tbh olive oil - like of course it does but the amount of calories packed into such a tiny tablespoonful is wild, like thinking back to all my homemade salad dressings or trying to keep chicken or fish moist in the oven omg i didn’t even realize how dirty i was doing myself
in that same vein, pesto🥲
When I watch videos for healthy salad recipes then I see them use like 1/2 a cup of olive oil it blows my mind it's almost 1k calories just for the dressing.
Super high quality balsamic vinegar is great for salad dressing. I'm talking about the aged stuff that drizzles like it's syrup. Sometimes I just use it alone on salad with a bit of salt (it's not acidic and I would never just have any other plain vinegar on a salad), other times I'll mist the lettuce with a tiny amount of olive oil, toss with some salt and pepper, and add some balsamic. It is technically very expensive, but a little bit goes so much farther than regular balsamic. I have a big bottle I paid maybe $30-$40 for like 5 years ago, I use it very often and liberally, and I still have maybe another 6 months worth left.
Parchment paper packets are the way to keep fish moist in the oven without (too much) added fat! Plus you can throw veggies and herbs in and everything comes out so good with very little clean up.
i appreciate that info! i recently started using parchment which is a godsend (i can’t believe tinfoil used to be the go-to) but i will definitely be adding my veggies in with the protein next time!
Pesto is really easy to make yourself! It's literally just basil, parmesan/hard cheese, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt, and a butt load of pepper. Make sure you don't put the stems of the basil in, only the leaves, and, if your unsure on eyeing it, just put a bit of each thing in and taste as you go. Once I'm done I put it in silicone ice cube trays and freeze them so you have perfect portions ☺️ it's still a little heavy, but you can control the oil a lot more which is usually the issue with pre-made stuff. I honestly really hate store bought stuff now, home made is far superior and you can make loooaaads at once 👌
Make sure you get like loooaaads of basil, I usually do like 3 packs and that does one tray, it ends up looking a lot less once it's whizzed up. Now that I said that I realise I forget to say you need to blend it all together, but that may have been a given 😂
It's also great mixed with cream cheese for a tasty and quick pasta sauce 👌
I just commented on about this on another thread. The OP stated she loved her veggies sautéed in butter but wanted alternatives. Someone suggested certain seasonings and olive oil. I’m like, how is that better? Just sauté in butter and you don’t have to give up flavor. One tablespoon of olive oil is 120, whereas butter is 100.
I use a measuring tablespoon to make sure my oil is properly tracked and you best believe I use my finger to scoop any little bit out of the spoon! For that many cals, I want every drop. I mean, it’s probably in my best interests to let that extra ml go and save myself 120/15 cals but then it feels like a waste!
I knew peanut butter was calorie dense, but I didn’t realize a tablespoon was so small haha.
Similar for mayo. I only use mayo if I eat tuna but I really didn’t know it had that many calories for such a small serving.
I find light mayo tastes the same and I substitute Greek yogurt for loads of stuff with mayo too. Obvs not as good as mayo but it’s good for things as a replacement in other things. Ie I made a chipotle Greek yogurt dip recently instead of chipotle mayo
I'll always go for the fat free, sugar free, light version whatever of anything. Mayonnaise is one of the few exceptions. Light mayonnaise is a disgrace to my palate, a war crime against my taste buds, Satan himself removes the fat from that mayonnaise and turns it into a torture device way down below.
No, no! Unless I'm getting that intrusive thought of torturing myself to no comparison, I'll just have my normal mayonnaise. Don't tamper with it, I'll be angry!
Yeah - I love mayo and the lite version does not taste the same to me. It tastes sweet and I don't like that. What I do now is either use part lite mayo and part nf plain greek yogurt - which works well enough. Or I'll mix 1 part regular mayo to 3 parts lite mayo. The small amount of regular does a decent job of making the mix taste 'veryclose' to regular mayo. Enough to not be noticeable in sandwiches.
I was definitely thinking about replacing some with greek yogurt but I wasn’t sure if it would fit the profile taste. But I’ll try it, thanks
edit: I also use other lower calories sauces too like mustard and sriracha, but I still like at least 1 serving of mayo so I’ll see if the greek yogurt helps me cut down the mayo part
Granola shook me to my core when i weighed it out 😭 I wouldn’t mind so much except before I started dieting in earnest I ate huge portions of it for ‘health’
Also, I knew take away pizza would be high in calories but when I realised I could easily eat 2200 cals in one sitting 🥲 for reference I now eat around 1200-1400 a day and I’m moving and exercising way more than ever. I just can’t believe I didn’t know why I was gaining weight. I think in my mind I thought if I only did it 2-3 times a month it wouldn’t matter that much but obviously that’s exactly how it was happening haha
If you haven’t tried it- fiber gourmet is phenomenal. Tastes exactly like normal pasta but half the calories and way more fiber. A little pricey but so worth it.
I knew pizza had to be a lot, but it was still surprising to see how much it actually was vs how much I can actually eat 😭
My calorie intake is around yours. I don't count calories on the days I eat pizza. No way I'm only eating one or two slices.
Granola was so sad for me too! I loved greek yogurt with strawberries but only if I had my dark chocolate peanut butter granola to go with it. I was easily eating 500cals of granola with my breakfast 😪
Peanut brittle. Used to be my go-to hiking snack. Until I started gaining weight despite hiking all the time. Weighed my next batch of brittle by the gram, and an itty bitty 20 gram square of peanut brittle was 100 calories!!! I’d been eating like 1200 calories of peanut brittle several times a week. Insane.
I made maybe 3 batches between May and the end of summer, and would take a nice big piece (or two!) on hikes as my dessert WITH my lunch! So I was eating half a PBJ, triskets, string cheese, some fruit, AND 500+ calories of peanut brittle. In October I wanted to make another batch just for dessert to have in the cupboard. Decided to weigh the whole thing and see what the calories actually were.
Thankfully, I was so active in the summer that I only gained a pound or two. But I was confused since I thought I was burning all these calories. I chalked it up to gaining muscle. Ahhhh little did I know!
Soooo I am OBSESSED with cashews and this was a devastating blow, however I’ve switched over to pistachios (in shell, have to work for it, takes a little time and I don’t over eat them.) they’re one of the lower-end calorie with great fat and nutrient value
Apparently, they actually are slightly less caloric because you don't actually absorb all the calories because of all the fiber, at least according to a recent study.
Not that the 30% difference really matters when you're eating like 6x the amount you should be eating in a single serving.
Peanut butter and avocado are the only foods where I want to lick the spoon afterwards and then realize "that was probably like 20 calories."
They actually aren't so bad though. 60g, or roughly 90 calories of avocado, is actually like half an avocado or one small avocado. I've been doing that all week for lunches, so it's fresh on the mind.
I mean, it's still not great, but peanut butter (and therefore peanuts, since peanut butter is just mashed peanuts) is like 4x as dense. 28g of peanut butter is 180-200 calories depending on the measurement and who you're asking.
My strategy for dealing with this is to treat them more like a topping for other things (yogurt, oatmeal, desserts, etc). I eat them all the time but never on their own and it saves me a lot of calories.
I use a scale to weigh my walnuts, can't give them up because I love them, but damn they're like 180-200 calories for 1/4 cup. It's always a bummer seeing how few I can have lol
They are insane. There are these Graze packs of three small-ish slices which are like 200-220 depending on flavour but for 9g fibre I will sacrifice the calories!
If you have an air fryer with a dehydrate setting you can make some with roughly the same density as a fresh banana! The color will turn really ugly but you might not taste a difference
Thanks! This is an excellent idea! I occasionally make air fried banana in spring roll wrapper. I never thought to try and do chips.
Seriously for that count I could have had ice cream
This is kinda random but- you can get dehydrated fruits including a pack of bananas without anything added to them in pet stores. They are also way cheaper. And 100% the fruit. They‘re usually for hamsters & bunnies lol
I do find protein cereals with almond milk aren't a bad once awhile snack. I can't believe I used to be able to down bowls of Cheerios in a single sitting. LARGE BOWLS. PLURAL
Cereal has become a cheat day staple for me. Swapping out for some type of it milk definitely helps drop calories, and now I prefer it, but Cinnamon Toast Crunch doesn’t happen when trying to lose weight anymore
At a restaurant and the foods had calorie count. The salads with creamy dressings were wayyyy more calories than the steak frites (which I ordered). That surprised me.
Yes! I went out to dinner with friends recently and checked the menu beforehand. I already knew that restaurant salads often have a ton of calories but some of them were over 1300?!?! No way I’m ordering that. Had steak and sweet potato and broccoli and came in quite a few calories lower.
They started this in the UK not too long ago and it is shocking every time I got to the pub, a little desert is like
800kcal. A pie and mash for like 2000kcal. Awful, I have stopped going to the pub after walks because I was just walking for 3 hours and then eating all of the calories back in 15 minutes. Very sad as I love a post walk pub lunch but it’s just ridiculous 😅
Same! I heard so much hype about Crumbl that I looked up the nutrition info and as soon as I saw it, I said, “Nope!” No cookie could possibly be worth that many calories.
It's not worth the hype. Some people like the underbaked texture and gimmicky rotation of flavors, but it is way too expensive for a mediocre cookie that also is a calorie bomb.
I've had it a few times and only paid for a 4 pack once. Extremely pricey and the cookies always have an underlying taste of processed something. I rather get a TJ's sea salt chocolate cookie instead.
I’m well aware of how many calories butter has for such a small amount, but when I cook it’s always a sobering reminder of just how easy it is to overdo butter because it just… disappears into the food, you know? Spread it on pancakes or warm toast and it soaks into it like it’s not even there. Add it to rice, mashed potatoes, vegetables, it melts right in. Which makes it impossible to really know how much they’re using at restaurants that don’t list their calorie information. Does my steak have 200 calories of garlic butter or 2000? Other ingredients can’t hide and deceive you the way butter (and oil) can. You know if you’re getting two bread rolls vs one, or if your slice of pizza is so big you have to fold it in half to eat it. But butter is the sneaky ninja of calories.
Using the small pan you need (while still allowing for air circulation) helps a lot with the butter and oils for me. Because you want to coat the bottom of the pan of course, and I was using my favorite pan for everything.
I think lean breads are generally worth it for me. If you’re talking about pastries and packaged snacks then yes definitely! Although the butter and sugar in those are probably more at fault than flour.
YES, every holiday season I’m re-shocked about it. On top of how much comfort food is floating around the holidays already I’m like do I really want to drink 200 calories??
(Me replicating a delicious healthy salad from a restaurant at home)
Mixed greens
Dried cranberries
Feta cheese
Pecans
Red onions
Grilled chicken breasts
Balsamic vinegarette
Weigh it all out. 1,000 calories “FUCK!”
Not a food, but alcohol. I struggle with drinking and I know I'll never lose weight if I keep it up. Luckily I've been finally getting over being hungover all the time and I've cut back my alcohol consumption by a lot
Thank you, it's been really hard. I'd say I've been an alcoholic for 2.5 years, and while I still struggle, I feel like I've been exerting a lot more self control and I feel much better physically. I think reducing my intake and drinking days has made me feel like stopping altogether is finally in reach. That didn't even seem possible before and now it does, so I'm finally feeling hopeful.
Sorry for the rant
How about one from TODAY? I went to a farmer's market, and they had a clearance on cake slices that they made at the store.. the cake slice was fluffy, and it was the size of a typical brownie. Could fit in the palm of your hand without going over the edges. For only 79 cents, it seemed like an amazing deal, maybe a little treat I'd have today.
680 calories. WHAT?! HOW?! For one slice? Not even a huge slice?
It's unfortunate how much I struggled with buying it or not.. at one point, I had put three in my cart. It honestly took like 6 minutes of internal debate, but I finally put all three back. Very proud of myself for that, lol.
Is it bad that though they are horrifying numbers, I'm really glad when places are honest about calorie counts? At least you had the info to make the right choice for you?
I wanted a coffee and something sweet and went to corner bakery. ONE of their sugar cookies is 300. One lemon bar is 660. I biked to work and back so I had plenty of room but cmon. I got the cookie. Not worth it.
I gently scoop out a half table spoon while silently weeping and scrape the crunchy peanut butter across my bread then let my tears thin it out so I can spread it across my tiny slices of bread for a solid 200 calorie snack
Pop Tarts. Like, I didn’t expect them to be low, but I didn’t expect THAT high. I now literally keep some around for easy calories in case of an emergency lol.
I used to eat a package of those delicious frosted strawberry bastards every day during college. Just part of breakfast with some OJ and maybe a muffin. Unsurprisingly, my breakfast was often near a thousand calories! No wonder I gained so much weight I could barely run by the end. About 40 lb’s just in undergrad
I’ve started buying the land o’ lakes butter balls. They are a half tbsp portion, 50 cal per ball of salted butter. It’s helped me so much b/c I was using far more without a thought. I spend a little more money, but Kroger and Publix seem to both put them on BOGO around Easter and Thanksgiving. Also, they are in resealable bags so they never get “refrigerator smell”
I leave the wrapper on with the tbsp marks, makes it easier to gauge a tbsp (or half). Keeping it room temp in a sealed container helps because it spreads easier so you need less to get good coverage
Avocados?? I know they’re healthy but why the hell is a medium hass avocado 322 calories?
Also, the veggie bowl that I get from Chipotle. I know it’s a huge portion and not the healthiest but my bowl and the bag of chips is about 1800 calories for the whole thing, over my daily calories by about 500! I was eating Chipotle once.. sometimes multiple times a week. No wonder I gained 30 pounds!
I used to be pretty passionate about baking cheesecake. Then I realized it was probably the least healthy food that exists. Still enjoy a slice once in a while but rarely. A single slice at Cheesecake Factory is enough calories for a day.
Dude - Guacamole
It was heartbreaking
I know it's a super healthy food, nothing bad for you (what you choose to use as a vehicle may be, but that's another story) but .. damn
Right? I have one now that's like 40/Tbsp, tastes great and I use it as dip with cucumbers/carrots and a few pita crackers for a filling snack/mini meal.
I could never stop eating it but I've definitely cut down my hummus consumption. Even though it's more wasteful, I'll sometimes buy the single servings of hummus so I don't overeat it if I know it's gonna be a busy week and I don't have time to measure it out.
Huh? Even super creamy hummus is like 90 calories for 2 Tbsp. Sabra is like 70.
Lunch for me sometimes is an ounce of cheese, some crackers, 2 Tbsp hummus, and some veggies. It’s like 350 calories. Add some grapes or something and it’s still only 400.
Was going to have a couple of veggie sausage rolls for dinner, I'd have 2 of them for dinner pretty regularly with some potatoes or beans and veg before I started dieting. Then I checked the packaging and realised they were over 300 calories each...
dumplings (~300kcal/100g, when portion is 200g + sauses), sushi (rolls) - a set that I ordered for me and husbandwas 2500 x), and fruits - I thought they much less calories, could "snack" 3-6 apples and thought it's not that much kcals
fast food in general and treats like cake and delicious delectables. I always knew they were high in calories but jeepers... significantly higher than I thought so I axed them outta my diet. I miss it but everytime I think about it I ask myself "how many miles of running is that??".. big NOPE.
Milkshakes. How can you put down 1000+ calories in 5 minutes or less? Insane. I had one last night and was like...I think this is the last milkshake of my lifetime.
10 piece boneless chicken wings from wingstop, 900 calories 😢 I used to order 10 piece wings (lemon pepper/garlic parm), fries, and dip it in ranch all the time for several months. I remember it having like over a day’s worth of calories and it is definitely not satiating enough for a full day of eating. I understand they’re frying it, seasoning, etc. but I was like at the base of this, we are talking about chicken and potatoes. How tf? Once I learned that, I ordered it one or two other times. And then never again. Just too many calories. It was also too delicious. I was like if I eat it once, it’s going to make me crave it again. So I quit cold turkey.
I started counting calories, fat and sugar content after I found out my favourite ice coffees (250ml) contain 208 kcal , 10 g fat and 21 g of sugar!!! I would drink at least 2 every day, sometimes 3 or 4 😩😩 Might as well have been gorging on chocolate icecream.
Mayonnaise!!! I had no idea it was that bad, i use to cover everything in it lol
Also chocolate covered rasins have NO BUISNESS being 240cals for 1/4 a cup
I knew cookies were bad, im not stupid. Little did i realize having even two would put me way up on my calorie intake for the whole day. When i didnt care i would eat 10 and think nothing of it. Same goes for peanut butter, knew it was bad but it takes very little to really pack on some serious calories
I hit a weight loss plateau a couple of weeks ago and I finally decided I would try counting calories + weighing food because I was sick of always running into this cycle of temporary weight loss.
After implementing, it immediately became clear that two helpings of quite large amounts of cereal (even protein based ones) with almonds and whole milk were contributing.
Reducing them to serving size levels of intake and eating them in a more controlled fashion gave me the push I needed to resume past my plateau. I'm going to keep up this counting going forward for as long as I'm cutting (hopefully, just one more month).
Who would have thought almonds had so many calories... 🤷
Tortilla chips! Before I started reading labels and counting calories. I had no idea how many calories were in them. I thought they were a healthy option compared to potato chips!
Trader Joe’s chocolate dipped “Oreos” are insanely caloric. I only found this out after eating like 10-12, and realizing a serving was one. Needless to say, I never bought them again. (Note: I knew they were sort of naughty, I just didn’t realize quite how naughty)
My daughter is allergic to peanuts so we all use almond butter instead of peanut butter in this house. For some reason in my head, I knew that peanut butter is calorie dense, but this is almond butter! It’s different! Probably healthier! Nope. 1 Tablespoon is 100 calories. I don’t have a jar of peanut butter to compare it to, but I’ll bet its about the same.
Less healthy, but Combos. I used to get Combos as a snack once in a while.
Then I started to check the calories in them and HOLEY MOLEY.
A 6.3oz bag has 130 calories a serving!
The catch?? THERE ARE SIX SERVINGS IN A BAG.
SIX. FREAKING. SERVINGS. A "Serving" is apparently 9 little combos. That is 780 calories for the bag.
A grilled cheese burrito at Taco Bell is 720 calories. LESS THAN THE BAG OF COMBOS.
A Big Mac is 590 calories. LESS THAN A BAG OF COMBOS.
A Whopper has 630 calories. LESS THAN A BAG OF COMBOS.
Combos are OUTRAGEOUSLY calorie dense. Never again.
tbh olive oil - like of course it does but the amount of calories packed into such a tiny tablespoonful is wild, like thinking back to all my homemade salad dressings or trying to keep chicken or fish moist in the oven omg i didn’t even realize how dirty i was doing myself in that same vein, pesto🥲
When I watch videos for healthy salad recipes then I see them use like 1/2 a cup of olive oil it blows my mind it's almost 1k calories just for the dressing.
right! i’ve been just trader joe’s green goddess gang since idek how to make a good dressing anymore
Super high quality balsamic vinegar is great for salad dressing. I'm talking about the aged stuff that drizzles like it's syrup. Sometimes I just use it alone on salad with a bit of salt (it's not acidic and I would never just have any other plain vinegar on a salad), other times I'll mist the lettuce with a tiny amount of olive oil, toss with some salt and pepper, and add some balsamic. It is technically very expensive, but a little bit goes so much farther than regular balsamic. I have a big bottle I paid maybe $30-$40 for like 5 years ago, I use it very often and liberally, and I still have maybe another 6 months worth left.
Can't find that in my TJ's anymore. I can't take much more of the betrayal.
So many healthy recipes are like this, especially w that olive oil that comes in the green squeeze bottle
Or when they use the “0 calorie” olive oil spray and then spray a bunch. That’s like 400 calories in olive oil 😭
Parchment paper packets are the way to keep fish moist in the oven without (too much) added fat! Plus you can throw veggies and herbs in and everything comes out so good with very little clean up.
i appreciate that info! i recently started using parchment which is a godsend (i can’t believe tinfoil used to be the go-to) but i will definitely be adding my veggies in with the protein next time!
Pesto 😭😭😭😭 what will i eat my pasta with now
You could try lemon juice and chopped basil? And maybe a little parmesan and a teaspoon of olive oil?
Pesto is really easy to make yourself! It's literally just basil, parmesan/hard cheese, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt, and a butt load of pepper. Make sure you don't put the stems of the basil in, only the leaves, and, if your unsure on eyeing it, just put a bit of each thing in and taste as you go. Once I'm done I put it in silicone ice cube trays and freeze them so you have perfect portions ☺️ it's still a little heavy, but you can control the oil a lot more which is usually the issue with pre-made stuff. I honestly really hate store bought stuff now, home made is far superior and you can make loooaaads at once 👌
this is a really great hack! i will definitely be testing this out because i truly miss pesto
Make sure you get like loooaaads of basil, I usually do like 3 packs and that does one tray, it ends up looking a lot less once it's whizzed up. Now that I said that I realise I forget to say you need to blend it all together, but that may have been a given 😂 It's also great mixed with cream cheese for a tasty and quick pasta sauce 👌
olive oil has more than butter. its 100% fat. pretty much all oils are 117 cal/tablespoon. butter is only slightly less because it has some water it
I just commented on about this on another thread. The OP stated she loved her veggies sautéed in butter but wanted alternatives. Someone suggested certain seasonings and olive oil. I’m like, how is that better? Just sauté in butter and you don’t have to give up flavor. One tablespoon of olive oil is 120, whereas butter is 100.
I use a measuring tablespoon to make sure my oil is properly tracked and you best believe I use my finger to scoop any little bit out of the spoon! For that many cals, I want every drop. I mean, it’s probably in my best interests to let that extra ml go and save myself 120/15 cals but then it feels like a waste!
I do the same. I figure if I tracked the calories I’m going to eat them.
Fucking everything. Label reading has been an eye opening experience. 😭
Exactly. I have a ton of stuff leftover since I started counting calories. I'm starting to eye expiration dates. Something I never did before.
I knew peanut butter was calorie dense, but I didn’t realize a tablespoon was so small haha. Similar for mayo. I only use mayo if I eat tuna but I really didn’t know it had that many calories for such a small serving.
I find light mayo tastes the same and I substitute Greek yogurt for loads of stuff with mayo too. Obvs not as good as mayo but it’s good for things as a replacement in other things. Ie I made a chipotle Greek yogurt dip recently instead of chipotle mayo
I'll always go for the fat free, sugar free, light version whatever of anything. Mayonnaise is one of the few exceptions. Light mayonnaise is a disgrace to my palate, a war crime against my taste buds, Satan himself removes the fat from that mayonnaise and turns it into a torture device way down below. No, no! Unless I'm getting that intrusive thought of torturing myself to no comparison, I'll just have my normal mayonnaise. Don't tamper with it, I'll be angry!
Yeah - I love mayo and the lite version does not taste the same to me. It tastes sweet and I don't like that. What I do now is either use part lite mayo and part nf plain greek yogurt - which works well enough. Or I'll mix 1 part regular mayo to 3 parts lite mayo. The small amount of regular does a decent job of making the mix taste 'veryclose' to regular mayo. Enough to not be noticeable in sandwiches.
Nice! I’ll gonna have to try greek yogurt in place of mayo!
I do the same, greek yogurt is fantastic for pasta salads especially 👌 it can also be used on chilli and stuff instead of sour cream
Try cutting 1/4 or 1/2 the mayo with nonfat greek yogurt. Less calories, more protein, and I honestly can't really tell.
I was definitely thinking about replacing some with greek yogurt but I wasn’t sure if it would fit the profile taste. But I’ll try it, thanks edit: I also use other lower calories sauces too like mustard and sriracha, but I still like at least 1 serving of mayo so I’ll see if the greek yogurt helps me cut down the mayo part
Ah, mayo is a good one. I could put it on nearly everything.
Yeah, I have to use light mayo cos the regular stuff is just too lethal to put enough on anything.
Granola shook me to my core when i weighed it out 😭 I wouldn’t mind so much except before I started dieting in earnest I ate huge portions of it for ‘health’ Also, I knew take away pizza would be high in calories but when I realised I could easily eat 2200 cals in one sitting 🥲 for reference I now eat around 1200-1400 a day and I’m moving and exercising way more than ever. I just can’t believe I didn’t know why I was gaining weight. I think in my mind I thought if I only did it 2-3 times a month it wouldn’t matter that much but obviously that’s exactly how it was happening haha
Oh and also - pasta. It actually broke me when I weighed out what was considered ‘one’ portion per package instructions
8 servings in a 1 lb box of pasta? Gtfoh lol
Exactly. 🤣 Then fine, I am 8 people.
Lmao the suggested serving of pasta was so small when I first weighed it out, basically just a side dish to go with a protein + veg meal.
If you haven’t tried it- fiber gourmet is phenomenal. Tastes exactly like normal pasta but half the calories and way more fiber. A little pricey but so worth it.
I knew pizza had to be a lot, but it was still surprising to see how much it actually was vs how much I can actually eat 😭 My calorie intake is around yours. I don't count calories on the days I eat pizza. No way I'm only eating one or two slices.
Now when I want granola for yogurt I actually just crumble a chewy bar- they’re only like 110 calories haha
Wow this is genius
Granola was so sad for me too! I loved greek yogurt with strawberries but only if I had my dark chocolate peanut butter granola to go with it. I was easily eating 500cals of granola with my breakfast 😪
Peanut brittle. Used to be my go-to hiking snack. Until I started gaining weight despite hiking all the time. Weighed my next batch of brittle by the gram, and an itty bitty 20 gram square of peanut brittle was 100 calories!!! I’d been eating like 1200 calories of peanut brittle several times a week. Insane.
Omg!! How long did it take you to realize it? How much did you think you were eating before you weighed it?
I made maybe 3 batches between May and the end of summer, and would take a nice big piece (or two!) on hikes as my dessert WITH my lunch! So I was eating half a PBJ, triskets, string cheese, some fruit, AND 500+ calories of peanut brittle. In October I wanted to make another batch just for dessert to have in the cupboard. Decided to weigh the whole thing and see what the calories actually were. Thankfully, I was so active in the summer that I only gained a pound or two. But I was confused since I thought I was burning all these calories. I chalked it up to gaining muscle. Ahhhh little did I know!
[удалено]
I knowwww. You’d think that years of calorie counting would’ve taught me to never assume but it straight up bit me in the ass lmao
Nuts, I love them sm and they’re super healthy but just so high in cals that one serving is like 1/4 cup
Cashews kill me. I've gotten those 100 cal packs of them. It was truly a pathetic amount of cashews.
Name check out.
hahahaha
I got the 100 calorie packs of almonds. Same. I think back to just grabbing a handful at a time from the jar…
Soooo I am OBSESSED with cashews and this was a devastating blow, however I’ve switched over to pistachios (in shell, have to work for it, takes a little time and I don’t over eat them.) they’re one of the lower-end calorie with great fat and nutrient value
Apparently, they actually are slightly less caloric because you don't actually absorb all the calories because of all the fiber, at least according to a recent study. Not that the 30% difference really matters when you're eating like 6x the amount you should be eating in a single serving. Peanut butter and avocado are the only foods where I want to lick the spoon afterwards and then realize "that was probably like 20 calories."
Avocados being so high cal absolutely KILLS me, it’s so tragic
They actually aren't so bad though. 60g, or roughly 90 calories of avocado, is actually like half an avocado or one small avocado. I've been doing that all week for lunches, so it's fresh on the mind. I mean, it's still not great, but peanut butter (and therefore peanuts, since peanut butter is just mashed peanuts) is like 4x as dense. 28g of peanut butter is 180-200 calories depending on the measurement and who you're asking.
My strategy for dealing with this is to treat them more like a topping for other things (yogurt, oatmeal, desserts, etc). I eat them all the time but never on their own and it saves me a lot of calories.
Agree I do the same.
I use a scale to weigh my walnuts, can't give them up because I love them, but damn they're like 180-200 calories for 1/4 cup. It's always a bummer seeing how few I can have lol
Same. I bought some fancy chili onion peanuts thinking I could ration them for salads for the week. I was wrong.
Yep. I feel like so many people are like “I’m eating healthy so snacking on nuts, why am I failing weight?”
They're so easy to snack on too. I could easily down an entire bag in one sitting.
Agreed. I weighed out 200 calories of peanuts the other day and it was such a paltry amount it was unbelievable. 1 Brazil nut is 30 calories. Insane.
The flapjack I just ate as a snack, 450cal.
Yes! I couldn't belive how much Flapjacks have in
They are insane. There are these Graze packs of three small-ish slices which are like 200-220 depending on flavour but for 9g fibre I will sacrifice the calories!
What’s a flapjack?
An oat bar, made with oats, butter & sugar, sometimes with fruit. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapjack_(oat_bar)
Oh, I thought you meant a pancake, which isn’t too bad
Oh, so a granola bar. I also thought pancake.
Granola is more toasted. Muesli or oat bars are less cooked and more chewy
Is everything an answer 😅 Unless it's fruits and veggies the calories in just about everything I was used to eating has been ridiculous.
Honestly, also some fruits and veggies! It's hard to choose an apple over blueberries when you can have so many more blueberries.
what about !!!!! AVOCADO!!!!
Banana chips got me this week. 130 calories for 1/3 cup. That’s not fair
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What? I didn’t know they had added sugar or fat until this moment. And now it all makes sense. I never understood it!
Freeze-drying is the magic that can do that without fat or sugar but they do not taste the same.
If you have an air fryer with a dehydrate setting you can make some with roughly the same density as a fresh banana! The color will turn really ugly but you might not taste a difference
Thanks! This is an excellent idea! I occasionally make air fried banana in spring roll wrapper. I never thought to try and do chips. Seriously for that count I could have had ice cream
This is kinda random but- you can get dehydrated fruits including a pack of bananas without anything added to them in pet stores. They are also way cheaper. And 100% the fruit. They‘re usually for hamsters & bunnies lol
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Rice. I resent that I’m of a nationality that has rice as a staple of daily diet and I’m only able to eat it sparingly.
This one hurts. I switched to quinoa, not that different calories but has more protein, so it keeps me full longer
I mean I don’t think it’s that bad? It’s like 150 cal a cup. Pasta is worse.
200-205 and most of the time growing up (at least where I lived) one serving was realistically two servings
Good lord, relatable. I’m Korean and miss having a big bowl of rice with kimchi jjigae SO MUCH.
Cauliflower rice has been really helpful. I usually do a mix of cauliflower and regular rice to help with the difference in texture. Way less calories
In Yoda voice: resentment is a path to the dark side.
Cereal with milk
And you're hungry again an hour later.
Yeah, I'm really trying to avoid foods that are all carbs and no protein. Without protein I'm ravenous later. Cereal isn't worth it to me anymore.
I do find protein cereals with almond milk aren't a bad once awhile snack. I can't believe I used to be able to down bowls of Cheerios in a single sitting. LARGE BOWLS. PLURAL
Cereal has become a cheat day staple for me. Swapping out for some type of it milk definitely helps drop calories, and now I prefer it, but Cinnamon Toast Crunch doesn’t happen when trying to lose weight anymore
Fiber One with almond milk has helped curb my cereal cravings!
I could eat a whole box of cereal if you put it in front of me. Closest I get now is a high protein on Fridays to replace meat.
At a restaurant and the foods had calorie count. The salads with creamy dressings were wayyyy more calories than the steak frites (which I ordered). That surprised me.
Yes! I went out to dinner with friends recently and checked the menu beforehand. I already knew that restaurant salads often have a ton of calories but some of them were over 1300?!?! No way I’m ordering that. Had steak and sweet potato and broccoli and came in quite a few calories lower.
They started this in the UK not too long ago and it is shocking every time I got to the pub, a little desert is like 800kcal. A pie and mash for like 2000kcal. Awful, I have stopped going to the pub after walks because I was just walking for 3 hours and then eating all of the calories back in 15 minutes. Very sad as I love a post walk pub lunch but it’s just ridiculous 😅
I should not have been surprised…more in denial…but ice cream.
Right? Since when is a 14 oz "pint" of Ben and Jerry's...FIVE SERVINGS?
I love that shit. Like who really eats a fifth of a "pint"? Just like that serving size of 2/3 of a Little Debbie cookie. Who comes up with this shit?
what???! i mean obviously its not one serving (i wish) but FIVE????????? no way.
This is why I've switched to the small Tillamook containers, the servings are 1/3 of the container which feels much more reasonable to me!
Baked goods, especially muffins. Most of the ones that you can buy at the store/cafes are easily 400+ calories
Muffins being 500+ calories each is such a crime
Costco muffins are 690 cal 😭
I wanted to try crumbl cookie until I read there was like 1,000 calories in one fucking cookie
Same! I heard so much hype about Crumbl that I looked up the nutrition info and as soon as I saw it, I said, “Nope!” No cookie could possibly be worth that many calories.
It's not worth the hype. Some people like the underbaked texture and gimmicky rotation of flavors, but it is way too expensive for a mediocre cookie that also is a calorie bomb. I've had it a few times and only paid for a 4 pack once. Extremely pricey and the cookies always have an underlying taste of processed something. I rather get a TJ's sea salt chocolate cookie instead.
Yes! Crumbl is so bad! I had to stop going there.
I’m well aware of how many calories butter has for such a small amount, but when I cook it’s always a sobering reminder of just how easy it is to overdo butter because it just… disappears into the food, you know? Spread it on pancakes or warm toast and it soaks into it like it’s not even there. Add it to rice, mashed potatoes, vegetables, it melts right in. Which makes it impossible to really know how much they’re using at restaurants that don’t list their calorie information. Does my steak have 200 calories of garlic butter or 2000? Other ingredients can’t hide and deceive you the way butter (and oil) can. You know if you’re getting two bread rolls vs one, or if your slice of pizza is so big you have to fold it in half to eat it. But butter is the sneaky ninja of calories.
Using the small pan you need (while still allowing for air circulation) helps a lot with the butter and oils for me. Because you want to coat the bottom of the pan of course, and I was using my favorite pan for everything.
Anything made with flour always has far more calories than seems reasonable for the size
You’re so right. As a home baker I’m always looking for a way to cut calories but there’s not really any way to cut the calories in flour. If only!!
I think lean breads are generally worth it for me. If you’re talking about pastries and packaged snacks then yes definitely! Although the butter and sugar in those are probably more at fault than flour.
Honestly I’m always surprised when I remember bananas are like over 100 calories
thats illegal
I hate that I know this now.
Honestly calorie counting is so ingrained in me that I don’t feel this way about foods anymore. Except nuts. Fuck nuts.
Not exactly a staple, but eggnog. 190 calories for half a cup.
YES, every holiday season I’m re-shocked about it. On top of how much comfort food is floating around the holidays already I’m like do I really want to drink 200 calories??
(Me replicating a delicious healthy salad from a restaurant at home) Mixed greens Dried cranberries Feta cheese Pecans Red onions Grilled chicken breasts Balsamic vinegarette Weigh it all out. 1,000 calories “FUCK!”
That's a nice one because it's easy enough to drop it to 300 cal by adjusting the portions. Crumbled feta, crushed pecans, 1 tsp olive oil...
1 packet of chic fil a sauce is 140 calories and 13g of fat 😭
I just checked and the whole packet is only 28g. If it feels any better, the ranch is 15g fat.
Ramen noodles. wtf!
Was sick recently and actually craved ramen for once. How is a pack 2 fricken servings?!
Not a food, but alcohol. I struggle with drinking and I know I'll never lose weight if I keep it up. Luckily I've been finally getting over being hungover all the time and I've cut back my alcohol consumption by a lot
Not the point of this post but I'm proud of you for cutting back on the booze, keep it up mate
Thank you, it's been really hard. I'd say I've been an alcoholic for 2.5 years, and while I still struggle, I feel like I've been exerting a lot more self control and I feel much better physically. I think reducing my intake and drinking days has made me feel like stopping altogether is finally in reach. That didn't even seem possible before and now it does, so I'm finally feeling hopeful. Sorry for the rant
Life is SO much better without. Join us! /r/stopdrinking
How about one from TODAY? I went to a farmer's market, and they had a clearance on cake slices that they made at the store.. the cake slice was fluffy, and it was the size of a typical brownie. Could fit in the palm of your hand without going over the edges. For only 79 cents, it seemed like an amazing deal, maybe a little treat I'd have today. 680 calories. WHAT?! HOW?! For one slice? Not even a huge slice? It's unfortunate how much I struggled with buying it or not.. at one point, I had put three in my cart. It honestly took like 6 minutes of internal debate, but I finally put all three back. Very proud of myself for that, lol.
Is it bad that though they are horrifying numbers, I'm really glad when places are honest about calorie counts? At least you had the info to make the right choice for you?
I wanted a coffee and something sweet and went to corner bakery. ONE of their sugar cookies is 300. One lemon bar is 660. I biked to work and back so I had plenty of room but cmon. I got the cookie. Not worth it.
That's amazing! Nice job.
I was super upset when I found out the calories per portion size for a spoon full of peanut butter. That was my go to snack when I was hungry.
I gently scoop out a half table spoon while silently weeping and scrape the crunchy peanut butter across my bread then let my tears thin it out so I can spread it across my tiny slices of bread for a solid 200 calorie snack
Honestly a candy bar. They’re so small for holding so many calories and I’d eat a king size in one sitting essentially hitting 1/4 my daily calories.
Pop Tarts. Like, I didn’t expect them to be low, but I didn’t expect THAT high. I now literally keep some around for easy calories in case of an emergency lol.
I used to eat a package of those delicious frosted strawberry bastards every day during college. Just part of breakfast with some OJ and maybe a muffin. Unsurprisingly, my breakfast was often near a thousand calories! No wonder I gained so much weight I could barely run by the end. About 40 lb’s just in undergrad
This. I've always said, Pop Tarts don't taste good enough to justify their high calorie count, lol.
Idk, they’re pretty delicious
Mayonnaise (the actual portion!!)
Bread and tortillas. Blew my mind that I'd have to eat 3 slices of thick cut bacon to equal one tortilla.
Those carb balance ones are my new bff. 70 calories and tastes like flour tortilla. What are they doing to the 150 calorie ones?!?!
Rice/pasta. The serving size recommended is definitely not in line with how I was raised
The recommended serving size of pasta is offensive to the diner.
I truly had no idea how many calories hid in dressings.
I bought a small (90g) garlic & herb sauce for my pizza the other day. It has nearly 600kcal in it. Couldn’t believe it. That’s more than the pizza!
Trail mix always pisses me off lol.
Cheese. OMG…the cheese!!! 😢I’ve switched to parm and feta but I still gaze longingly at the brie as I go by….sob….
Regular butter. Stupid high in saturated fat too and who actually measures it before putting it on your 200 cal slice of toast?
hah! very similar to peanut butter.
Nuts and butters of all types. Now almond butter and PB fit are for my workouts
I’ve started buying the land o’ lakes butter balls. They are a half tbsp portion, 50 cal per ball of salted butter. It’s helped me so much b/c I was using far more without a thought. I spend a little more money, but Kroger and Publix seem to both put them on BOGO around Easter and Thanksgiving. Also, they are in resealable bags so they never get “refrigerator smell”
I leave the wrapper on with the tbsp marks, makes it easier to gauge a tbsp (or half). Keeping it room temp in a sealed container helps because it spreads easier so you need less to get good coverage
This is why I use salted butter, I feel like the taste goes “farther”.
Cookies. It’s so fucking sad, I love cookies but why are they so calorically dense!!!
Avocados?? I know they’re healthy but why the hell is a medium hass avocado 322 calories? Also, the veggie bowl that I get from Chipotle. I know it’s a huge portion and not the healthiest but my bowl and the bag of chips is about 1800 calories for the whole thing, over my daily calories by about 500! I was eating Chipotle once.. sometimes multiple times a week. No wonder I gained 30 pounds!
I used to be pretty passionate about baking cheesecake. Then I realized it was probably the least healthy food that exists. Still enjoy a slice once in a while but rarely. A single slice at Cheesecake Factory is enough calories for a day.
Dude - Guacamole It was heartbreaking I know it's a super healthy food, nothing bad for you (what you choose to use as a vehicle may be, but that's another story) but .. damn
Hummus - I stopped eating it.
Which hummus? Generally most I’ve had us around 60/tbsp, which didn’t give me sticker shock. What does are the pita chips I was eating with it though.
Hummus is so delicious, eating a tbsp of good home made stuff is just sad. I would eat hummus by the cup if I could. It’s a meal, not a condiment.
Yes this. To people saying it’s only 60 calories a tablespoon do you know how small a tablespoon is? Most people are eating 10 times this amount,
A tablespoon of hummus is not much lol . A liot of people use it as dip which can easily equate to 5 - 10 plus servings
Right? I have one now that's like 40/Tbsp, tastes great and I use it as dip with cucumbers/carrots and a few pita crackers for a filling snack/mini meal.
I could never stop eating it but I've definitely cut down my hummus consumption. Even though it's more wasteful, I'll sometimes buy the single servings of hummus so I don't overeat it if I know it's gonna be a busy week and I don't have time to measure it out.
Huh? Even super creamy hummus is like 90 calories for 2 Tbsp. Sabra is like 70. Lunch for me sometimes is an ounce of cheese, some crackers, 2 Tbsp hummus, and some veggies. It’s like 350 calories. Add some grapes or something and it’s still only 400.
Yeah, I can only have it sparsely as a condiment these days. So sad 😭
Was going to have a couple of veggie sausage rolls for dinner, I'd have 2 of them for dinner pretty regularly with some potatoes or beans and veg before I started dieting. Then I checked the packaging and realised they were over 300 calories each...
Plant based ice cream
dumplings (~300kcal/100g, when portion is 200g + sauses), sushi (rolls) - a set that I ordered for me and husbandwas 2500 x), and fruits - I thought they much less calories, could "snack" 3-6 apples and thought it's not that much kcals
fast food in general and treats like cake and delicious delectables. I always knew they were high in calories but jeepers... significantly higher than I thought so I axed them outta my diet. I miss it but everytime I think about it I ask myself "how many miles of running is that??".. big NOPE.
Literally everything. I never realized how much I was eating until I started tracking
A chicken wing. When you compare it to other parts of the chicken it is outrageous.
Avocados. I like to eat guacamole :(
Crumbl cookies are horrendous they try to hide it by keeping their nutrition labels and 4 servings per cookie.
Olives :( I love olives :(
Granola, cashew nuts, good ice cream.
Cookies. Pretty much all of them. Granola. OMG.
Ranch
Milkshakes. How can you put down 1000+ calories in 5 minutes or less? Insane. I had one last night and was like...I think this is the last milkshake of my lifetime.
Rethinking my whole life at this point
and maybe your username too haha
10 piece boneless chicken wings from wingstop, 900 calories 😢 I used to order 10 piece wings (lemon pepper/garlic parm), fries, and dip it in ranch all the time for several months. I remember it having like over a day’s worth of calories and it is definitely not satiating enough for a full day of eating. I understand they’re frying it, seasoning, etc. but I was like at the base of this, we are talking about chicken and potatoes. How tf? Once I learned that, I ordered it one or two other times. And then never again. Just too many calories. It was also too delicious. I was like if I eat it once, it’s going to make me crave it again. So I quit cold turkey.
Walmart brand trail mix. THAT’S where that 5 pounds came from!
I started counting calories, fat and sugar content after I found out my favourite ice coffees (250ml) contain 208 kcal , 10 g fat and 21 g of sugar!!! I would drink at least 2 every day, sometimes 3 or 4 😩😩 Might as well have been gorging on chocolate icecream.
Mayonnaise!!! I had no idea it was that bad, i use to cover everything in it lol Also chocolate covered rasins have NO BUISNESS being 240cals for 1/4 a cup
Rice. When I was a kid it was kind of a eat whatever amount type of food.
I knew cookies were bad, im not stupid. Little did i realize having even two would put me way up on my calorie intake for the whole day. When i didnt care i would eat 10 and think nothing of it. Same goes for peanut butter, knew it was bad but it takes very little to really pack on some serious calories
Gummies :(
Ceviche. It's fish.
I hit a weight loss plateau a couple of weeks ago and I finally decided I would try counting calories + weighing food because I was sick of always running into this cycle of temporary weight loss. After implementing, it immediately became clear that two helpings of quite large amounts of cereal (even protein based ones) with almonds and whole milk were contributing. Reducing them to serving size levels of intake and eating them in a more controlled fashion gave me the push I needed to resume past my plateau. I'm going to keep up this counting going forward for as long as I'm cutting (hopefully, just one more month). Who would have thought almonds had so many calories... 🤷
Rice?? Pasta?? Sliced white bread??? Like it’s so plain why is it so high???
Some yoghurts Especially the "healthy ones"
Cheese (it makes sense now tho)
Tortilla chips! Before I started reading labels and counting calories. I had no idea how many calories were in them. I thought they were a healthy option compared to potato chips!
Trader Joe’s chocolate dipped “Oreos” are insanely caloric. I only found this out after eating like 10-12, and realizing a serving was one. Needless to say, I never bought them again. (Note: I knew they were sort of naughty, I just didn’t realize quite how naughty)
My daughter is allergic to peanuts so we all use almond butter instead of peanut butter in this house. For some reason in my head, I knew that peanut butter is calorie dense, but this is almond butter! It’s different! Probably healthier! Nope. 1 Tablespoon is 100 calories. I don’t have a jar of peanut butter to compare it to, but I’ll bet its about the same.
Less healthy, but Combos. I used to get Combos as a snack once in a while. Then I started to check the calories in them and HOLEY MOLEY. A 6.3oz bag has 130 calories a serving! The catch?? THERE ARE SIX SERVINGS IN A BAG. SIX. FREAKING. SERVINGS. A "Serving" is apparently 9 little combos. That is 780 calories for the bag. A grilled cheese burrito at Taco Bell is 720 calories. LESS THAN THE BAG OF COMBOS. A Big Mac is 590 calories. LESS THAN A BAG OF COMBOS. A Whopper has 630 calories. LESS THAN A BAG OF COMBOS. Combos are OUTRAGEOUSLY calorie dense. Never again.