Is it just me or are there others out there who are just totally shocked by the amount of calories in some things, i mean ok im not dumb i knew when i was eating a big mac or whatever that it was soaked in calories but since starting on my weight loss track i cant believe how many calories are in some things i thought where ok, i mean i bought a pack of mince to make mince stew (sounds odd if you have never had it but its just like beef stew only alot cheaper!) and i couldnt believe that there was 500 calories in one portion for the mince alone! This is not to mention all the other things that someone would add to mince to make a meal out if it. I just was really shocked about the amount of calories in some foods i thought were healthy, does anyone know any other things which seem ok but are really calorific?

Depending on the cut of beef, I was shocked to the difference in fat content.

I was more shocked by PORTION sizes. Meat is 3oz. That's TINY! No wonder when I was "eating healthy" I was gaining so much weight!

Ohhhhh, great question! The one that I always have to watch is salad dressings. A properly-made bleu cheese dressing, served in restaurant portions, can dump an extra 300-400 calories on your salad. Fresh sausage was a huge eye-opener - it goes about 120 calories an ounce (lamb or chicken, though - much better). And beer! A 5% alcohol 12oz beer is generally around 150 calories! Yikes! One Mike's Hard Lemonade is a whopping 220 - and it's not unusual for a restaurant margarita to hit 600. It's been a heck of an education for me, I know that!

I'm sometimes surprised with baked goods. Someone pointed me to a recipe they were going to make for their husband's birthday the other day and it was like (guessing from the picture) a small bar, kind of like fudge. I looked at the nutrition information - it was something like 240 calories for a piece. It was the fact it made 64 pieces that stunned me.

I'm sometimes surprised, and sad, at some of my old favourites. I buy a nice smoked chicken & turkey sausage (130 cals), but saw pre-cooked octoberfest sausage the other day. They're nice, spicy sausages... but at 280 cals I had to admit that I'd rather have two of the other sausages instead.

I think my main problem wasn't so much that I didn't know that some things were higher in calories, but I didn't realize what a DIFFERENCE it makes in terms of weight loss. I'm not sure how to explain it, but as I was getting ready to tear open a candy bar, I would think, "Yeah, but it's only 240 calories. That doesn't really make a difference in the scheme of things!". I would have been correct if I was eating 1400 calories every other day of that month, but I wasn't. 240 here, 150 there, 400 there (salad dressing!).....it doesn't take long for that to add up to an extra 3500 cals that my body doesn't need. Do that over and over, and you've got Windchime in her fat pants!

The baked goods are always a suprise to me, too. I have a hard time estimating those, so I just avoid them. I went into Starbucks with a friend the other day, and those yummy bars and cakes looked so good. I was very tempted, but I resisted because anything that looks that good is probably really high cal!

Hubby had a real eye opener the other day when he looked at the nutrition info on the tea he was drinking. The whole bottle had around 220 cals in it and the bottle was 2 1/2 servings. Now who do you know that drinks only half the bottle? Needless to say he was shocked at how much certain drinks--non alcholic at that--had in them.

my hubby eats these digorno pizzas for one constantly. i looked at the info the other day SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY calories in a "single serve" pizza!! i figured they would be a lot, but thats obscene.

what i notice more is how SMALL a portion is. you think oooh 80 cal for a serving.. then you see that a serving is 1/4 cup.

I'm astonished at how much rice and pasta I used to eat at one meal. These days I cook myself 1/4 of a cup of rice, and it's plenty. Before I think I'd easily have put away a cup and a half or even two. How did I shovel it all down?

Baked goods for me. I sometimes think about trying to bake something then I figure out the calories AFTER modifications I'd make to make it lower calorie and yet it is still too many calories. So that is why I don't bake.

This is sooooo true. All of my favorite foods seem to have an extremely high amount of calories. Those delicious brownies with nuts? (Oh, weep, weep!) Worse... teas. I'm a tea addict. But teas that you buy in the store? They contain so much glutcose-fructose that I'm surprised my blood has not converted to pure sugar. I'd lose 10 pounds easy if I had the willpower to give up my teas. (Trade-Winds in particular.. SOOOO good.) This is very much one of the problems I struggle with, and it seems like everyone with a success story about dieting has also struggled with. The food industry just isn't friendly to people. This is why I'm such a huge fan of those who manage to conquer the evils of the food industry. It seems an ongoing trend over at howtheylostweight that the food industry has caused so many problems for these brave folks who actually got their weights under control.

The thing I have found is that most unhealthy foods just aren't worth the calories to me. Recently I did see a menu from the cheesecake factory with the nutritional info. attached. Lemme say--if they were ever in a state that required calories to be printed next to the items, the place wouldn't stay in business. The amount of fat and calories was devastating to me.

Alcohol.
I was SHOCKED by the calories in the booze I used to enjoy so easily
I knew, I heard it even before that alcoholic drinks were high in calories... but really when I saw that an average mojito is about 200 calories... OMG, it really makes a difference, especially because I drink when I go out with friends... and usually we eat out too, LOL

I looked up Macaroni Grill on DietFacts.com. My EX (who was not my ex at the time ) LOVED that place. We went there on Valentine's Day. The only thing I could get there that was not 1,500+ calories was the "skinny" chicken. Some of their dishes were 2,000-2,500 calories... and while SOME of those portions were pretty big, others were either moderately sized or just a LITTLE more than what I would normally put on my plate.

I know their dirty little secrets, though. One of my friends was a chef there for a little while. They cook their steaks in oil and butter, then put more butter on, and finally TOP them with butter before serving. The cooks think they are being nice by giving you more food than the standard portion, but I feel the opposite

On the Border is a huge offender, too, unless you order from their special light menu. Heck, almost all restaurant food is SO calorie-laden unless you're like me and decide to re-arrange the menu every time you eat out.

Oh... it was initially surprising to know a little 2x2 brownie had 200+ calories It makes sense, though, with all the sugar and oil. And don't even get me started on Ben & Jerrys!

Isn't it crazy! Those small pastries at Starbucks are the enemy! Truly!!

To know that a plate of nachos can easily be 1500 cals at a restaurant is so discouraging, that the little sauce you dip fries into (aioli) is around 200, it's all just insane. That a vodka tonic has cals, that a TINY brownie has at least 200+ cals.


Those huge cupcakes from Costco??? did you know that a full one is 760 cals!!!!!!!!!!!!??? ANd 106 carbs???

OH! Bailey's Irish Cream is another shocker! 1 shot glass sized portion of it is around 500 calories. I'm not exaggerating, though I wish I was, since Bailey's is amazing stuff.

If I am going to drink, I will stick with Bacardi and Diet Coke... and I won't get drunk. Getting drunk causes me to get that EEEEEEEEEEEVIL uninhibited appetite. My inner fat chick pops out full force under the influence!