What food or drink shocked the &?$! out of you when you looked it up, and how many calories did it have?

And did you look it up before or after you ate it?

I'll start.

Cobb salad Buona Beef. 953

(I left their dressing off and had Cobb salad no dressing Buona Beef 533 plus Ranch dressing 130 calories = 663. )

I looked it up after I ate it. That was lunch. I try to stay at 1000 calories a DAY. *eyeroll*

Foods are sneaky. That's why I try my best to look them up before I eat. Once I went to Macaroni Grill, I was looking up nutritional info beforehand, I saw a Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia. You think, tilapia, that's good right? He'll no! It had something like 1300 calories. Over what I was eating at that time. It was a good lesson. Don't always trust the fish as a good choice. Lol.

Foods are sneaky. That's why I try my best to look them up before I eat. Once I went to Macaroni Grill, I was looking up nutritional info beforehand, I saw a Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia. You think, tilapia, that's good right? He'll no! It had something like 1300 calories. Over what I was eating at that time. It was a good lesson. Don't always trust the fish as a good choice. Lol.

you can trust the fish. It's what encrusting the fish that you should never trust.

I drink a (what I thought at the time) was a 5oz glass of red wine at nite (110 calories). For the heck of it 1 day I thought I'd measure my wine glass. It was 12oz. 250 calories. I'd been drinking that 12 oz glass of wine for months without knowing it. And ud think I'd at least get a buzz from 12 oz. But no. Guess becuz I THOUGHT I was getting less that affected my buzz?

Anyway, that stopped right away. I now measure any glass I drink anything out of

those Bariatric Advantage chewable Calcium -chocolate. those little guys are 20 calories each!!!

I used to always get the Big Mouth Bites (4 burger sliders with a few onion strings) at Chili's before starting this lap band journey. I looked them up a couple weeks ago and they are 1,790 calories and 111 grams of fat...and that doesn't even count the fries that come with it! I'm so glad now to be aware of what is going into me and keeping track of it daily.

My wife and I eat out once or twice a week. Before we go I go on line and look up the calorie, fat and carb content of what I will order. This of course limits me to chain restaurants, but I know what I am going to order before I leave the house.

There's a new restaurant down the street from me called BJ's Brewhouse. I went there the other day just to see who they are, what they have, etc. I checked all the things that looked tasty as a method of narrowing down what I wanted to eat... the lowest calorie count item in virtually the whole menu was the Bison Burger... which believe it or not was not filling enough (I didn't eat the bun) so I ordered the tomato bisque soup thinking it would be fairly straightforward and healthy. The burger was 580 and then the soup came in at 633 and I was like... thank god I went for an hour and not just a half hour of laps in the pool today. their salads were all over 1k calories.

No wonder so many of us gain weight because of going out to eat. We are better off cooking our own meals but then again who wants to cook every night. Many places now offer the "lite side" menu.

Before surgery, I would go to a chain restaurant for lunch and order one of the specialty burgers, you know the one, a half pounder with melted cheese dripping down the sides, a slab of bacon nestled on top, some kind of flavored mayo concoction to push the flavor over the top, then to make it "healthy", lettuce, tomatoes and onions for color. Oh wait,, don't forget the pile of fries just in case you were wanting for more. I remember biting into that buger while greasy juices slipped through my. fingers, and chomping into it like it was my last meal, oh and don,t forget the fries, plenty of ketchup too. I remember leaving many a restaurant in a semi food coma and my gut just about to bust. But, I got my moneys worth.

But now, although I'm only a little more than a month since surgery, I can't even imagine getting more than a bite or two down before the sleeve sent me a warning. I will definitely be concious of wwhat I eat, but I'm begining to trust the sleeve and I can work together to keep me from becoming hypnotized by food that I don't need, probably dont't want, and get very little nutrtion from. So trust your WLS tool, it rally won't let you over eat unless you purposly work at it. Oh, and BTW, hold the fries.

When I first started to eat solid food I limited myself to 1000 calories a day. No cheating, weigh everything. If I ate a salad in a restaurant vinaigrette dressing on the side. I found that till today I have trouble eating red meat. I don't eat red meat other than a hamburger the I make myself. Stay away from anything that is made with cream clam chowder, bisque, etc. Fish always a good choice. No breading, fried,or oil. Tell the waiter and also to be easy on the salt. As time went on I increased my caloric intake to 1200 then 1500 calories,as long as I was still loosing weight. I have surpassed my goal and eat 2300 calories a day. I still stick with the plan. No pasta bread,rice, cake, candy, Ice cream. I am having no trouble maintaining. You have invested a lot. Is it worth eating anything that will put you back where you started? Hope that my thoughts are worth considering. Best wishes for continued success.

@@vincereautmori, "like it was my last meal" .... Omg I can relate. Lol.

@@stanpry, wise words!

I guess you guys would cringe at my maintenance diet. First off, I've never weighed, measured or tracked my food. I know I'm getting 30-40g Protein in my smoothie everyday and I mentally keep track of my liquids so I know I'm getting at least 64oz. Other than that I simply eat when I'm hungry and just until satisfied, not full. I have no idea how many calories or carbs I consume. I simply try to eat a healthy, balanced diet of protein, veggies, fruit and whole grains. Never limited fat and have had all of the "bad" stuff IN MODERATION..... Alcohol, chips, ice cream, cake, bread, Pasta, etc. in fact, I had a pancake with butter and maple syrup and sausage for Breakfast this morning. And a 1/4 pound bacon-Swiss burger with guacamole and mayo and fries last week (of course it took me 3 days to finish)

I didn't have surgery to be on a diet the rest of my life. If I wanted to keep track of everything and restrict what I can and can't eat I could have stayed on weight watchers. I read a lot of threads on here about people stressing over numbers....number of calories, grams of carbs, losses/gains on the scale, minutes at the gym, etc. Postop life really doesn't have to be that complicated.

In reply to Kindle you had gastric sleeve. Different ball game than lap band. Glad to hear that you can eat what what you want. Most people would have all sorts of trouble trying to eat as you do. Lucky for you.

In reply to Kindle you had gastric sleeve. Different ball game than lap band. Glad to hear that you can eat what what you want. Most people would have all sorts of trouble trying to eat as you do. Lucky for you.

Sorry, this was posted in the General Weight Loss Surgery Forum. Didn't notice it was a lap bander discussion. You're right, your meal plans are probably different. But good luck to everyone. "Make it work" (ok, so I watch Project Runway )