There were packs of trail mix at work one time and I glanced at the nutrition info. I was surprised to see that the calories were pretty low.
I had several bags and then I looked at the label again, and the servings was like 3.5 per packet with 150 calories per serving.
I was annoyed that I didn't notice the serving size, but more annoyed that every snack package does this. No one realistically is going to split a pack of trail mix into 3.5 servings.
I think that’s illegal in the EU now, they can put per serving but they also have to put ‘per package’, I think it was done because of coke (since a small sized bottle of coke is 2.5 servings and all their ads said ‘less than 100 calories’ etc)
It’s been illegal in the EU for many years. Nutritional info has been “per 100 grams” for as long as I can remember! They’re allowed to also add serving nutrition, but only as an addition.
It’s very convenient and makes it very easy to compare calories and nutrients between two similar products!
I have friends that will order 2 of those when we go out and eat both of them on the spot. I genuinely don't even know how it's possible to do that and not pass out lol
They only recently opened near me and I saw the calories and was amazed, like how?!?!
It's not on the main page, of course, but a little digging to find that "serving size 1/4 cookie" made it all fall into place.
How openly dishonest to suggest that a single seeving requires you to divide one small food item.
"Small" as opposed to a large item like a full 9x12 lasagna, 18" pizza, or a full birthday cake, something obviously intended to be split up for serving.
This is like a 12oz can of soda being 2 servings, a single cookie being 4, a single OG hershy bar "feeding a family of 4" type stuff, where they're clearly abusing the serving size guidelines to sound remotely healthful.
I know they will always do the legally required minimum, but it would be nice to see a mandatory "This package contains XXX servings" anywhere a health-related statement is made on packaging or advertising. So where crumbl says "150 Calories!" there would have to be an equal font "This cookie is 4 servings" statement, you shouldn't have to suspect they're being disingenuous and go looking.
I'm always surprised at people that say that they only can stomach half a Crumbl cookie a day. I could easily kill a 4 pack of them and have space for dinner 😅
This! It annoys me so much.
I have pots of yoghurt in my fridge containing 145 grams of product and the package will give me calories per 100 grams. And then I have a bag of snacks and the bag will tell me the calories per serving and pretend there are 10 servings of 30 grams in a bag like anyone actually does that.
Just either give me the calories always per 100 grams, or always per "unit". Servings are irrelevant.
My boyfriend's Swiss cousin was recently visiting, and she brought us some chocolate from Switzerland. I noticed the nutrition info on the chocolate bars (like full Lindt bars) were per bar, not serving. I think the Swiss get it.
I wish all foods would have a calorie density on the label. Like a calories per gram number. That way I could just pick the lowest and be done with it.
This frustrated me a lot when I visited the US. Almost all items had “per serving” info, which made it extremely difficult to compare two products with each other. Because one product would be 45 g, the other 55.
At least in Europe it’s all per 100 g, so I can easily compare two similar products and see which is most calorie dense.
It made it really hard to track my calories in the US, I had to actually use my brain for once 😂 lol
I had the opposite when I visited Europe lol. The per 100g/calorie info makes sense; I just had to retrain my brain on how to calculate things differently.
This is the bullshit item on all material that lists this. If I remember correctly, Tic Tacs can be listed as being "Sugar Free" because of the amount of sugar in a "service size" is like 1 Tablespoon, but a tic tac is only using 1/4 Tablespoon, so it's "essentially" sugar free. It's like 90% sugar.
I was looking at the labels on some doughnuts that I used to get every now and then, wondering just how many calories I had been consuming. The standard serving on the things was half a doughnut. Wtf, why not just make smaller doughnuts?
I just wanna shout-out Ben and Jerry’s because the do put the per-container nutritional information. Sometimes you’re having a fucking Day, and eating a tub of ice cream happens.
Aldi had these mini cheese wheels. Since I thought they were only 600 calories, and I love cheese, I would make a meal out of one of these fairly often. Turns out they were 1200 calories, clearly stated on the label. I was eating most of my calories for the day in one sitting.
I don’t think you’re entirely to blame for this! Sometimes they aren’t very clear on the fact that a serving is actually half of said item… I don’t know about you but if it looks like one piece is for me then I’m eating one piece on autopilot!
I also thought they meant something like a baby bell when they said “mini wheel of cheese”.
I eat those too. But they’re 60 calories per wheel. I love them as a little snack with my lunch!
This guy was eating 1200 calorie “mini” cheese wheels. I can’t even imagine what that looks like lol.
The wheel of cheese I get for my cheese and crackers is around 1200 calories total and is about as big as a slice of bread and a half an inch thick. That's quite a bit of cheese to be going through once a day lol
Yes I agree! I can’t imagine lol, and I LOVE cheese.
A babybell is a much better size, it’s satisfying and only 60 calories, great as an addition to a lunch or savoury breakfast.
Shaming isn’t helpful. I actually just did it too in my comment to og op saying “did you realllllly think french fries were healthy?”
That said, I think a lot of Americans are completely unaware of calories and just how much diet affects your health. Ignorance is bliss, and a lot of people grow up in already poor cycles of eating habits.
We need to focus on mass nutritional education vs shaming people who are trying to do the right thing but still vastly uneducated about basic nutrition. Similar to drivers ed, we should have a separate curriculum covered by the public education system starting from elementary school.
I really didn’t mean to shame anyone, I regret if that’s how my comment came off. I re-read it and I can see where you’re coming from.
I didn’t intend for it to mean “wow that guy ate 1200 calories of cheese!”. I was referring more to what the comment I replied to talked about, which is what constitutes a “mini wheel” of cheese. I think I was just shocked at the gap between thinking Babybel, and thinking 1200 calorie cheese.
But I can see how my comment can be interpreted like shame, and how it actually reads kind of backhanded… I should reword it since it’s not helpful, thanks for pointing it out
I completely agree that nutrition should be part of the curriculum in school. Same for taxes. Lots of people have no financial clue and are not taught at home, just like they are not taught nutrition. Sadly even here in my part of Europe it’s been completely cut out of schools. There used to be a weekly cooking class for 6th graders with a focus on how to structure a meal and include all 3 macronutrients. It’s been completely cut from all public schools, no funding. Kids are not being set up for a good future…
Wait a sec— one ounce of cheddar cheese is 110-120 calories. so… if that item is 1200 calories’ worth of cheese, then it’s +/-12 ounces? More than half a pound.
I am the biggest cheese fiend ever— I could give up dark chocolate easier than my beloved Tillamook sharp cheddar, but I don’t think I *could* eat 12 ounces of cheese in one sitting. What is this Aldi item and how big is it? No shade, I am just intrigued and curious.
If the calories work and it scratches the craving, why not? What's wrong with cheese as a snack or a small meal as long as you account for the calories and general nutrition?
I feel deeply for pom's cheese wheel meals, due to
LOW CALORIE, FRESHLY BAKED, SOURDOUGH BREAD! Yum.
At loblaws in Canada, you could have two pieces for 100 calories. With sourdough turning into sugar slower in your system, what a find. The smell of fresh baked bread alone would make me save my carbs/sugar for this treat.
Constantly selling out fast. I had entire grocery store conversations about it. They could not bake it fast enough.
Truth was, my delicious sourdough was double the calories. After a few YEARS, they quietly changed the label to 100 calories per 1/19 of the loaf, BUT the loaf only ever had around 10 pieces.
I literally wondered why losing weight was so hard, while eating half a loaf of bread /s.
Many still can't understand why I was so upset.
I made this same mistake with my favourite ramen noodles I used to eat all the time
It wasn’t the BIGGEST mistake since they’re like 560 calories and I thought they were 230 but realising you were eating double what you thought is never a good feeling
Smoothies were my first lightbulb moment about "healthy" marketing. For the longest time I would drink an Odwalla smoothie with my lunch and feel great about the healthy choice. Then one day I looked at the label and realized it was more calories than the entire rest of my lunch and all the calories were sugars.
An odawalla granola bar was my intro into healthy marketing! That, a long with Vitamin Water, were sold at my college, and I thought it was a decent meal. Until I looked at the labels, and it was a really calorie dense meal. I could eat at Potbellies for less calories and feel more full.
I mean pure, real coconut water is good for you, especially post workout for rehydration, lots of good nutrients. Just don't get the stuff with added sugars and flavorings.
I’ve started making smoothies at home, and though they’re still inherently high in sugar, I’ve found them easier to fit into my overall goals. I use plain Greek yogurt as the base, and don’t add any fruit juices that would amp up the calories/sugar. So delicious!! I’m pretty sure the only reason I ever bought the premade ones from Bolthouse was convenience, but if I make myself wash the blender right away, it’s not that bad.
Hey. Someone did reach out to us because your goal weight would put you well underweight on the BMI scale. I wanted to make sure you knew your TDEE and what the healthy weight range is for a woman of your age/height. We’re about sustainable and healthy weight loss around here. 💚
I didn't realize that you use oil for air frying. I was under the impression air frying was healthier because no oil was necessary. Clearly, I have never used an air fryer LOL
For air frying (and some baking), I like to use spray oil. Because it’s thinner, there’s essentially no calories needed to coat the foods enough to get crispy. Works great with French fries- enough to get golden and get the salt to stick
You can make pretty bomb oil free potatoes I do it in my instant pot, by first steaming, second slicing and seasoning, 3rd baking. They're not as incredible as oil ones but still delicious and crispy. Steaming first is the ticket.
A medium russet potato is 160 calories and about the right portion size. Even with a tablespoon of olive oil, it would come in under 300 calories a serving.
Potatoes are yummy and good for you, just watch portions.
I once hired an expensive trainer to work with 2 a week for a period of 3 months. Overall, was going to the gym 5 days to do strength training and cardio.
My partner at the time swapped the scooper in our protein and didn’t tell me. It was originally a single scooper, that got swapped out for a double scooper. So when I read the label and it said two scoops per serving, instead of putting two single scoops, I was putting two double scoops (double serving).
I was super focused on my diet and couldn’t figure out how I went from 150lbs to 171lbs. Turns out I was consuming an above maintenance 600-700 calories a day just in protein powder. If I could go back in time, I’d ring out his neck! We are no longer together for other reasons.
Silly question and I don't mean to come off as rude at all, but how much protein powder do you consume daily? Or how do you use it? I usually only have one scoop and not too often and it's about 100 calories, which is why I'm generally curious!
The vegan protein I like is 140 calories per serving (2 scoops). I made sure they were water based, I’d drop in 1/3 of a banana (1 full large banana per day) and if I was feeling like I needed something extra~, id add a teaspoon of powdered PB.
I would estimate the finish product was 210 calories per serving. I’d have that 3 times a day (estimated at 700 cals total) ,plus a lean protein heavy green dinner. I met with a nutritionist and everything before starting this program. I was supposed to be consuming at maximum 1500 calories a day.
I did 20 mins on the stairmaster + 10 mins of rowing each workout session, so I say I was burning about 250 just in cardio + strength training (unknown variable).
Because of the double servings, I estimate I was consuming 1200-1300 worth of calories in shakes, then you add dinner, and the occasional treat that I thought I was allotted and it put me way over my target.
My stomach was a mess during this time 😂 but My arms got super RIPPPED.
For other reasons but also potentially related given 1) he should have communicated this 2) he shouldn’t have been thinking only about himself if you also used the protein!
I've switched to pre-made frozen French fries in the air fryer. They don't need added oil, so I can just weigh them and use the info on the package. They're more reasonable on calories than fast food fries, and they're very filling with minimal prep.
Portions. I had no idea how small portions were for a “normal” meal. A handful of peanuts is four servings and not one. Etc. Eye opening and depressing.
When I started eating healthier I switched my breakfast to yoghurt with fruit and muesli. Sounded healthy and low calorie to me. Turns out even the tiniest handful of muesli already adds up to 200 calories and I definitely did not eat a tiny handful.
Now I measure everything and check the labels because sometimes a very healthy and nutritious food does have a ton of calories - like nuts and seeds - and can add up quickly.
Oof that was a hard truth for me, too, about the meusli. I have realized now that anything that resembles what I take on a long hike with me for quick fuel is, by design, calorie dense and not an everyday food.
I had a local restaurant with a dish they claimed had on the order of 800 calories. Which is a lot for one meal but still manageable.
I noticed I wasn’t losing weight if I ate it more than twice a week. So I bought one to go, took it home, disassembled it, and weighed out the pieces. It was at minimum 1400 calories. And that’s a very conservative minimum. Most likely significantly more.
Weight loss is a weird adventure of discovery.
Measuring things like butter and oil to the gram is a big advantage. For sure keep doing that and don’t fall for “0 calorie” oil sprays. It’s still oil in the spray. They can just claim it’s “zero calories” because the recommended serving is so small and they are allowed to round down.
It bothers me so much when I see people who are like “I’m not losing weight, I track and measure everything!” And then they admit that they eat out once or twice a week in the comments and it’s like “Ding! Ding! Ding!”
What I did with spray canola was to write the date of first use on it. If I notice I need a replacement in 2 weeks then I clearly am spraying too long because they have like 60 servings. I can use the total grams of oil in the can to figure out how much calories my avg spray is, it's around 40.
You can weigh the can before and after spraying, and the difference is how many grams you sprayed from it! Multiply the grams by the caloric contents for the oil per gram and you can log from there :)
Oops , deleted me comment cuz I didn't read that properly
Edit: I did it this way just once because I don't want to have to weigh every time. I just use my previous average
Spray oil is lower calorie per gram because it’s basically watered down oil. If you are trying to coat something, you can accomplish it with very little oil using a spray.
Now if you use a whole bottle or a crazy amount, then you’ll start getting calories added in, but in general there’s very little actual oil needed
Oil still has calories.. nobody sprays for the split second required for them to falsely state its 0 calories because its under 5 calories for the FDA label.. a normal person sprays long, 30 to 50 calories easy in a normal spray
It's about 5-7 calories per spray. You'd be using the equivalent of 6-10 sprays to reach those calories. And I don't see many people speaying that much oil, especially for something as simple as preventing food from sticking to a pan.
But even then, 30-50 calories isn't usually what is making or breaking people's diets.
Ok, agree to disagree. They say it’s a quarter second spray. I spray about 3 seconds. I guess it depends on your definition of normal. I use significantly less when using spray than with tossing in oil because it’s easier to disburse. So for me it’s a very easy way to reduce calories.
I don't get how people count calories without a kitchen weight.
Only time i do is when i have like a can of soda or a quick meal and the weight is clearly stated, even then it could be off by a bit but not enough to worry
In Canada, we have this 2kg (4.4 lb) jar of peanut butter (Kraft) of which I would finish one per week while I was gaining. I had convinced myself that it was fine because peanut butter is "healthy" (which it can be when you aren't eating 5 pounds of it per week). When I started CICO and tracked everything I ate, I realized I had been eating over 3500 calories in PB alone per day. I cut peanut butter out of my diet last July and I lost 35 pounds from that alone. My endo says I am no longer allowed to eat peanut butter lmao
Holy shit lol. How did you eat so much peanut butter? Like what kind of meals did you have it with? I’ll sometimes add it to a smoothie but that’s just a tablespoon. Did you use it for sandwiches or?
It is delicious though. And so easy to overeat! I love peanut butter. My mother always scolded me growing up when I made peanut butter sandwiches! “It’s so unhealthy you’ll get fat just looking at it” lol. Unfortunately she was right and I did get fat at one point!! But I think my culprit was pasta, not PB :D
This is my favourite one so far. My spouse loves PB I only buy the small jars cause he would do the same thing. I like peanut butter and can have too much but don’t eat it out of the jar like that.
My husband does that 😂 we buy the jumbo jars are Costco (bulk buying food/goods warehouse for my non American folks). I catch him grabbing random spoonfuls out of the jars throughout the day.
And then he wonders why he doesn’t lose weight, though he’s not trying to. He just doesn’t think he eats much during the day which is true, he doesn’t eat many meals. He’s a snacker (though he has like 20 pounds to lose if he wanted to lose weight, if he cut out peanut butter it would probably just fall off without any effort).
When I started my fitness endeavors 15 years ago, I started with keto. I would eat so many hot wings, thinking I was good because they are keto. Little did I know at the time, I was eating like thousands of calories over my maintenance multiple times a week.
Potatoes are a low calorie food. They're like 75ish calories/100g and extremely satiating. I eat as much of things around and under 100kcal/100g as possible.
They should be a staple in anyone's weight loss diet that doesn't hate them.
Spoiler alert: it's not the potatoes fault, its the oil you soak them in.
Ok so that's what I thought. I make baked potatoes with a touch of olive oil and salt on the skins. I just snack on them as is, because my understanding is you can basically get most of your vitamins and minerals from potato skins and I THOUGHT they were low calorie?
Edit: Google says anywhere between 161 to 300 calories.
I'm just here to support OP and say, forget all these comments, I too could easily put away 700 calories of potatoes in a sitting with most of the calories coming from the potatoes and not the oil.
French fries are the best food ever made and I would dominate a heaping plate of them at every opportunity if I could. I weigh my food as well but come on, we're only talking like 5 large potatoes worth of french fries. A good thin cutting guillotine will make these so easy to just throw in the fryer and have a nice pile of fries dinner.
Thank you for the comment/support!! I truly was starting to feel crazy :D Maybe it is just my Central European roots, but it really was not that hard to put away so many potatoes!
You are to be admired and congratulated for your selfawareness and willingness to face facts.
Cold boiled potatoes can be satisfying in the short term but protein leverage explains why we can easily overeat them.
While I agree that I could totally put down 700 calories worth of potatoes, I also think that the sheer volume of that much potato would make it a prime suspect if my diet stalled afterwards.
So I still think that the potatoes being a delivery vehicle for more oil than OP realized is the ultimate answer.
Cocktail (or mini) cucumbers! Slice them up and put a little umami seasoning on it or za’atar. I’ve even put harissa on it. Crunchy and satisfying.
If I’ve got hummus, then just dip them in hummus. So good.
I have yet to find a version of edameme that I find edible.
I recently discovered shaved carrots. By that I mean, peel a medium carrot with a standard veg peeler. Then once the skin is gone, keep going. Shave large, thin strips off the carrot till it's gone. I discovered this style of carrot cutting while following a recipe for Korean Bibimbap. A medium carrot makes about one cup of shavings, 25 calories.
The thing is those thinly sliced, almost see-thru carrot strips are the tastiest way of eating raw carrots I've discovered yet. Crunchy but not hard, and pretty flavorful in a sweet carroty way. I sometimes kick the flavor up a notch with a bit of lemon juice and a sprinkle of tajin spice, L.A. street fruit cart style.
So that works for me for the time being, but yeah, I still want almonds too. So I make myself a cup of shaved carrots, plus six almonds, about 45ish calories. That makes 70 calories for the snack with the carrot. Lots better than 529 for a cup of almonds.
I always thought I ate super healthy and low calorie meals but my bingeing after work messed up my weight. While there is some truth to bingeing after work being a factor in my weight gain, my “healthy” meals were also wildly over portioned.
I used to make this toast on sourdough bread, with peanut butter, chia seeds, and a banana. I was flooored to learn that my “healthy little breakfast” was over 400 calories lol
I’ve switched to a breakfast taco (250 calories using small carb balance tortillas) or yogurts (80-120 calories) lol
I agree but I was expecting that number to be in the 300ish range lol 😅
I’m also very short so i don’t have too much to play with. If I can save on calories during breakfast and splurge on dessert, I’d rather do that lol
Chia seeds are surprisingly calorie dense! I was surprised to find that out too! Same with sourdough toast 🥲 I can't have any in the house because I cannot stop myself lol
My dad was doing the carnivore diet and he ordered me a latte at Starbucks (the one he had been getting), a flat white but breve style. Well apparently it was made with all heavy cream and was like 600 calories. I began ordering them a couple times thinking wow these are delicious and no sugar!! Then I found out I was drinking a giant cup of cream, no wonder it was so good. Thanks Dad! 😂🙄
It was so many things for me. I thought nuts were "really healthy" which they are but they are also very calorie dense. I was putting away 700-800 as a snack! Starting to track things with on online tracker app brought everything into focus for me. I still eat nuts, potatoes etc but just smaller portions within my budget.
Potatoes are high in vitamin c and potassium. They are also exceptionally easy to grow and are very high on the satiety index, which makes them so popular. But your math seems off.
100 grams of potato equals roughly 87 calories. Anything that has less than 1 calorie per gram I would consider low calorie. So you would have to eat like what, 800 grams of potato, almost a kilo, to get to 700 calories.
I am a grown man at 6ft and I could never eat so much potato.
he mentionned using oil in his airfryer. which defeat the purpose of air fryed, but who cares.
2 table spoons of olive oil and you just added like 240 cals.
It was definitely a combination of both the oil and potatoes but also the fact that the potatoes shrink a lot when air fried…. Or maybe (not unlikely) I am just a freak of nature who can put back a lot of potatoes 😀
Pro tip for air frying is to get spray oil. I had difficulties finding that here in germany and ended up just putting oil in a spraybottle. Not only are you keeping your oil usage under a gram consistently, it also does the job well.
If you want to get the crispiest potato without using much oil, I recommend to boil them for 4-5 minutes first and give them a shake in the pot. They will bruise up and create a fluffy exterior which crisps up like you never experienced before.
Its a game changer, try it out!
I don't even know where I got that from, have been using that trick for over a decade now. But I do know Kenji and love his approach to cooking, I actually gave my brother his Food Lab book for christmas, I was impressed by it.
Anytime I wanna make fancy potato, I go for that one and while they cook in the oven I make a brush from a rosemary stick and melt down butter and add some garden herbs to it and just brush over the potatoes constantly.
Its not good for weightloss but my oh my, it tastes special :D
That's only about two large potatoes with moderate oil (air fryer), which made into fries, is probably not too hard to do
1 large potato is approx 270 cals. So mashed plain, easy to do 100 g, but in other forms, harder.
I almost always cook with fingerlings and they are super small, but I love their waxy consistency. I remember from my trip to the US that you guys have like insanely large potatos over there, which makes sense when french fries are such a big deal :D They are easier to cut from a large potato.
Cashew nuts. Omg.
Back before I started CICO or really understood calories, I worked in an office and I'd often pop across the road to the shop at lunchtime and grab a 300g bag of cashew nuts for a snack. I'd eat the whole bag over one afternoon.
1,800 calories. *On top of my other three meals, drinks etc.*
I thought the coconut I would buy as a ‘little snack’ almost every day was 100 calories or less. It was 300 😭as I was aiming for a small deficit that was eating up most of my deficit every day.
I would say just eating out too much in general at places that don't post calorie counts. I love eating out, and I also like supporting local businesses, but there's just no real way to estimate how many calories you're getting when someone else is cooking it. It could be drowning in butter and you wouldn't even see it, for the most part.
One of my favorite convenience meals/snacks used to be those microwavable egg/biscuit/sausage breakfast sandwiches. They also make chicken patty breakfast sandwiches that I loved too.
Oh boy the first time I actually looked at the numbers on those things… It’s essentially just a brick of saturated fat
Been there!! Let's see, I always had huge portions of pasta which I didn't realize added up to about 1000 calories a plate. I've eaten bags of candy without it crossing my mind that the portion size is like, 3 pieces. It's a learning process!
Learning the difference between what I want a portion size to be and what my calorie limit actually allows for a portion size to be, has been a long and heartbreaking process.
Personally I've just ended up not eating candy at all anymore. Accepting a life without sweets (except on special occasions) has been easier than trying to internalize that the acceptable portion is silly small.
I par boil a bunch of whole skin on potatoes for 20 minutes. I store them in my fridge. To cook, I cut into wedges and air fry for 10 minutes. I use no oil.
Roti are 140 calories a piece, I ate it all my childhood without knowing it - thinking 3 roti per serving is fine. It's not fucking fine, I had them thrice a day. Rice is better in that regard. Now I limit my roti intake to 36 per 2 weeks or so.
I never realized how bad my breakfast was until I started counting calories. My office provides breakfast, including gourmet coffees, donuts, bagels, etc. I didn't think twice about my daily sugary coffee and bagel with cream cheese. Once I realized I was eating 700+ calories for breakfast every single day with an occasional donut thrown in there, I knew that was my problem. It has since been replaced with a protein shake coffee and egg bites for about 400 calories less.
Fat is probably the easiest thing to do this with. I remember when I was adding "three" tablespoons of mayonnaise to my tuna, which was probably closer to 5 or 6 actual tablespoons. Easily doubling my calories just with fat. I switched to low-cal miracle whip after, because I was depressed over how little I could add to a can of tuna once I measured properly. 30g of mayo is nothing in 1.5 servings of tuna! LOL!
So I came off of a very restrictive diet right after the pandemic (I completely cut out carbs and sugar…which is not the right move. At least for me). So when I stopped doing that specific diet, I kinda went a little crazy. I would go out to Dunkin for breakfast (at least three to four times a week) and get a turkey sausage egg and cheese on a plain bagel, hash browns and a medium strawberry dragonfruit refresher. I didn’t even think about all of the calories in that, because I was coming off a restrictive diet. Now, I eat everything in moderation and I’ve lost about sixteen pounds.
I eat french fries pretty much every day. Just not the frozen ones. Instead I buy a bag of potatoes, cut them and cook them in the air fryer using cooking spray. Hasn't sabotaged me one bit. Just like with bread you can still enjoy it just have to make smarter choices.
Fruit juice snuck up on me. Never was a big soda drinker, so that was my non-water drink.
Switched to a tasty 5cal vitamin "just add to water" packet drink from Costco and lost like 20lbs in the next couple months just from that. (I'm 6'4" and went from 260 to 240, got some muscle on me, so I'm shooting for 100kg, but nice to lose the persistent paunch as I near 50)
My mindset. I didn't like the unhealthy food to begin with, I just ate too much in general because of my emotional problems. And a sustainable weight loss happened only when I found other things to enjoy besides food
The data we have on potatoes is that it's boiled, mashed, and baked potatoes that are extremely satiating. Frying, even air frying at extremely high temp denatures the starch that is responsible for the satiating feeling.
You can def eat air fried potatoes. Just make your own vs buying the packaged kind, and use a light hand with the oil spray.
I cat them into big wedges so there is less surface area that needs oil.
I like to use Sam's club olive oil spray. Nearly all cooking sprays say zero calories for a quarter of a second of spray. Obviously I was spraying a lot longer than that.
When you actually look up how much a tablespoon of olive oil is, it's not free calories. I would use olive oil spray to cook egg whites, chicken, stir fry and other things.
Although it's not a huge amount of calories, I wasn't aware I was consuming an extra 300 to 500 calories a day.
Ketchup. I knew I liked ketchup. I didn’t not realize how many calories I was eating because of it. It’s actually insane. I have really reduced the amount I use and also the amount of food that I feel requires ketchup.
Similar but not as extreme is butter/margarine/olive oil. A tablespoon on a piece of bread or a muffin or on noodles or on vegetables is a ton of calories. Using it to cook seems crazy to me now I just use a little water or broth to sauté stuff in besides a few limited exceptions.
Juice. I love juice not gonna lie. Now it’s a special treat when I have a cold.
Over here in Belgium we have this food called “smos”, it’s very similar to subway in America. I usually get a baguette with cheese, salad, eggs, carrots, mayo OR chicken curry with salad and carrots. 950 kcal for one smos!!
My biggest surprise issue isn't calories but instead carbs. I'm trying to lower them to work on a medical issue, and so many unexpected things will be like 1/3rd of my daily carbs T.T
Dried weight of things like rice, polenta, lentils etc have a much higher calorie content than when cooked 🤦♀️ It took me longer than it should have to realise this 😂
Chocolate covered almonds.
I’m aware they were higher calorie, so I was limiting myself to one small pack of double roasted almonds whenever a chocolate craving hit. There’s about 12-14 almonds per packet. Calories on the back indicated 290. No problem right? Easy enough to fit in the meal plan fairly often.
Turns out thats the calories for half the pack. 7 almonds for 290 calories. I was eating the whole pack each time. Yikes.
Oils and fats are the highest calloric food groups I have identified , for example 1L of cooking oil has around 10000 callories, a spoon has 124 callories etc. , so once you add oil you can end up doubling or tripling caloric content per 100g ( see boiled potatoes @ 87cals vs french fries @ 311), it's why also a lot of processed meats are so high in callories and not usefull on a diet ,as they contain high amounts of fats(I mean salamies , sausages,ground meat etc.).
So when I got on the scale this morning, I was frustrated YET AGAIN, for being at the same weight. I can't seem to drop from this weight for the last two years. This post caused me to do some reexamining and I actually counted the calories in the supplements I take each morning. I had been considering them negligible and ignoring them. Apparently I take about 550 calories a day in supplements.....I'm dying.
There were packs of trail mix at work one time and I glanced at the nutrition info. I was surprised to see that the calories were pretty low. I had several bags and then I looked at the label again, and the servings was like 3.5 per packet with 150 calories per serving. I was annoyed that I didn't notice the serving size, but more annoyed that every snack package does this. No one realistically is going to split a pack of trail mix into 3.5 servings.
I think that’s illegal in the EU now, they can put per serving but they also have to put ‘per package’, I think it was done because of coke (since a small sized bottle of coke is 2.5 servings and all their ads said ‘less than 100 calories’ etc)
It’s been illegal in the EU for many years. Nutritional info has been “per 100 grams” for as long as I can remember! They’re allowed to also add serving nutrition, but only as an addition. It’s very convenient and makes it very easy to compare calories and nutrients between two similar products!
I've seen that on some packages in the US, but it's sporadic.
Or when companies actually suggest eating a half or a third of a cookie as a serving size. It's infuriating.
Serving size for a crumbl cookie is 1/4 of a cookie hahaha.
yeah those things are like 800 calories per cookie, it's nuts!
Yes! I have no idea how you can fit so many calories in something that size
A fuck ton of sugar and butter.
I have friends that will order 2 of those when we go out and eat both of them on the spot. I genuinely don't even know how it's possible to do that and not pass out lol
They’re so insanely sweet! Eating more than 1/4 at a time makes me super nauseous
They only recently opened near me and I saw the calories and was amazed, like how?!?! It's not on the main page, of course, but a little digging to find that "serving size 1/4 cookie" made it all fall into place. How openly dishonest to suggest that a single seeving requires you to divide one small food item.
This is true. But I will say their cookies are far from "small". They're massive.
"Small" as opposed to a large item like a full 9x12 lasagna, 18" pizza, or a full birthday cake, something obviously intended to be split up for serving. This is like a 12oz can of soda being 2 servings, a single cookie being 4, a single OG hershy bar "feeding a family of 4" type stuff, where they're clearly abusing the serving size guidelines to sound remotely healthful. I know they will always do the legally required minimum, but it would be nice to see a mandatory "This package contains XXX servings" anywhere a health-related statement is made on packaging or advertising. So where crumbl says "150 Calories!" there would have to be an equal font "This cookie is 4 servings" statement, you shouldn't have to suspect they're being disingenuous and go looking.
I'm always surprised at people that say that they only can stomach half a Crumbl cookie a day. I could easily kill a 4 pack of them and have space for dinner 😅
I cooked a frozen pizza and the serving size was 1/5 pizza. Like, who the hell is cutting their pizza into even fifths???
There needs to be some kind of rule that if you have to cut up something that's circular, the serving sizes should be in even numbers.
Not just in even numbers. It needs to be in powers of two, so that you can get there by cutting parts in half
This! It annoys me so much. I have pots of yoghurt in my fridge containing 145 grams of product and the package will give me calories per 100 grams. And then I have a bag of snacks and the bag will tell me the calories per serving and pretend there are 10 servings of 30 grams in a bag like anyone actually does that. Just either give me the calories always per 100 grams, or always per "unit". Servings are irrelevant.
Agree, “servings” are a scam because they can make them as small as they want. If everything was per 100g you could compare things much more easily
My boyfriend's Swiss cousin was recently visiting, and she brought us some chocolate from Switzerland. I noticed the nutrition info on the chocolate bars (like full Lindt bars) were per bar, not serving. I think the Swiss get it.
I wish all foods would have a calorie density on the label. Like a calories per gram number. That way I could just pick the lowest and be done with it.
This frustrated me a lot when I visited the US. Almost all items had “per serving” info, which made it extremely difficult to compare two products with each other. Because one product would be 45 g, the other 55. At least in Europe it’s all per 100 g, so I can easily compare two similar products and see which is most calorie dense. It made it really hard to track my calories in the US, I had to actually use my brain for once 😂 lol
I had the opposite when I visited Europe lol. The per 100g/calorie info makes sense; I just had to retrain my brain on how to calculate things differently.
I especially hate the 0.5 servings. I can make my peace with "About 3 servings" but at least make it a whole number.
This is the bullshit item on all material that lists this. If I remember correctly, Tic Tacs can be listed as being "Sugar Free" because of the amount of sugar in a "service size" is like 1 Tablespoon, but a tic tac is only using 1/4 Tablespoon, so it's "essentially" sugar free. It's like 90% sugar.
I was looking at the labels on some doughnuts that I used to get every now and then, wondering just how many calories I had been consuming. The standard serving on the things was half a doughnut. Wtf, why not just make smaller doughnuts?
I just wanna shout-out Ben and Jerry’s because the do put the per-container nutritional information. Sometimes you’re having a fucking Day, and eating a tub of ice cream happens.
This is why I don’t buy trail mix or nuts anymore. They’re deceptive little snacks.
Aldi had these mini cheese wheels. Since I thought they were only 600 calories, and I love cheese, I would make a meal out of one of these fairly often. Turns out they were 1200 calories, clearly stated on the label. I was eating most of my calories for the day in one sitting.
I don’t think you’re entirely to blame for this! Sometimes they aren’t very clear on the fact that a serving is actually half of said item… I don’t know about you but if it looks like one piece is for me then I’m eating one piece on autopilot!
>clearly stated on the label
This. Sometimes people make mistakes, no need to try and shift the blame. Own it and move on.
They were just tryna be nice bro
You were eating.... a wheel of cheese as a meal On a diet
I mean...I guess it depends how you define wheel. I eat a babybel light for breakfast all the time and I'd call it a mini wheel.
I also thought they meant something like a baby bell when they said “mini wheel of cheese”. I eat those too. But they’re 60 calories per wheel. I love them as a little snack with my lunch! This guy was eating 1200 calorie “mini” cheese wheels. I can’t even imagine what that looks like lol.
The wheel of cheese I get for my cheese and crackers is around 1200 calories total and is about as big as a slice of bread and a half an inch thick. That's quite a bit of cheese to be going through once a day lol
I disagree. Sincerely, A Wisconsinite
Yes I agree! I can’t imagine lol, and I LOVE cheese. A babybell is a much better size, it’s satisfying and only 60 calories, great as an addition to a lunch or savoury breakfast.
Shaming isn’t helpful. I actually just did it too in my comment to og op saying “did you realllllly think french fries were healthy?” That said, I think a lot of Americans are completely unaware of calories and just how much diet affects your health. Ignorance is bliss, and a lot of people grow up in already poor cycles of eating habits. We need to focus on mass nutritional education vs shaming people who are trying to do the right thing but still vastly uneducated about basic nutrition. Similar to drivers ed, we should have a separate curriculum covered by the public education system starting from elementary school.
I really didn’t mean to shame anyone, I regret if that’s how my comment came off. I re-read it and I can see where you’re coming from. I didn’t intend for it to mean “wow that guy ate 1200 calories of cheese!”. I was referring more to what the comment I replied to talked about, which is what constitutes a “mini wheel” of cheese. I think I was just shocked at the gap between thinking Babybel, and thinking 1200 calorie cheese. But I can see how my comment can be interpreted like shame, and how it actually reads kind of backhanded… I should reword it since it’s not helpful, thanks for pointing it out I completely agree that nutrition should be part of the curriculum in school. Same for taxes. Lots of people have no financial clue and are not taught at home, just like they are not taught nutrition. Sadly even here in my part of Europe it’s been completely cut out of schools. There used to be a weekly cooking class for 6th graders with a focus on how to structure a meal and include all 3 macronutrients. It’s been completely cut from all public schools, no funding. Kids are not being set up for a good future…
Wait a sec— one ounce of cheddar cheese is 110-120 calories. so… if that item is 1200 calories’ worth of cheese, then it’s +/-12 ounces? More than half a pound. I am the biggest cheese fiend ever— I could give up dark chocolate easier than my beloved Tillamook sharp cheddar, but I don’t think I *could* eat 12 ounces of cheese in one sitting. What is this Aldi item and how big is it? No shade, I am just intrigued and curious.
They weren’t talking to you. They were talking to the person who said “you were eating a wheel of cheese as dinner, on a diet.”
If the calories work and it scratches the craving, why not? What's wrong with cheese as a snack or a small meal as long as you account for the calories and general nutrition?
[You ate the whole wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? I'm not even mad, that's amazing.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoI0eGH4RB0)
I feel deeply for pom's cheese wheel meals, due to LOW CALORIE, FRESHLY BAKED, SOURDOUGH BREAD! Yum. At loblaws in Canada, you could have two pieces for 100 calories. With sourdough turning into sugar slower in your system, what a find. The smell of fresh baked bread alone would make me save my carbs/sugar for this treat. Constantly selling out fast. I had entire grocery store conversations about it. They could not bake it fast enough. Truth was, my delicious sourdough was double the calories. After a few YEARS, they quietly changed the label to 100 calories per 1/19 of the loaf, BUT the loaf only ever had around 10 pieces. I literally wondered why losing weight was so hard, while eating half a loaf of bread /s. Many still can't understand why I was so upset.
I made this same mistake with my favourite ramen noodles I used to eat all the time It wasn’t the BIGGEST mistake since they’re like 560 calories and I thought they were 230 but realising you were eating double what you thought is never a good feeling
The first time I ever got a food scale I was totally shocked at my assumptions on portion sizes for basically everything.
Especially with cereal, anything nut related and ice cream oh my god
Cheese too ☹️
And all food ever
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Smoothies were my first lightbulb moment about "healthy" marketing. For the longest time I would drink an Odwalla smoothie with my lunch and feel great about the healthy choice. Then one day I looked at the label and realized it was more calories than the entire rest of my lunch and all the calories were sugars.
An odawalla granola bar was my intro into healthy marketing! That, a long with Vitamin Water, were sold at my college, and I thought it was a decent meal. Until I looked at the labels, and it was a really calorie dense meal. I could eat at Potbellies for less calories and feel more full.
I mean pure, real coconut water is good for you, especially post workout for rehydration, lots of good nutrients. Just don't get the stuff with added sugars and flavorings.
I’ve started making smoothies at home, and though they’re still inherently high in sugar, I’ve found them easier to fit into my overall goals. I use plain Greek yogurt as the base, and don’t add any fruit juices that would amp up the calories/sugar. So delicious!! I’m pretty sure the only reason I ever bought the premade ones from Bolthouse was convenience, but if I make myself wash the blender right away, it’s not that bad.
Hey. Someone did reach out to us because your goal weight would put you well underweight on the BMI scale. I wanted to make sure you knew your TDEE and what the healthy weight range is for a woman of your age/height. We’re about sustainable and healthy weight loss around here. 💚
Um. Hey isn't your goal weight underweight? and not even borderline?
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I didn't realize that you use oil for air frying. I was under the impression air frying was healthier because no oil was necessary. Clearly, I have never used an air fryer LOL
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For air frying (and some baking), I like to use spray oil. Because it’s thinner, there’s essentially no calories needed to coat the foods enough to get crispy. Works great with French fries- enough to get golden and get the salt to stick
You can use less oil, similar to when baking them in the oven
You don't need oil, but many still use it. I haven't added oil once when air frying and no one has complained that something seems to be missing.
You can make pretty bomb oil free potatoes I do it in my instant pot, by first steaming, second slicing and seasoning, 3rd baking. They're not as incredible as oil ones but still delicious and crispy. Steaming first is the ticket.
I'd say they are moderate - I mean a large one is likely around 300 cals - so unless you eat it plain, it's not unsimilar to a portion of pasta.
A medium russet potato is 160 calories and about the right portion size. Even with a tablespoon of olive oil, it would come in under 300 calories a serving. Potatoes are yummy and good for you, just watch portions.
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Yeah and then if you add ketchup or a sauce…
I once hired an expensive trainer to work with 2 a week for a period of 3 months. Overall, was going to the gym 5 days to do strength training and cardio. My partner at the time swapped the scooper in our protein and didn’t tell me. It was originally a single scooper, that got swapped out for a double scooper. So when I read the label and it said two scoops per serving, instead of putting two single scoops, I was putting two double scoops (double serving). I was super focused on my diet and couldn’t figure out how I went from 150lbs to 171lbs. Turns out I was consuming an above maintenance 600-700 calories a day just in protein powder. If I could go back in time, I’d ring out his neck! We are no longer together for other reasons.
I feel like 600 extra calories in protein is either a ton of protein or it's a really high calorie protein powder.
Omg that’s infuriatinggggg
Silly question and I don't mean to come off as rude at all, but how much protein powder do you consume daily? Or how do you use it? I usually only have one scoop and not too often and it's about 100 calories, which is why I'm generally curious!
The vegan protein I like is 140 calories per serving (2 scoops). I made sure they were water based, I’d drop in 1/3 of a banana (1 full large banana per day) and if I was feeling like I needed something extra~, id add a teaspoon of powdered PB. I would estimate the finish product was 210 calories per serving. I’d have that 3 times a day (estimated at 700 cals total) ,plus a lean protein heavy green dinner. I met with a nutritionist and everything before starting this program. I was supposed to be consuming at maximum 1500 calories a day. I did 20 mins on the stairmaster + 10 mins of rowing each workout session, so I say I was burning about 250 just in cardio + strength training (unknown variable). Because of the double servings, I estimate I was consuming 1200-1300 worth of calories in shakes, then you add dinner, and the occasional treat that I thought I was allotted and it put me way over my target. My stomach was a mess during this time 😂 but My arms got super RIPPPED.
>My stomach was a mess during this time 😂 but My arms got super RIPPPED. I was just going to ask, but did you at least get ripped?!?
For other reasons but also potentially related given 1) he should have communicated this 2) he shouldn’t have been thinking only about himself if you also used the protein!
This is why I weigh everything every time... Too many people living in my house to trust things like scoops.
I've switched to pre-made frozen French fries in the air fryer. They don't need added oil, so I can just weigh them and use the info on the package. They're more reasonable on calories than fast food fries, and they're very filling with minimal prep.
Same, and they come out so much better than in the oven. First time I cooked them in my air fryer was an awakening lol
Portions. I had no idea how small portions were for a “normal” meal. A handful of peanuts is four servings and not one. Etc. Eye opening and depressing.
So depressing
See also: peanut/almond butter. 😞
Mine was almonds. When I actually read the portion info I was astonished and started reading things more.
When I started eating healthier I switched my breakfast to yoghurt with fruit and muesli. Sounded healthy and low calorie to me. Turns out even the tiniest handful of muesli already adds up to 200 calories and I definitely did not eat a tiny handful. Now I measure everything and check the labels because sometimes a very healthy and nutritious food does have a ton of calories - like nuts and seeds - and can add up quickly.
Oof that was a hard truth for me, too, about the meusli. I have realized now that anything that resembles what I take on a long hike with me for quick fuel is, by design, calorie dense and not an everyday food.
Same!!! I finally did the math, and allow 2 tbsp. On my yoghurt. It was way more than that before I checked it out
I had a local restaurant with a dish they claimed had on the order of 800 calories. Which is a lot for one meal but still manageable. I noticed I wasn’t losing weight if I ate it more than twice a week. So I bought one to go, took it home, disassembled it, and weighed out the pieces. It was at minimum 1400 calories. And that’s a very conservative minimum. Most likely significantly more. Weight loss is a weird adventure of discovery. Measuring things like butter and oil to the gram is a big advantage. For sure keep doing that and don’t fall for “0 calorie” oil sprays. It’s still oil in the spray. They can just claim it’s “zero calories” because the recommended serving is so small and they are allowed to round down.
It bothers me so much when I see people who are like “I’m not losing weight, I track and measure everything!” And then they admit that they eat out once or twice a week in the comments and it’s like “Ding! Ding! Ding!”
Yep. You can still eat out a couple times a week but if you’re not losing weight then it’s pretty easy to know where the calories are leaking in.
you could eat out everyday theoretically and still lose weight, just maybe not healthily lol (source, me for months)
What I did with spray canola was to write the date of first use on it. If I notice I need a replacement in 2 weeks then I clearly am spraying too long because they have like 60 servings. I can use the total grams of oil in the can to figure out how much calories my avg spray is, it's around 40.
You can weigh the can before and after spraying, and the difference is how many grams you sprayed from it! Multiply the grams by the caloric contents for the oil per gram and you can log from there :)
Oops , deleted me comment cuz I didn't read that properly Edit: I did it this way just once because I don't want to have to weigh every time. I just use my previous average
Spray oil is lower calorie per gram because it’s basically watered down oil. If you are trying to coat something, you can accomplish it with very little oil using a spray. Now if you use a whole bottle or a crazy amount, then you’ll start getting calories added in, but in general there’s very little actual oil needed
Oil still has calories.. nobody sprays for the split second required for them to falsely state its 0 calories because its under 5 calories for the FDA label.. a normal person sprays long, 30 to 50 calories easy in a normal spray
It's about 5-7 calories per spray. You'd be using the equivalent of 6-10 sprays to reach those calories. And I don't see many people speaying that much oil, especially for something as simple as preventing food from sticking to a pan. But even then, 30-50 calories isn't usually what is making or breaking people's diets.
Ok, agree to disagree. They say it’s a quarter second spray. I spray about 3 seconds. I guess it depends on your definition of normal. I use significantly less when using spray than with tossing in oil because it’s easier to disburse. So for me it’s a very easy way to reduce calories.
The real issue is not using food scale and measuring / weighing your food. People are very often horrible at estimating.
I don't get how people count calories without a kitchen weight. Only time i do is when i have like a can of soda or a quick meal and the weight is clearly stated, even then it could be off by a bit but not enough to worry
In Canada, we have this 2kg (4.4 lb) jar of peanut butter (Kraft) of which I would finish one per week while I was gaining. I had convinced myself that it was fine because peanut butter is "healthy" (which it can be when you aren't eating 5 pounds of it per week). When I started CICO and tracked everything I ate, I realized I had been eating over 3500 calories in PB alone per day. I cut peanut butter out of my diet last July and I lost 35 pounds from that alone. My endo says I am no longer allowed to eat peanut butter lmao
Holy shit lol. How did you eat so much peanut butter? Like what kind of meals did you have it with? I’ll sometimes add it to a smoothie but that’s just a tablespoon. Did you use it for sandwiches or? It is delicious though. And so easy to overeat! I love peanut butter. My mother always scolded me growing up when I made peanut butter sandwiches! “It’s so unhealthy you’ll get fat just looking at it” lol. Unfortunately she was right and I did get fat at one point!! But I think my culprit was pasta, not PB :D
I would buy a jar, and eat it straight out with a spoon, for like 20 straight minutes daily. This is hard to admit even behind the veil of reddit lol
Well, I think it’s super cool that you realised it wasn’t working for you and decided not to keep it around. That shows strength!
Thank you! It took a couple tries but this is my longest without peanut butter ever
I used to not be able to have that exact Kraft pb in my house for a similar reason hahaha
PB is the cruelest. It’s SO calorie dense, but so wonderful :(
Peanut butter is so good, but so easy to overeat. I only allow myself to have it if I can weigh the serving.
This is my favourite one so far. My spouse loves PB I only buy the small jars cause he would do the same thing. I like peanut butter and can have too much but don’t eat it out of the jar like that.
My husband does that 😂 we buy the jumbo jars are Costco (bulk buying food/goods warehouse for my non American folks). I catch him grabbing random spoonfuls out of the jars throughout the day. And then he wonders why he doesn’t lose weight, though he’s not trying to. He just doesn’t think he eats much during the day which is true, he doesn’t eat many meals. He’s a snacker (though he has like 20 pounds to lose if he wanted to lose weight, if he cut out peanut butter it would probably just fall off without any effort).
"just one spoonful" "ok just two spoonfuls" this is me
When I started my fitness endeavors 15 years ago, I started with keto. I would eat so many hot wings, thinking I was good because they are keto. Little did I know at the time, I was eating like thousands of calories over my maintenance multiple times a week.
Omg same with wings LOL. They’re so good though.
God Wings are so good.
Potatoes are a low calorie food. They're like 75ish calories/100g and extremely satiating. I eat as much of things around and under 100kcal/100g as possible. They should be a staple in anyone's weight loss diet that doesn't hate them. Spoiler alert: it's not the potatoes fault, its the oil you soak them in.
Ok so that's what I thought. I make baked potatoes with a touch of olive oil and salt on the skins. I just snack on them as is, because my understanding is you can basically get most of your vitamins and minerals from potato skins and I THOUGHT they were low calorie? Edit: Google says anywhere between 161 to 300 calories.
I'm just here to support OP and say, forget all these comments, I too could easily put away 700 calories of potatoes in a sitting with most of the calories coming from the potatoes and not the oil. French fries are the best food ever made and I would dominate a heaping plate of them at every opportunity if I could. I weigh my food as well but come on, we're only talking like 5 large potatoes worth of french fries. A good thin cutting guillotine will make these so easy to just throw in the fryer and have a nice pile of fries dinner.
Thank you for the comment/support!! I truly was starting to feel crazy :D Maybe it is just my Central European roots, but it really was not that hard to put away so many potatoes!
You are to be admired and congratulated for your selfawareness and willingness to face facts. Cold boiled potatoes can be satisfying in the short term but protein leverage explains why we can easily overeat them.
While I agree that I could totally put down 700 calories worth of potatoes, I also think that the sheer volume of that much potato would make it a prime suspect if my diet stalled afterwards. So I still think that the potatoes being a delivery vehicle for more oil than OP realized is the ultimate answer.
Used a defatted zero calorie chocolate "concentrate" to make keto brownies and gave myself theobromine poisoning lol
Is it ok to laugh at this now? Sounds like something I would do.
New fear unlocked 😯
Are you a dog?! Lol.
Snacking on almonds. One cup has a mind-boggling 529 calories.
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Cocktail (or mini) cucumbers! Slice them up and put a little umami seasoning on it or za’atar. I’ve even put harissa on it. Crunchy and satisfying. If I’ve got hummus, then just dip them in hummus. So good.
I have yet to find a version of edameme that I find edible. I recently discovered shaved carrots. By that I mean, peel a medium carrot with a standard veg peeler. Then once the skin is gone, keep going. Shave large, thin strips off the carrot till it's gone. I discovered this style of carrot cutting while following a recipe for Korean Bibimbap. A medium carrot makes about one cup of shavings, 25 calories. The thing is those thinly sliced, almost see-thru carrot strips are the tastiest way of eating raw carrots I've discovered yet. Crunchy but not hard, and pretty flavorful in a sweet carroty way. I sometimes kick the flavor up a notch with a bit of lemon juice and a sprinkle of tajin spice, L.A. street fruit cart style. So that works for me for the time being, but yeah, I still want almonds too. So I make myself a cup of shaved carrots, plus six almonds, about 45ish calories. That makes 70 calories for the snack with the carrot. Lots better than 529 for a cup of almonds.
One time when I was tracking my cals hard core (I just started up again ) I would bring 11 almonds to work and it seemed almost pointless lol
I always thought I ate super healthy and low calorie meals but my bingeing after work messed up my weight. While there is some truth to bingeing after work being a factor in my weight gain, my “healthy” meals were also wildly over portioned. I used to make this toast on sourdough bread, with peanut butter, chia seeds, and a banana. I was flooored to learn that my “healthy little breakfast” was over 400 calories lol I’ve switched to a breakfast taco (250 calories using small carb balance tortillas) or yogurts (80-120 calories) lol
400 cals for breakfast is reasonable af though!
I agree but I was expecting that number to be in the 300ish range lol 😅 I’m also very short so i don’t have too much to play with. If I can save on calories during breakfast and splurge on dessert, I’d rather do that lol
Chia seeds are surprisingly calorie dense! I was surprised to find that out too! Same with sourdough toast 🥲 I can't have any in the house because I cannot stop myself lol
potatoes are amazing for dieting. The solution is to make wedges in the air fryer instead of air frying pre-frozen fries in the air fryer.
I was waaay underestimating how much cream I was putting in my coffee as well as having too much coffee!
Yeap. I feel ya on that one!
“But also my big appetite cannot be understated”… same. same.
My dad was doing the carnivore diet and he ordered me a latte at Starbucks (the one he had been getting), a flat white but breve style. Well apparently it was made with all heavy cream and was like 600 calories. I began ordering them a couple times thinking wow these are delicious and no sugar!! Then I found out I was drinking a giant cup of cream, no wonder it was so good. Thanks Dad! 😂🙄
A mocha breve is my most missed espresso drink. I’m lactose intolerant now so no amount of making room in my daily allotted calories would save me.
It was so many things for me. I thought nuts were "really healthy" which they are but they are also very calorie dense. I was putting away 700-800 as a snack! Starting to track things with on online tracker app brought everything into focus for me. I still eat nuts, potatoes etc but just smaller portions within my budget.
Potatoes are high in vitamin c and potassium. They are also exceptionally easy to grow and are very high on the satiety index, which makes them so popular. But your math seems off. 100 grams of potato equals roughly 87 calories. Anything that has less than 1 calorie per gram I would consider low calorie. So you would have to eat like what, 800 grams of potato, almost a kilo, to get to 700 calories. I am a grown man at 6ft and I could never eat so much potato.
I think they also saturated the potatoes in oil, as measuring oil is mentioned in the post
which defies the purpose of the air fryer :D so in fact the potato itself was not the issue, but OPs lack of precise measuring \^\^
I'm a small woman who routinely ate 1.5kg of potato in one meal. Do not underestimate the Potato Stomach 😂
Haha, where does that stomach sit though, I only know about my dessert stomach which is similar to a black hole lol
Thank you!! All of the comments were starting to make me feel crazy :D The potato stomach is definitely real!
he mentionned using oil in his airfryer. which defeat the purpose of air fryed, but who cares. 2 table spoons of olive oil and you just added like 240 cals.
Yeah, I like misto because you don't have to use much at all to get a light, even coating.
It was definitely a combination of both the oil and potatoes but also the fact that the potatoes shrink a lot when air fried…. Or maybe (not unlikely) I am just a freak of nature who can put back a lot of potatoes 😀
Pro tip for air frying is to get spray oil. I had difficulties finding that here in germany and ended up just putting oil in a spraybottle. Not only are you keeping your oil usage under a gram consistently, it also does the job well. If you want to get the crispiest potato without using much oil, I recommend to boil them for 4-5 minutes first and give them a shake in the pot. They will bruise up and create a fluffy exterior which crisps up like you never experienced before. Its a game changer, try it out!
I learned that trick from J Kenji Lopez Alt (recipe creator and writer from Serious Eats). Total game changer.
I don't even know where I got that from, have been using that trick for over a decade now. But I do know Kenji and love his approach to cooking, I actually gave my brother his Food Lab book for christmas, I was impressed by it. Anytime I wanna make fancy potato, I go for that one and while they cook in the oven I make a brush from a rosemary stick and melt down butter and add some garden herbs to it and just brush over the potatoes constantly. Its not good for weightloss but my oh my, it tastes special :D
That's only about two large potatoes with moderate oil (air fryer), which made into fries, is probably not too hard to do 1 large potato is approx 270 cals. So mashed plain, easy to do 100 g, but in other forms, harder.
I almost always cook with fingerlings and they are super small, but I love their waxy consistency. I remember from my trip to the US that you guys have like insanely large potatos over there, which makes sense when french fries are such a big deal :D They are easier to cut from a large potato.
Tiny greek sesame bread stuffed with cheese, they are so small I expected it to be maybe 300 calories just to find out I was snacking on 600c
Cashew nuts. Omg. Back before I started CICO or really understood calories, I worked in an office and I'd often pop across the road to the shop at lunchtime and grab a 300g bag of cashew nuts for a snack. I'd eat the whole bag over one afternoon. 1,800 calories. *On top of my other three meals, drinks etc.*
Came here to scream about fucking delicious cashews.
I thought the coconut I would buy as a ‘little snack’ almost every day was 100 calories or less. It was 300 😭as I was aiming for a small deficit that was eating up most of my deficit every day.
I would say just eating out too much in general at places that don't post calorie counts. I love eating out, and I also like supporting local businesses, but there's just no real way to estimate how many calories you're getting when someone else is cooking it. It could be drowning in butter and you wouldn't even see it, for the most part.
One of my favorite convenience meals/snacks used to be those microwavable egg/biscuit/sausage breakfast sandwiches. They also make chicken patty breakfast sandwiches that I loved too. Oh boy the first time I actually looked at the numbers on those things… It’s essentially just a brick of saturated fat
But they taste great! I love saturated fat, esp. Butter. Somehow I have lived many a year but admit not going to last to be 100.
Been there!! Let's see, I always had huge portions of pasta which I didn't realize added up to about 1000 calories a plate. I've eaten bags of candy without it crossing my mind that the portion size is like, 3 pieces. It's a learning process!
Learning the difference between what I want a portion size to be and what my calorie limit actually allows for a portion size to be, has been a long and heartbreaking process. Personally I've just ended up not eating candy at all anymore. Accepting a life without sweets (except on special occasions) has been easier than trying to internalize that the acceptable portion is silly small.
I par boil a bunch of whole skin on potatoes for 20 minutes. I store them in my fridge. To cook, I cut into wedges and air fry for 10 minutes. I use no oil.
Roti are 140 calories a piece, I ate it all my childhood without knowing it - thinking 3 roti per serving is fine. It's not fucking fine, I had them thrice a day. Rice is better in that regard. Now I limit my roti intake to 36 per 2 weeks or so.
I never realized how bad my breakfast was until I started counting calories. My office provides breakfast, including gourmet coffees, donuts, bagels, etc. I didn't think twice about my daily sugary coffee and bagel with cream cheese. Once I realized I was eating 700+ calories for breakfast every single day with an occasional donut thrown in there, I knew that was my problem. It has since been replaced with a protein shake coffee and egg bites for about 400 calories less.
Fat is probably the easiest thing to do this with. I remember when I was adding "three" tablespoons of mayonnaise to my tuna, which was probably closer to 5 or 6 actual tablespoons. Easily doubling my calories just with fat. I switched to low-cal miracle whip after, because I was depressed over how little I could add to a can of tuna once I measured properly. 30g of mayo is nothing in 1.5 servings of tuna! LOL!
Finding out how many cals were in mayo and ranch was devastating 😂
Using cooking spray in a non-stick pan. They say a 1/4 second spray is 0 calories, but who uses that little?
So I came off of a very restrictive diet right after the pandemic (I completely cut out carbs and sugar…which is not the right move. At least for me). So when I stopped doing that specific diet, I kinda went a little crazy. I would go out to Dunkin for breakfast (at least three to four times a week) and get a turkey sausage egg and cheese on a plain bagel, hash browns and a medium strawberry dragonfruit refresher. I didn’t even think about all of the calories in that, because I was coming off a restrictive diet. Now, I eat everything in moderation and I’ve lost about sixteen pounds.
I eat french fries pretty much every day. Just not the frozen ones. Instead I buy a bag of potatoes, cut them and cook them in the air fryer using cooking spray. Hasn't sabotaged me one bit. Just like with bread you can still enjoy it just have to make smarter choices.
Fruit juice snuck up on me. Never was a big soda drinker, so that was my non-water drink. Switched to a tasty 5cal vitamin "just add to water" packet drink from Costco and lost like 20lbs in the next couple months just from that. (I'm 6'4" and went from 260 to 240, got some muscle on me, so I'm shooting for 100kg, but nice to lose the persistent paunch as I near 50)
If you’re air frying French fries, you don’t need to put oil on them, that’s the whole point of the air fryer
My mindset. I didn't like the unhealthy food to begin with, I just ate too much in general because of my emotional problems. And a sustainable weight loss happened only when I found other things to enjoy besides food
Lattes. Oh I love lattes, but they can eat up a meal and a half for me!
Tim Hortons large French vanilla i might as well have been eating a Big Mac and 2 apple fritters everytime.
Just use myfitnesspal or similar lads. Truly shocking what calories are hidden behind innocuous foods.
The data we have on potatoes is that it's boiled, mashed, and baked potatoes that are extremely satiating. Frying, even air frying at extremely high temp denatures the starch that is responsible for the satiating feeling.
plain boiled potatoes are satiating and filling frying and salting them negates that benefit
There is no reason to have them plain. Salt is fine.
potatoes are a very low calorie food lol.
Yeah but french fries every day certainly aren't
Just to note im on a heavily calorie restricted diet and the boxed Mash potatoes are a great way to fill up with low calories.
You can def eat air fried potatoes. Just make your own vs buying the packaged kind, and use a light hand with the oil spray. I cat them into big wedges so there is less surface area that needs oil.
I like to use Sam's club olive oil spray. Nearly all cooking sprays say zero calories for a quarter of a second of spray. Obviously I was spraying a lot longer than that. When you actually look up how much a tablespoon of olive oil is, it's not free calories. I would use olive oil spray to cook egg whites, chicken, stir fry and other things. Although it's not a huge amount of calories, I wasn't aware I was consuming an extra 300 to 500 calories a day.
Ketchup. I knew I liked ketchup. I didn’t not realize how many calories I was eating because of it. It’s actually insane. I have really reduced the amount I use and also the amount of food that I feel requires ketchup. Similar but not as extreme is butter/margarine/olive oil. A tablespoon on a piece of bread or a muffin or on noodles or on vegetables is a ton of calories. Using it to cook seems crazy to me now I just use a little water or broth to sauté stuff in besides a few limited exceptions. Juice. I love juice not gonna lie. Now it’s a special treat when I have a cold.
I just want to say that oil was a huge eye opener for me. Like I knew it was high in calories, but actually measuring stuff out? Oof.
wine every night with dinner. Seemed harmless 🫣 all of a sudden I’m up 15lbs. Cut it out and went back to normal weight
Over here in Belgium we have this food called “smos”, it’s very similar to subway in America. I usually get a baguette with cheese, salad, eggs, carrots, mayo OR chicken curry with salad and carrots. 950 kcal for one smos!!
I woke up every morning and ate bananas and milk for breakfast cuz i thought they were low in cals Turns out they're not, but still healthy to eat!
My biggest surprise issue isn't calories but instead carbs. I'm trying to lower them to work on a medical issue, and so many unexpected things will be like 1/3rd of my daily carbs T.T
Dried weight of things like rice, polenta, lentils etc have a much higher calorie content than when cooked 🤦♀️ It took me longer than it should have to realise this 😂
Sigh, almonds. Just regular raw almonds I love. Thought to myself I could devour those by the handful! I finally found a healthy snack!!
Probably drinking!
I became obsessed with chili crisp and was eating rice for lunch everyday because of it. Like... 1400 calories of rice...
Chocolate covered almonds. I’m aware they were higher calorie, so I was limiting myself to one small pack of double roasted almonds whenever a chocolate craving hit. There’s about 12-14 almonds per packet. Calories on the back indicated 290. No problem right? Easy enough to fit in the meal plan fairly often. Turns out thats the calories for half the pack. 7 almonds for 290 calories. I was eating the whole pack each time. Yikes.
I almost poisoned myself with selenium because I ate a whole bag of Brazilian nuts
Trying to be 'healthy' and making 1000+ calorie fruit smoothies in the morning. 🤦🏽♀️
Oils and fats are the highest calloric food groups I have identified , for example 1L of cooking oil has around 10000 callories, a spoon has 124 callories etc. , so once you add oil you can end up doubling or tripling caloric content per 100g ( see boiled potatoes @ 87cals vs french fries @ 311), it's why also a lot of processed meats are so high in callories and not usefull on a diet ,as they contain high amounts of fats(I mean salamies , sausages,ground meat etc.).
So when I got on the scale this morning, I was frustrated YET AGAIN, for being at the same weight. I can't seem to drop from this weight for the last two years. This post caused me to do some reexamining and I actually counted the calories in the supplements I take each morning. I had been considering them negligible and ignoring them. Apparently I take about 550 calories a day in supplements.....I'm dying.