What food has surprised you because of the calorie content?

13

Replies

  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited July 2018
    i echo the restaurant things. it's nice that they have to put calories on the menu's but that still leaves you with like...1-2 options under 900 calories in most places (other than green salad with salad dressing on the side for $10). :P I am REALLY hoping this means more restaurants will have decent food options closer to 500 in the years to come.

    but more than that, we have fancy "healthy salad" places really pushing lunch crowds. Veggy salads and quinoa type salads. NOTHING under 500 calories. for a lunch :o If I am gonna go out and splurge 500 calories on a lunch it certainly will NOT be for a salad :P
  • 1houndgal
    1houndgal Posts: 558 Member
    Zoggo1991 wrote: »
    Good or bad, which or what food has made you rethink your meals?

    Mine today was mince beef - WHERE ARE THOSE CALORIES LURKING?!

    Darigold Refuel Chocolate:

    1 bottle is two servings(8oz).

    But on the label they say 20g per bottle (16oz per bottle).

    Kind of misleading, like comparing apples to oranges. A half bottle(8 oz) has 10g protein.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,979 Member
    A caipirinha! about 100ml of cacacha and a pile of sugar. Then a lime and ice. Well, it's a massive calorie bomb.
  • emcclure013
    emcclure013 Posts: 231 Member
    Avocados continually surprise me with how calorie dense they are for being a fruit (and they surprise me for being considered a fruit). I can easily eat one a day, but they can be difficult to fit in sometimes, especially the large ones once you weigh them.

    I'm also surprised often by what foods they make in "0 calorie" versions. The fact that a soda can taste good and be 0 calories still surprises me sometimes. They make 0 calorie salad dressings, chocolate syrup, and coffee syrups. Now, they might not taste any good, but they make them.... :D
  • chantelboudreau
    chantelboudreau Posts: 2 Member
    Regal Cinema Nachos and Cheese. Ate it at a movie not knowing how many calories it was. 920 calories!
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
    fb47 wrote: »
    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.

    I have never heard of those breads - are they a US thing, or am I just not being terribly observant?

    I’ll sometimes use sandwich thins, but they don’t make a terribly satisfying sandwich. And with more normal bread, or a roll, once I’ve got two slices and a tiny amount of filling that’s my lunch allowance all gone and more and I haven’t even added butter or veg. It’s just not worth it.

    So nowadays I buy nice bread when it’s on special offer, freeze it, and have a slice with my lunch as an occasional treat.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    RaeBeeBaby wrote: »
    On the low side for fast-food restaurant meals, I recently discovered Panda Express. I always avoided it because I thought it was loaded with MSG (to which I react negatively) and I wondered how good fast food Chinese could be. Surprisingly they do not use any MSG and it's really pretty good.

    Most restaurants steer away from MSG because of all the negative press (much of it well deserved). Black mold on the walls won't drive away customers as bad as MSG on the menu...
  • qwebster01
    qwebster01 Posts: 22 Member
    peanuts
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    fb47 wrote: »
    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.

    I have never heard of those breads - are they a US thing, or am I just not being terribly observant?

    I’ll sometimes use sandwich thins, but they don’t make a terribly satisfying sandwich. And with more normal bread, or a roll, once I’ve got two slices and a tiny amount of filling that’s my lunch allowance all gone and more and I haven’t even added butter or veg. It’s just not worth it.

    So nowadays I buy nice bread when it’s on special offer, freeze it, and have a slice with my lunch as an occasional treat.

    I'm Canadian, since you're from the US, I would bet you can easily find low calorie breads...no doubt about it. You folks have more variety in the grocery stores than we do up here.
  • BlessedMom70
    BlessedMom70 Posts: 124 Member
    My daughter made an upside down pineapple cake the other day. I was looking at the WW app out of curiosity and one slice would have been like 26 points - ahhhhhh I then looked up the calories and found 400 for a slice which is still kind of high (but expected). What a difference though... I can have a slice while counting calories and not eat salad for the rest of the day to make up for it...lol
  • BlessedMom70
    BlessedMom70 Posts: 124 Member
    Red Robin veggie burger - my go to when we go there.. I think it's somewhere around 1200 calories from when I checked a while ago. GEEZ
  • BlessedMom70
    BlessedMom70 Posts: 124 Member
    Fiber One breakfast cereal. The surprise is the low calories. I haven't tried it with milk. It's a perfectly handy little snack.

    Good mixed in with yogurt too!
  • TickleAnn
    TickleAnn Posts: 21 Member
    Angel Food Cake is relatively low in calories. A decent slice from the bar cake I got is 110 calories. The problem is not eating the whole thing.

    Hershey's Lite Chocolate Syrup is a lifesaver for me. It has 20 calories per tablespoon, but it doesn't take much to make an impact and it satisfies my need for chocolate. It's so much better than the zero calorie stuff. I use it in smoothies and yogurt. I also make a banana split with a banana, yogurt and some of the syrup. It's satisfying and makes me feel like I'm getting away with something by having dessert for breakfast. It's not available everywhere. I've only found it in our Walmart SuperCenter and Fred Meyer (Kroger).
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,292 Member
    Surprisingly high: those little tomatoes. 31 kcal per 100 gram! That's more than strawberries, and strawberries are fruit! Guess I'll Just eat strawberries from now on..

    While I agree that strawberries are an even better bargain, not sure what authoritative database entry you're using for your cherry tomato counts.

    The closest I've come are entries based on USDA standard reference entry for "red ripe tomatoes year round average" which comes in at about 18 Cal per 100g.

    In any case both counts are pretty low, so it should be kind of hard for either to have a major effect on your daily balance!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,292 Member
    edited July 2018
    A tub of 0% yogurt with 10 to 20g of cereal and 2 to 5g of cocoa.

    100 to 150g of egg whites added to 50g of eggs.

    McDonald's vanilla cone (on average larger than advertised but still, not bad for ~250 Cal).

    Wendy's small chilli at about ~200 Cal most of the time.


    On the boo side? Muffins and restaurant salads!
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
    fb47 wrote: »
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    fb47 wrote: »
    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.

    I have never heard of those breads - are they a US thing, or am I just not being terribly observant?

    I’ll sometimes use sandwich thins, but they don’t make a terribly satisfying sandwich. And with more normal bread, or a roll, once I’ve got two slices and a tiny amount of filling that’s my lunch allowance all gone and more and I haven’t even added butter or veg. It’s just not worth it.

    So nowadays I buy nice bread when it’s on special offer, freeze it, and have a slice with my lunch as an occasional treat.

    I'm Canadian, since you're from the US, I would bet you can easily find low calorie breads...no doubt about it. You folks have more variety in the grocery stores than we do up here.

    I’m in the UK. That’s why I asked if the breads were an over-the-pond thing; apologies for assuming you were in the US :)
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    fb47 wrote: »
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    fb47 wrote: »
    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.

    I have never heard of those breads - are they a US thing, or am I just not being terribly observant?

    I’ll sometimes use sandwich thins, but they don’t make a terribly satisfying sandwich. And with more normal bread, or a roll, once I’ve got two slices and a tiny amount of filling that’s my lunch allowance all gone and more and I haven’t even added butter or veg. It’s just not worth it.

    So nowadays I buy nice bread when it’s on special offer, freeze it, and have a slice with my lunch as an occasional treat.

    I'm Canadian, since you're from the US, I would bet you can easily find low calorie breads...no doubt about it. You folks have more variety in the grocery stores than we do up here.

    I’m in the UK. That’s why I asked if the breads were an over-the-pond thing; apologies for assuming you were in the US :)

    The only UK low calorie breads I have tried taste like pap 🤣
  • jdubois5351
    jdubois5351 Posts: 460 Member
    Home made salad dressing - just oilve oil, balsamico vinegar, a little honey, a little mustard. HOLY HELL! And here I was thinking I'm just eating a salad, how many calories can that even be? Turns out, a whole lot, if you douse said salad in dressing ...
  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 264 Member
    Avocados. I used to avoid them when I was "dieting". Now, I have them a couple of times a week. (Note: I used to try to buy the biggest ones I could find to "get more for my money". Now, I buy the smallest ones I can find for about 160 calories by gram weight.)
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    Not surprised but I am always disappointed at the number of calories in a tortilla wrap!
  • Deviette
    Deviette Posts: 978 Member
    Not surprised but I am always disappointed at the number of calories in a tortilla wrap!
    Me too! Before I counted calories I used to get tortilla wraps as a "healthy" alternative to bread, when I eventually started pay attention to calories I discovered I was eating the same, if not more, calories by choosing wraps over bread.

    Did the same with pitta bread.
  • mrslynda
    mrslynda Posts: 50 Member
    Deviette wrote: »
    Not surprised but I am always disappointed at the number of calories in a tortilla wrap!
    Me too! Before I counted calories I used to get tortilla wraps as a "healthy" alternative to bread, when I eventually started pay attention to calories I discovered I was eating the same, if not more, calories by choosing wraps over bread.

    Did the same with pitta bread.

    I am usually having two at time when I take them too work. Mostly because I get a decent amount of calories easily without being too filling. If I wasn't so active and didn't need the calories, I would be finding a more satisfying carb/bread option.

  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    edited July 2018
    RaeBeeBaby wrote: »
    On the low side for fast-food restaurant meals, I recently discovered Panda Express. I always avoided it because I thought it was loaded with MSG (to which I react negatively) and I wondered how good fast food Chinese could be. Surprisingly they do not use any MSG and it's really pretty good.

    Most restaurants steer away from MSG because of all the negative press (much of it well deserved). Black mold on the walls won't drive away customers as bad as MSG on the menu...

    Please tell me more about why MSG is bad. I thought all of that was debunked as bad science. Bad science with racist undertones even...
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    mram3582 wrote: »
    If you're sick just go ahead and drink the rum...Nyquil has 93 calories and 13 grams of sugar per dose...the rum has 65 calories for the same amount.

    Solid.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    Fiber One breakfast cereal. The surprise is the low calories. I haven't tried it with milk. It's a perfectly handy little snack.

    Good mixed in with yogurt too!

    Eat it like that almost every day. Hooray for Fiber One.
  • DamienAngelica
    DamienAngelica Posts: 281 Member
    DX2JX2 wrote: »
    RaeBeeBaby wrote: »
    On the low side for fast-food restaurant meals, I recently discovered Panda Express. I always avoided it because I thought it was loaded with MSG (to which I react negatively) and I wondered how good fast food Chinese could be. Surprisingly they do not use any MSG and it's really pretty good.

    Most restaurants steer away from MSG because of all the negative press (much of it well deserved). Black mold on the walls won't drive away customers as bad as MSG on the menu...

    Please tell me more about why MSG is bad. I thought all of that was debunked as bad science. Bad science with racist undertones even...

    It was. The testing they did was a mess. They injected as much MSG in lab rats that they did when testing saccharine - more than any person could reasonably eat. The FDA has classified MSG as "generally recognized as safe," and it's in so much processed food now, it isn't even funny. Doritos, Pringles, frozen dinners, salad dressings, and on and on. There are some people who are overly sensitive to it, but it isn't a demon destroying our bellies as many would have you believe.
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 697 Member
    I don't get how one hot dog is 200 calories. It's not particularly fatty or oiky and chicken breast of equal ounce measurement is half the calories so where are all this calories from?
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    I'm looking at you, granola.
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