I Can't Beleive How Many Calories are in that Food!

by Meri Raffetto

There are many things that can affect weight such as hormones, age, stress, and metabolism to name a few. We can offer advice and suggestions to help with food cravings, emotional eating, and increasing metabolism, but ultimately weight loss success comes down to one important thing. Calories. I know this isn't something new and it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it is the truth. The biggest problem is that most people don't know how many calories are in certain foods that they eat everyday and how quickly they add up.

As Americans we are so accustomed to large portion sizes and high calorie foods that we often don't realize just how many calories we are consuming. Here are a few food items to test your calorie level knowledge.

Prime Rib

Everyone loves a steak once in awhile and don't worry – we wouldn't dream of telling you not to have it. The problem lies in how much we eat. An average serving of Prime Rib or other steak is about 8 ounces. This is not a huge steak and will appear very average on your plate and yet it will cost you about 600 calories. Add in the baked potato with fixings and you are up to a 900 calorie meal.

Tip: when eating steak have a 4 ounce portion size and fill your plate up with veggies so you can enjoy your steak and not pile on the calories.

Scones

Do you ever run into Starbucks for a coffee and a quick scone for a snack? Many people do this and it can become habitual. The pastries and breads in the case look too good to pass up! One of those Starbucks scones will cost you about 450-500 calories- equivalent to an entire meal. Add the latte and you are now up to about 700 calories. A good rule of thumb is to keep snacks between 100-200 calories- you can see that a coffee and scone at 700 is far too many calories.

Tip: skip the scones, pastries, and doughnuts. Keep a healthy snack with you like some trailmix or granola bar.

Bagels

It seems like just a little bread, but bagels have grown in size over the years. A standard serving size of a bagel used to be 2 ounces but now the marketplace bagels weigh up to 6 ounces, provide 360 calories and count as 6 servings of grains (70 grams of carbohydrates!). Once again, this is something we would typically grab as a snack or part of our breakfast and provides a lot of calories for one food item.

Tip: Eat half of a market place bagel or buy store bought bagels that are 2 ounces in size.

Taco Salad

This always seems like it would be the best choice at a Mexican restaurant. After all it is a salad! Not quite. A typical fast food taco salad will cost you about 800 calories.

Tip: a chicken soft taco at a fast food restaurant is only around 200 calories providing a better choice.

Restaurant Sandwiches

This can be a good choice but beware of specialty sandwich shops! The original turkey sandwich at Schlotzsky's Deli will cost you around 763 calories.

Tip: Avoid specialty breads such as foccacia and rolls. Stick with regular bread and ask for a light amount of mayonnaise or whatever spread that they use.

On average, it takes about a 45 minute, moderate paced walk to burn 250 calories so you can see it is much easier putting the calories in than expending them through activity. Learning about calories and paying attention to portions sizes is the number one way to win at weight loss.

Want some help? That's what we are here for. As dietitians we know how many calories are in certain foods. One of the benefits of the Balance Program is that we can review your food records each week to help you create that calorie deficit, increase your metabolism, and utilize your calories more efficiently. We also can show you how to make small, practical changes and help you to overcome obstacles that may get in the way such as food cravings, and emotional/stress eating. Click here to see how our programs can help!