hot beverages from machines and such (and I'm not too good estimating). At least in my country (Argentina), they're not always available.

    But we must let life happen, as the previous poster stated, otherwise we're all going to become freaks and hermits! lol <=)
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    edited May 2018
    I'm assuming you meant Masala chai, the spiced black tea blend originating in India, and not some kind of brew made from the seeds of salvia hispanica.

    I have never seen real chai made with a teabag. It's usually brewed from loose leaves. The local coffeehouses in my area all serve the real thing, not made from a sweetened concentrate. One of them is owned by an Indian, who uses an unsweetened tea concentrate so it doesn't take forever to make a drink. The other place is known for their own chai blend. They keep a premade brew made with soy milk in a large pot that they can simply dispense to order, but if you want it made with dairy milk they steep the leaves directly in the hot milk using an infuser. Either way you have to sweeten it yourself if that's what you want. Honey is good.

    In general, the chain coffeehouses are no good for dieters, and most especially in the drinks they make that are designed for people who don't actually like coffee.

    Regardless, if I'm stuck eating something unplanned I just log it and adjust my eating later in the day. Worst case, I must forego my nightly scoops of ice cream.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    Oh, I hate when that happens! I've had it happen recently when I swapped brands of almond butter. The new stuff is 10 calories more. Not a lot, but it's annoying because I eat it everyday and prelog.

    I never buy coffee / tea drinks from the shop anymore, because their "drink base" has so many carbs and calories compared to what I make myself. Same for smoothie shops. I went to a run which had free smoothies from Smoothie King afterwards and even the supposed "healthy green" smoothie which was all vegetables and ginger and so on, sweetened with stevia instead of sugar, even the kid's size had more carbs than I can safely eat at a time, and a ton of grams of sugar. (I'm diabetic.) How do they manage to cram so much sugar into an artificially sweetened veggie drink?
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    edited May 2018
    We had a lunch at work yesterday for Star Wars Day (May the 4th). Office manager knows I watch what I eat and told me not to worry; one of the things she ordered was a salad with shrimp (I love shrimp). It turns out it was the shrimp and grains salad - "grilled shrimp, fresh avocado, shredded parmesan, quinoa, edamame & almonds" on their base salad of lettuce and greens. A regular serving (didn't give weight on their nutrition listing) is 480 calories. We had a big bowl to serve yourself from. I like it, but few other people did, so she bagged it and told me I was free to take it home. So I had it again for dinner. I walked several miles at 4+ mph to make it fit and even then I am guessing that my portion sizes were okay. Going to do 2 or 3 hours of SUP paddling today after having the last of it for lunch. I do like it and it won't keep long. But yeah, kind of wrecked my plans.
  • kimothyschma
    kimothyschma Posts: 209 Member
    My sister in law brought us a huge bag of whoopie pies when she visited. We were splitting one when I checked the package and one of those things is like 900 calories! For a pie the size of my palm. Just... how do they pack all those calories in so densely? I’m still amazed by it. Glad I only had a quarter instead of a half!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    ccsernica wrote: »
    I'm assuming you meant Masala chai, the spiced black tea blend originating in India, and not some kind of brew made from the seeds of salvia hispanica.

    I have never seen real chai made with a teabag. It's usually brewed from loose leaves. The local coffeehouses in my area all serve the real thing, not made from a sweetened concentrate. One of them is owned by an Indian, who uses an unsweetened tea concentrate so it doesn't take forever to make a drink. The other place is known for their own chai blend. They keep a premade brew made with soy milk in a large pot that they can simply dispense to order, but if you want it made with dairy milk they steep the leaves directly in the hot milk using an infuser. Either way you have to sweeten it yourself if that's what you want. Honey is good.

    In general, the chain coffeehouses are no good for dieters, and most especially in the drinks they make that are designed for people who don't actually like coffee.

    Regardless, if I'm stuck eating something unplanned I just log it and adjust my eating later in the day. Worst case, I must forego my nightly scoops of ice cream.

    Mmm best chai I had in my life was brewed by Dr. Jayanti Patel at Ananda Ashram. No tea bags involved.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Had a very thin unsatisfying burger with almost no toppings and was surprised it was around 500 calories. It was much less filling than a 300 calorie burger from another place. I think the difference was mainly coming from the bigger bun for the flatter wider thin burger.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    In the grand scheme of things, I think you'll be ok...
  • jrochest
    jrochest Posts: 119 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Worrying about "stealth calories" is a form of stress.
    Stress increases cortisol.
    Cortisol can lead to water weight retention.
    Water weight masks fat loss, and makes me think I'm not losing weight when I actually am.
    Thinking I'm not losing weight, when I should be, causes stress (and maybe IDGAF overeating).

    Conclusion: Worrying about stealth calories is counterproductive. Avoid them, but if they happen, just log them and go on.

    ;););)

    Logic! :smiley:
  • jrochest
    jrochest Posts: 119 Member
    I only wish I could have fancier chai -- but Saskatoon Saskatchewan isn't exactly the most sophisticated place, so bags it is! And yes, I meant the "bagged spiced tea steeped in hot milk" kind of thing. Ironically enough, this place was local -- I guess they just figured that the Toroni syrups were just as good. Never mind, today I was too busy to eat much.
  • jrochest
    jrochest Posts: 119 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    My family was going out for fish and I could go with them because I had a lot of work. I asked them to get me a grilled salmon meal for dinner, since it's grilled, ye know, fewer calories. They came back with a grilled salmon fillet drowning in lemon butter sauce and a pasta salad side. My pre-logged reasonable 500 calorie meal turned into a 2000 calorie meal. I was too tired to care.

    Oh gods, the worst. And yeah, there's times where you just have to suck it up, literally, and eat it.

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