What food has surprised you because of the calorie content?

I just checked Five Guys Large Fries. Only 1314 calories

High:
- Butter (I used to always have loads of butter on my bread, sometimes I now go without)
- Oils (just wow, this is the reason I bought measuring spoons)
- Pies (not a big surprise, just higher than I thought)
- Crisps (How can such a small amount of food be so high in calories)
- Bread (seriously, what is in this bread!)


Low:
- Crème fraîche (I've now started to add it to all sorts of "creamy" sauces)
- Berries (I always thought these were high in sugars, turns out I was wrong)
- Basic, plain vanilla ice cream (Because I can have two scoops of ice cream for under 100kcals)
- Rice and potatoes (I suppose I'd listen too much to those people who say that carbs are evil, I was pleasantly surprised at how sensible amounts of calories a serving was)

Triscuit crackers ; they aren't terribly high but I thought they were much lower.
Strawberries and blueberries are really low in calories.
Pie - yes, I should expect it to be high but not as high as it actually is. Some of the oversized slices you get eating out are over 1000.

ceiswyn wrote: »

Bread. Bread has HOW MANY calories?! Well OK then, no more sandwiches for me... (well, except for the odd one to stave off the cravings).

Growing up, I wasn’t allowed things like banana or avocado because they were ‘fattening’. The first time I realised that having tuna mayo in an avocado half was actually significantly fewer calories than having it in a sandwich (especially one with buttered bread!) was a revelation. I blame Weight Watchers and similar companies.

As for low... meringue. And strawberries. After that revelation I poked about the dairy cabinet a bit, and thanks to vanilla Skyr I can now bring in a big bowl of Eton Mess at around 150 kcal

Bread is not bad, it depends which ones you get of course. I used to eat Country Harvest Protein bread, they were 110 calories per slice....but if you get the PC Blue ones, I think they are like 50 calories per slice.

rheddmobile wrote: »

Restaurant food in general, especially "healthy" restaurant selections. I don't eat out much on my own but a group of friends keeps inviting me to chain restaurants. PF Chang's has a broccoli and chicken sort of thing which is a ton of calories, and O'Charlie's has a salmon and quinoa kale salad which is over 1000. What the heck are they putting in it to make salmon, kale and quinoa that fattening? If I made the same thing at home it would be less than half the calories.

They probably drench it with all kinds of butter, olive oil or both at the sametime.

Honestly, most restauarant food is surprisingly high in calories. I went out to dinner in an nicer chain restaurant. Roasted chicken dinner with veggies and baby potatoes was 1400 calories. How is that even possibe? A small serving of fries was 600 cals. Kale salad with grilled chicken was 1100 calories!! The portions dont appear huge either.

rheddmobile wrote: »

Restaurant food in general, especially "healthy" restaurant selections. I don't eat out much on my own but a group of friends keeps inviting me to chain restaurants. PF Chang's has a broccoli and chicken sort of thing which is a ton of calories, and O'Charlie's has a salmon and quinoa kale salad which is over 1000. What the heck are they putting in it to make salmon, kale and quinoa that fattening? If I made the same thing at home it would be less than half the calories.

My favorite is when people order the veggie option because they think they're being 'healthy' but in reality, restaurants load those down with so many fats, sugars, etc. to replace the meat that vegetarian dishes often turn out to be among the highest calorie items on the menu!

CarvedTones wrote: »

Triscuit crackers ; they aren't terribly high but I thought they were much lower.
Strawberries and blueberries are really low in calories.
Pie - yes, I should expect it to be high but not as high as it actually is. Some of the oversized slices you get eating out are over 1000.

*sigh*

Because butter is amazing and lots of butter = awesome pie crust.

I am always amazed at how low calorie a good lean Steak is.

The other day I bought an order of Donut Fries from DD. The serving size is 5 tiny sticks, and 240 calories! Those will definitely have to be a very rare treat.

Running_and_Coffee wrote: »

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

One the biggest shockers to me was thinking ordering a salad at a restaurant was healthier. Many are in excess of 1100 calories! I can piece together a burger and a side for far fewer calories.

My big question with those caloric restaurant salads is where the hidden calories are? Are they drenching the grilled chicken in butter and flour? Is the salad dressing made from buttercream and sugar? Is each crouton actually a compressed bagel?

FWIW, I order restaurant salads a lot but get a lemon wedge and no dressing, no croutons and the nuts on the side, and use a soup spoon to measure them out. I've still been able to lose weight with restaurant salads. But I really wish they would just use less caloric ingredients all in all...many people who choose "salad" may think they are making a healthy choice.

Salad (unless I'm having a serious hankerin' for a specific salad), just doesn't do a lot for me in terms of satiety. I have fared well with the Bolthouse dressings, which helps a lot, because for me the appealing part of salad is coating everything in dressing.

I get the cobb salad at Chick Fil A quite a bit and can come in under 700 calories even with the pepper crispies and low-fat honey mustard dressing. For a dinner, that's usually what I'm aiming for w/ calories. If I'm feeling spendy on my calories, I'll get the regular nuggets instead of grilled nuggets. I also sneak one fry from hubby's stash and one fry from my son's stash to feel complete. (I've never logged those fries, shhhhh).

Salads at restaurants. Again something pop culture perceives as "healthy", but often really high in calorie content and greatly exceeding recommended calorie allowance.

rheddmobile wrote: »

Restaurant food in general, especially "healthy" restaurant selections. I don't eat out much on my own but a group of friends keeps inviting me to chain restaurants. PF Chang's has a broccoli and chicken sort of thing which is a ton of calories, and O'Charlie's has a salmon and quinoa kale salad which is over 1000. What the heck are they putting in it to make salmon, kale and quinoa that fattening? If I made the same thing at home it would be less than half the calories.

restaurants are very liberal in regards to using oils when cooking and in their dressings for salad. I always get dressing on the side if I get a salad. In my experience, they usually over dress the salad as well.