I know I've seen topics asking how restaurant salads manage to be so high in calories. My eyes about popped out of my head when I saw the Macaroni Grill Seared Scallop Salad is 1320 calories with 91 grams of fat. Kind of hard to fit that into a 1400 - 1600 calorie day.

So at first I figured it must be the dressing. A .85 cup of generic salad dressing in Fitday is 923 calories and 91 grams of fat. Yes, that must be it. But I didn't think there was almost a cup of dressing and next time I'll order the dressing on the side and I'll be fine.

Nope. There's a listing for the salad without dressing at 1050 calories and 68 grams of fat. That makes the dressing 170 calories and 23 grams of fat. Bad but believable. Two and a half Tablespoons of Fitday's generic salad dressing is 169 calories and 17 grams of fat so that makes sense.

OKay so where are the calories?

2 cups spinach 13 calories, 0 grams of fat
2 cups arugula 19 calories, 0 grams of fat
1 oz walnuts (14 halves) 185 calories, 18 grams of fat
Feta cheese - didn't think there was much in there, don't think there was a cubic inch, but let's use that for a measurement 45 calories, 4 grams of fat
Prosciutto - This was a garnish and I know it's extremely expensive so I'm thinking they didn't use much. I calculated 1/4 of a thin slice (thinking of the size of the slice you get in the deli) and thinking there wasn't that much in the salad. 4 calories, 0 grams of fat
Scallops - I think there were 8 good sized scallops - 173 calories, 5 grams of fat
OK so I'm up to 404 calories, 16 grams of fat. Hmmm. There were a lot of walnuts. Maybe more than 14, but not as many as 28. I'll double the walnuts to be on the safe side 370 calories, 36 grams of fat. Now I'm up to 589 calories, 34 grams of fat. This is kind of high for a salad, but believable.

All that's left are the Parmesan Crisps. If the salad is 1050 calories, 91 grams of fat and I've accounted for 589 calories, 34 grams of fat, the parmesan must make up 461 calories, 57 grams of fat. If I had put all the crisps together, they would have taken up a quarter cup, but the measure I have is grated parmesan. Let's say the parmesan shrank when it melted to make the crisps and halved in volume, so that would be a half cup. Hmmm, it takes a cup and a half of parmesan in Fitday for 498 calories, 33 grams of fat. Was there really that much parmesan in this salad?

Somethings not right though as I have only 91 more calories to account for and I still haven't accounted for 24 grams of fat. The scallops were probably seared in a little fat, but not 24 grams of fat. It's got to be walnuts or parmesan.

Do you really think there is a cup and a half of parmesan in this salad? Am I missing something else? If I eat this salad again, I'll definitely leave most to all of the parmesan behind. Wow!

The moral of the story is to calculate before you eat.

Hey!

I think oil is the culprit--that and the size of the salad. It's really hard to estimate later just how big that salad was, or how many Tablespoons, cups, etc. were used.

If a Tablespoon of oil was used to cook the scallops, there's 100 cals right there. If oil was used to make the crisps... well...

I don't find it hard to believe that the salad contains that much. It probably does. Look at all the other items--the lowest calorie item is still really high.

Moral to the story: If you want to eat at Macaroni Grill, plan to eat 1/3 of the food you order and take the rest home for other days.

Jay

Thanks. Oil does add up fast.

When I do go to Macaroni Grill, I normally get the Pollo Magro (Skinny chicken)
Chicken - 330 calories, 5 grams fat
Grilled asparagus - 40 calories, 2 gram fat
Grilled broccoli - 80 calories, 3 grams fat

Total 450 calories, 10 grams fat
Still a lot if I eat it all. And of course, if they splash on even a bit more oil, even higher than that.

Guess I need to stick with the chicken and not clean my plate.
A calorie expensive lesson hopefully learned.

What I also do sometimes in that situation is order the salad and modify it. So, in this case, it would have been possible to get it without the parmesan crisps (those things are oil soaked usually and it's got the feta on the salad anyway, and if it truly is only a little, that shouldn't be too bad), maybe get the walnuts on the side, dressing on the side. That way, you get to decide how many walnuts you put in the salad and how much dressing. I also tend to tell them to use as little oil as possible when cooking my meals. Sometimes they use less, sometimes they don't, but it's worth a shot at least. Modifying your meal choice might help, at least a little, if you happen to really want scallops that night but don't want to spend over 1300 calories on a meal.

You look absolutely stunning!! Wow, what a great effort you have made to get your weight on track! Congratulations to you!