Sorry I've been lurky, everyone.. I havent fallen off, just haven't posted much.. I just need to rant.

So boyfriend and I went to Applebee's for dinner tonight, and knowing this I was very very short on calories today (Only ate about 400 by the time we went). So I eat relatively healthy, for me... onion petals with ranch, and then chicken with cheese (it had steak with it too, but I didnt get the steak) with mashed potatoes and bread. I ask them for nutrition information, and they didnt have any, and told me to look online.

So I did... and I could not find ANYTHING that I ordered online. Guestimating, I think I had about 1500 calories, but who knows? I was putting in foods already in FitDay, as well as my own custom foods.

The website says they dont offer info because they use different vendors, and therefore the calorie counts are different. True as this may be, but couldn't they give estimations on information? I mean, Wendys and other fast food chains use different vendors.. I know, I worked at Wendys for 4 years. But we had information. And at least an estimate of nutritional information, with something saying "This is only an estimation, due to stores using different vendors this is not exact for every store" or something like that would make my day.

GAH!

Sorry. Had to rant

That is really annoying. A lot of popular chain restaurants in Canada don't have nutritional info on their websites, either, like East Side Mario's, Kelsey's, and Jack Astor's. Usually I just overestimate to be safe, because my overestimating is probably pretty accurate when you consider all the oils and such they use to cook.

When I was in high school, I worked in the kitchen of more than one of those chain restaurants, and they really don't spare the butter and salt and oil.

I agree 100%!

It's almost like they don't WANT you to know, because if you did you'd be so horrified you'd never return again.

You know what I hate? When you try and eat healthy at a restaurant and they don't listen to you. I asked for diet coke and they gave me coke. I kept telling them "I can tell the difference" but they kept insisting it was diet so I just didn't drink it. Then I asked for steamed vegetables with no butter and the veggys with soaked in oil. They said they were steamed but I know when something is steamed vs. when something is in oil. Plus, if you are out with say work people you don't want to be the fussy one who has to send her food back. With my family I'd have no problem doing it but when I'm on a work lunch I refuse to do that.

That's why the only place that I will be eating out at now is King house chinese and subway. King house listens to you. I told them no oil, no salt...to put the sauce to the side...and I could tell. It wasn't that many calories either! Suprised me. heh.

Bennigan's is the same thing, no nutrition information provided. I loathe chains of the T.J. O'McFriday's type on general principle, so it's no fuss to not go back, but it was damn annoying having to guesstimate.

But on the bright side! What I hate about these chains actually came in handy! I went to I think Chili's website...and they had nutrition information, and these T.J. O'McFriday's chains all being alike meant Chili's had nearly ALL the same food. So I just used those numbers.

We ought to compile a list of restaurant chains that do not provide nutrition information. People could refer to it when deciding where to go.

I wonder what would happen if a bunch of people protested the lack of nutrition information by refusing to go to those restaurants anymore? After all, that's the loudest protest a consumer can make - spending your money somewhere else. If people did that, and informed the restaurants that that's why, I wonder how long it would be before they put up at the very least guesstimated nutritional values?

It is frustrating--I really think there should be a requirement that all restaurants list nutritional information within the menu, not just buried somewhere on a website or completely nonexistant. Otherwise it's easy to put away thousands of calories in one sitting without realizing it. This is why I rarely eat out, or if I do it's somewhere that I know lists the info or a local place that will listen to and accommodate me. Plus who knows where the produce/meat that chains use comes from, how long it's been frozen, or what kind of freaky processed junk is snuck in there.

I at least think all restaurants should be required by law to provide you with nutrition info when you ask for it. I hate having to guesstimate what I'm putting in my mouth when I've got no clue what they soak, season, or do otherwise with what I'm eating.

Hi everyone,

hope you don't mind if I chime in, but I know where you can get nutritional information on SOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo many restaurants, including Applebee's. there is a woman who has a website with all kinds of diet info . . . hang on seeing if I can find it on google.

OK, it's www.dwlz.com
It stands for Dottie'e Weight loss zone . . . they even have canadian restaurants. When you go to the home page there is a banner and under the banner in teeny, tiny letters are different areas, click restaurants and go to the bottom, then pick your restaurant or click on the canadian restaurant option

Hope this helps . . .

You might want to check at www.calorieking.com they have had a lot of foods on there that fitday doesn't have...hope that helps.

Also, I know it's not the biggest variety but applebees, Ruby Tuesday, uno's, all have a low calorie selection with nutrition information listed (Applebee's has a weight watcher menu)
http://www.applebees.com/StoreFinder.aspx?s=menu
http://rubytuesdays.com/menu/smartEating.asp
http://www.unos.com/kiosk/nutritionUnos.html

My favorite is Ruby Tuesdays, I get their smart eating grilled chicken or petite sirloin (200-300 calories) and choose broccoli (100 something) and mashed cauliflower (162 and soo good tastes just like mashed potatoes)
www.nutritiondata.com is also good for nutrition info but they seem to only have fast food restaurants

*G*

LostBombera - there's a site I didn't know about.. thanks for the link! It looks like it has a lot of good info... but like the other sites I went to, it doesn't list the things I ate. =/. I'll remember to keep it around though!

shyheart - I checked CalorieKing.. I have that site bookmarked! And as always, it has lots of good info, but it didn't list the things I ate. So it wasn't as helpful this time as it has been in the past.

Rabmonk - I know, and I was considering ordering something from the low-cal menu.. but the whole reason I had restricted my calories so much during the day was so that I could "go crazy" at night, at least a little. If I had known how hard it would be to track my calories, maybe I would have!

Haha I like the idea of a protest! I read something yesterday about making large-chain restaraunts post calorie content on their menues, next to the item. haha I like that idea!

where was I eating...hmm.... maybe Chili's or Applebees, but I think it was Chili's.... This was a couple of months ago, and on the menu there was an "under 700 calories" section. I stopped... thought about it.... if they use a meal being under 700 cals as something good, think of how many cals the rest of the menu items must pack!! Yeesh!

As much as I complain, I still go out to eat and not make the best choices.... guess that's why I haven't lost weight in so long But I have gotten better at doing things like bringing half the meal home ..... (then eating the rest for breakfast the next morning!)

It's crazy how much take out/fast food places have such high calorie and fat meals. It is my goal for this month (and so far I have not broken it) to not eat out. I'm trying to teach myself to eat out in moderation.
I admit eating out is more fun than eating in...why is it that foods always taste better at fast food places anyway? Is there really that much difference in fat content? They must be drenching these foods in fat.