Dang, no wonder that Friday's Turkey Burger tasted so good (

Now that I'm committed to MFP I am much more aware of nutritional information of everything I eat. I had a shocking revelation at TGI Friday's last week. I travel a lot and I am able to eat in chain restaurants where I can typically find nutritional information. While that is good, it is also sobering to find so few chain restaurant menu items that have fewer than 500-800 calories per meal.

The day before I committeded to MFP I thought I'd get a Turkey burger and grilled veggies. The server even commented, "oh, eating healthy today, huh?" I thought to myself, "oh yeah, I'm proud of myself.'

NOT SO FAST THERE FAT MAN!!!

I looked up utritionalrional information on the Friday's website and that hunk 'o Turkey was 1230 calories! Add the grilled veggies and I used 65% of total daily calorie allotment on one meal. I will say that the burger was juicy and flavorful and I even remembered that I wassurprised that I enjoyed it so much...well no wonder!

I'm actually glad this happened because I now realize that my assumptions about my calorie content of foods, the amount of exercise to burn off certain foods and how many calories I can actually eat in a day have been turned 180 degrees. Number one, if you want to eat healthy, don't assume ANYTHING. LOOK IT UP!!! As it turns out, EVERY steak on the Friday's menu has no less than 30% fewer calories than their turkey burger. So, my perception on calorie content was totally incorrect.

Number two, the exertion required to burn off 150 calories is much more than I realized. I ate at Red Lobster last night and had enough calories that I could have one of their delicious Cheddar Bay Biscuits which is 150 calories. Noting that previously I would eat 3-4 per meal, I enjoyed the one very much. When I got back to the hotel I went for a workout (hurray!) and used the elliptical machine. It had a calorie counter that I could enter my weight and age and it provides a real time calories burned reading. I know they're not totally accurate but the information I've read indicates that they read lower than some other calories burned calculations. Anyway, after 15 minutes of quite strenuous exercise and profuse sweating and breathing heavily, I finally hit 150 calories. I went ahead and burned another 200 but that first 150 was indeed strenuous. The revelation at that point was "it AIN'T worth all this!"

Number 3, I have always beeen under the assumption that I burned 3000-3500 calories per day. WRONG-O!! My BMR turns out to be 2400 calories and it's only that is only because I'm 298 lb. I have resigned myself to the fact that I can only eat 2000 calories per day...forever. Of course, there may be a few days up and a few days down, but if I am going to lose weight and keep it off, my 3000 calorie days have to come to an abrupt halt.

I am so glad I joined this program. I appreciate the support and I very much love the data available. Knowledge never helped me before my knowledge was incorrect. Glad to have my eyes opened!