Today I went to Panera for lunch. I knew it would be more than my usual calories, but... here is what I found out AFTER I had eaten:

Asiago Roast Beef Sandwich (whole)
700 calories
fat cals 280 (31 g)
sodium 1,300 mg
carbs 56 g
protein 48 g

That means I'm done for the day, calorie-wise! Of course, I can't go the rest of the day without eating at all... so I went to the fitness center and got me enough worked-off calories for maybe some yogurt...

Now, here's the even sadder part:

McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese:
740 calories
fat cals 380 (42 g)
sodium 1,380
carbs 40 g
protein 48 g

I'm not saying they are even--I still am glad that I had less fat in the Panera sandwich, and I think that had more nutritional value (although I'm not sure). But what I am saying is, they aren't that different! This was definitely not a matter of making a better choice.

Shoulda checked before I went... I should know better by now...

Jay

I LOVE Panera...I always get the Chicken Tomesto whole sandwich and eat it open face...which by my calculations (took the info for the whole sandwich minus the slice of bread) comes out to about 480 cals, 15 fat, 51 carb, 35 protein. I get the apple (which are always very small) and call it a meal.

I've had this sandwich at a business meeting (we didn't really have a choice...it was that or not eating). It was good, but THAT good? Nuh uh.

Now you know!

What is even sadder is their turkey sandwich on the same exact bread is 900 calories. I found that one day. Funny that the roast beef has less calories than the turkey.

These days my choice is half the Mediterranean veggie minus the feta (it is 300 with the feta so without ??) and black bean soup (160 calories) so around 400 calories total. I usually get an apple but I don't always eat the apple.

I used to work at Panera in high school. We used to have a version of the tomato mozzarella salad that was over 2000 calories. Yes, OVER 2000 calories. In a SALAD. They've since changed the recipe, but that always shocked me at the time. I have to admit though, some days we'd have little itty bitty teeny tiny girls come in, and while waiting in line, complain to their friends about how fat they were, and how they were just going to get a salad. Always made me chuckle with glee as they chose the tomato mozzarella If I was feeling generous I sometimes mentioned it, but on days when I was just sick of working and in a bad mood, I said nothing. Hey, they didn't ASK me about the fat/calorie content!

It's not always possible, but when I know I'm going out to eat or picking something up, I try to look up the menus online and figure it out before I go. Or at least get a general idea. I had a similar experience at Cosi last week when I didn't do that and then got some sandwich that was WAY more calories than I bargained for!

It really can be astounding. My husband likes that roast beef sandwich at Panera, but now he always gets it without the horseradish mayo, and I figure he's knocking off 100 calories that way at least...

I like their salmon salad (I get it with dressing on the side and use very little). this summer they had a great salad with chicken and berries...

I like the black bean soup, but my downfall there is the side of whole grain bagette!

SceneStealer, 2000 cals??? Yes, I learned awhile back that "just a salad" can be a dangerous idea.

My snack in the evening was a lowfat string cheese and 5 baby carrots. Fortunately lunch was late in the day, so I wasn't very hungry.

Total cals for the day was 1,544--more than I would have liked, but not a disaster after all. I still had a calorie deficit for the day.

Heather, I think the horseradish mayo is the best part... naturally... But next time I won't be so blithely ignorant!

Those little apples are great, though.

Jay

Yeah, hubby says the same thing about the horseradish mayo!

I believe the asiago roast beef is served with... cheddar? If you can keep the cheese off, and then maybe even switch the bread to ciabatta instead of the three cheese demi, that would more than make up for the horseradish sauce.

(Note: haven't worked there in about four years, so my knowledge of what components are in each of their sandwiches may be completely wrong)

I think it is really the bread that is a killer with that sandwich. I order it for my FIL with sourdough bread instead and that knocks like 300 calories off the sandwich.

oh, guys! you just got me hungry!! too much yummy bread talk.
That being said, I dont know why on earth I love sandwitches so much!! I could eat them all day. Lately, to save calories, I just put 1 bread, mustard, turkey and a little bit of cheese as spread out as I can. Its less than 200 cals! AAND saves me from a carb binge. god bless sandwitches!!

I need to figure out some good Panera Bread choices, guess I should study up on the web site. They're building one within walking distance of where I work, scheduled to open in a week or two, and I'll need to go check it out.

Luckily, when the weather gets cooler (I live in Georgia, we don't really get cold, per se) I like soups, and black bean soup or veggie is probably not that bad. And I'll have to study the "just a salads" to see which one I can get half of, for soup and salad.

P.S. And I used to loooove the mozzarella tomato salad at Panera Bread. It wasn't 2000 calories when I had it, but I believe it did have a four-digit calorie count, or close to it. Only had it a few times. Tons of mozzarella and lots of virgin olive oil were the culprits. But hey, the tomatoes were healthy.

Most of the salads are okay if you skip the cheese and maybe the dressing (depending on the dressing). The croutons are also really bad. To make them, we took three cheese bread (one of the least healthy breads), chop it up, put it in a bin, and then pour this huge jug of oil and spices into the whole thing. Even after they come out of the oven, a lot of them croutons were still mushy instead of crispy, because they had literally been SOAKED in oil. However, when they're on a salad with dressing or in the french onion soup, you can't even tell how oily they are, and the oil and spices definitely tastes good.

Basically what I'm saying is, avoid the caesar salad, which has all of the above ingredients

can you recommend some healthy panera alternatives? i went there a lot before i started counting calories.. to think some of my meals were probably a whole days worth kills me! also, when you get the wheat bread as a side, how big of a portion/ounces is that? it lists the whole grain baguette on here, for 130 calories for 2 oz.. is that the size of the side piece?

I wasn't really watching my weight too much when I used to work there, but in general the low fat soups (chicken noodle, black bean) weren't too bad calorie-wise, if I remember correctly. Your best bet for figuring stuff out is definitely their website.

The baguettes are cut fairly imprecisely - they're done by hand. When I used to do them, I was just supposed to cut them evenly into however many pieces (I think it was 5), but it was never really exact.