Live and Learn -- the Hidden Horrors (Carbs) of Restaurant Eating!

 

Having just returned from a Thanksgiving trip where we ate out a lot, and having been running around all weekend, and eating out a lot, I just want to reinforce how important it is to be ever so vigilant about what and how much you eat!

Here are some examples of things I've had recently -- and I can say, you have be really careful in keeping your carbs and calories within plan!  Bean-based soups and squash soups are inherently carby, so it's easy to get in too many!

Bertucci's meatball -- 160 calories for ONE meatball -- hmm - same calories as a protein shake, but NOT 30 grams of protein.

Cheesecake factory -- GIANT RIPOFF -- really.  The thing that make the most sense was chicken white bean chili -- a bowl was $12!  They usually serve it with rice, so it looks like a huge meal, but it's really a bowl of soup.  Never again!  I bascially ate the chicken out of it -- maybe an ounce of chicken in there.  I took the rest of it home, and added a couple of tablespoons to 2 ounces of chicken -- and it made four meals -- but they are on the carby side, and I had to add some chiles to improve the flavor. 

Local restaurant -- Black bean soup.  It was not pureed into a soupy texture, was basically black beans cooked with tomatoes and onions.  Very good -- I mixed in protein powder, but still only ate a couple of ounces.  Took the rest home, and will mix with lots of chicken and a little soup. 

Friend's house -- coq au vin -- My friend is a great cook, so the chicken was moist and tender.  But finally, a nice big chunk of protein -- I had about 3 oz -- my first actual real protein at dinner, and I was hungry!  It had been several hours since dinner.  But with sauce, some shallots and the wine sauce, the carbs can add up.  I used just enough veggies and sauce to keep the meat moist.  But that was my first real meal, and I could definitely feel the restriction, and definitely felt full for a long time (unlike with shakes and yogurt).

Overall, my sleeve has still not met a food she didn't like -- so I'm still living with the food **** sleeve!  But I am learning every day how to better manage my food choices to enable getting my protein through food, not shakes, yogurt and powder.

I am looking forward to introducing eggs back -- I've seen that lots of people have problems with eggs, so I think I'll wait until I'm home for a meal to try that!

My Fitness Pal is a godsend, since it has info from many restaurants already.  If I know in advance where I'm going, I check MFP and make my food selections and determine portion size before I go -- that way I know exactly how much to eat.  It's far better than coming home and find out that one meatball was 160 calories!

Even so, I have been on plan most days, and the days I went over, it was 10 calories -- but still within my carb, protein and fat limits.  I live to stay at least 100 calories below plan, especially if I'm eating out to allow for errors, so going over by 10 calories was a big BEWARE for me!

You made very good points in your post.  I was shocked at how many carbs are in the skim milk I've been drinking!  I had also had two days in a row where I had to bring something with me for my first full-liquid serving of the day.  Unsweetened applesauce cups were what I had on hand, which were also shelf-stable.  Ack, the carbs! 

I agree 100% with your endorsement of MFP, too.  It's so great to be able just to plug those foods in and have the math done and the accountability claimed. 

Keep up the good work! 

Just be careful w/ MFP. I have found many items, with many confirmations that had the wrong nutritional info. I always check labels and correct the info when I find a mistake but with restaurant food, it's harder. When I'm going out to eat, I try to find the actual nutritional info on the restaurant's website and go by that (if it's available). fatsecret and dottis weight loss zone has them too.

Oh my yes!  MFP seems sometimes to randomly generate data!  LOL.

I had 3 0z of chicken with 1 gram of protein once!  And I've found several other errors.  

Usually, with any brand name or restaurant, there are several entries -- so I check three or four to see if they are consistent.  And I cook --  I have a recipe program that calculates nutritional info.  That gives me at least a ballpark body of knowledge to figure out if the MFP is reasonable!  

I used to use Fitday, and I've also used Dottie's site and the restaurant sites.  Most of the time when I check a restaurant site, so far, it's matched MFP -- but even some of those don't make sense.  For example, how can 1 naked rib at Famous Dave's have more carbs than one with sauce?  It's meat.  Meat with no sauce should not have more carbs that the same meat with sauce.  So I emailed them to ask -- of course they just sent be back the same info.  So it is frustrating!