"Healthy foods" calorie content shock

[waistchallenge]

I'm doing 20/4 fasting and that's meant I've had to start calorie counting for the first time just to monitor what I'm having during my four hour eating window.

A couple of things have been a bit shocking to me even though I thought I was relatively aware of what to eat and what not to eat, etc.

All of these things that I had perceived to be "healthy" have come as a shock to me:

Olive oil 123 calories per tablespoon I had no idea it was so calorie dense. I thought it was healthier than other oils and I've never paid much attention to how much I was using. I could easily be adding several hundred calories to a dish by just up-ending the bottle and adding a big glug of oil to the pan.

Oatcakes 37 calories per oatcake, 8 oatcakes per individual pack. Almost 300 calories!

Houmous I couldn't believe there's close to 1000 calories in those standard 300g pots! 😯 I have often eaten half a pot as a snack/small meal and had no idea of this. So it turns out my "healthy snack" of oatcakes and houmous was actually extremely calorific, I might as well have been eating a chocolate bar.

If anyone has any others to share, please do. I need to be more aware from now on!

Don't look up the calories in nuts OP, a portion is almost depressingly small, 26 calories in half a walnut 😂

Those things aren’t unhealthy though just because they have a lot of calories. They have goodness in them, unlike a lot of junk food. I prefer to focus on nutrition & health, rather than calories.

You don't surely eat 100g from the jar though?! 😅

And I've been stiffed - my pack of Nairn's only has 7 per plastic pack!! Usually only have 3 though.

Calories are a measurement of energy.

We should not think of food as 'good' or 'bad' or 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' we should be looking at what is in food and drinks.

A diet coke has fewer calories than orange juice, but orange juice is packed with vitamin C. Even better an orange has fibre, about 10% of your daily recommended intake.

If you are counting calories you might go for the diet coke but if you are looking for nutrition an orange is better.

Fats are necessary to get vitamins from food into our bodies.

Different foods impact on our bodies differently, fats are high in calories but they also make you feel full for longer.

People will happily have a sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch every day. A tuna and mayo sandwich has over 400 calories and crisps are about 150, and we think that is a fairly light lunch.

An Aunt Bessie's frozen chicken dinner with roast potatoes, veg and gravy has fewer calories than the sandwich (349) Sainsbury single serve tiramisù has 211 calories.

Which do you think will keep you full longer?

I’ll raise you your tahini for some crunchy peanut butter, also straight from the jar. Now we’re talking calories.

People are missing the point. It can be a shock that something we think of as a snack or a cooking and (humour, olive oil) if not kept an eye on can sabotaje a calorie déficit diet very easily.

Mine is cheese. My "handful" of grated cheese would be nearly 400 calories added to my meal.

I still have cheese, and olive oil, but no longer use the blank cheque approach I.e. just have as much as I feel like and it all sort of counted as "one portion"!

lightbulb moment when cc for weight loss...pumpkin seeds
so small so salty do delicious straight out of the bag (costco organic) 560 per 100 g.

Sushi is far more calorific than lots of us realise.

I also think some treat/demonised foods are surprising low. A "luxury" ice cream like a Solero is 98 calories, a standard pack of walker crisps 130, a two finger kit kat just over 100. So all on a par with treat bars marketed as "diet" snacks that are much more expensive and not as nice. Even a Magnum is only about 250.

Hoummus scores extremely low on the glycaemic load index, therefore does not cause a spike in blood glucose levels. This makes it a healthier option than sugary foods with fewer calories.

calories are a part of the jigsaw for controlling body fat, not the whole picture.

@Sparklfairyis right, some people are missing the point. I don't eat anything like Aunt Bessie's frozen chicken dinner, tiramisu, diet bars or Muller light that were mentioned. I meant things that we would think of as healthy, like olive oil and oatcakes.

Sushi would be another interesting example, thanks.

Definitely try move away from this way of thinking. Healthy fats are good for you and satiating. I lost 2 stone (now done to my ideal/lowest I should go weight ie didn't have a huge amount to lose, often the hardest bit) in 90 days with zero portion control and lots of the healthy fats you mention, but I dropped flour and sugar!! No calorie counting etc.

I wasn't saying you do, it would be impossible for me to estimate a home made meal. The point still stands, meat, roast potatoes, veg and a sugary pudding often has fewer calories than a sandwich and crisps.

But if you were somewhere with nothing else to eat you may well pick the sandwich as healthier or at lease lighter.

If you are looking at glucose and GI bread is treated identically to refined sugar.

I would think olive oil was 'healthy' or at least part of a healthy diet but not oatcakes.

I suppose it depends what you mean by 'healthy'.

They're nutritious calories though. Better to eat a handful of nuts than a biscuit.

The problem is there's a grey area where people think something is 'healthy' i.e. olive oil, and then drown their salads/cooking with it. Almost like they think they can have 'extra' because they've labelled it as healthy.

As megletthesecond said, a handful of nuts is better for you than a biscuit for a number of reasons - it'll keep you fuller longer, so overall you'll eat less across the day (hopefully). Plus there's actually nutrition in nuts, so they're not empty calories like a biscuit.

But sometimes people kind of think 'oh this is healthy, I can/should eat more in one sitting' than they would if it was something that they know is unhealthy.

So that snack of nuts could end up being way more than a handful, whereas they'd have restricted themselves to being 'good' and 'only' having one biscuit iyswim. Some people play a bit more fast and loose with portion sizes with the 'healthy' stuff. You can eat healthy food and still eat too much of it.

I have to weigh my cheese now, just to be sure. I'm still greedy with it

I do love humus with carrots and probably consume FAR too many calories from that habit alone.

Cereal was the shocker for me. Very high in calories and sugar.

I had to stop buying nuts. I was probably doubling my daily calorie intake by grabbing a handful practically every time I walked through the kitchen 😳

I don't pay attention to calories in oil and good fats, meat etc, just cut the big carbs and I lose.

I get you though OP, I remember reading about a salad from a chain restaurant being more calories than a burger.
My shockers were dried fruit. I used to snack on a bag of dates thinking it was a healthy snack, 1000 calories 🤯
Calories in a hot chocolate from a coffee shop - 300

When I'm having a day off I have a couple of hot drinks out and about, so 600 cals just on hot drinks plus everything else. It really adds up

Oh no, I love dates! 😩

Thanks for the heads up, though!

Just because olive oil and nuts and seeds are healthy, doesn't mean that we can have limitless amount of it. If people have a tendency to overeat on olive oil (by that I mean it goes beyond that person's calorie expenditure), then some restraint has to be applied to how much we use. Cutting out carbs is also a way of calorie restriction, some people respond better to that, some people need to cut down on healthy fats. It's all about moderation.

Depends what cereal. Weetabix, shredded wheat are OK

Most mini magnums are 147, and they make a good treat!

The calorie count I always think is "unfairly high" is seeds and nuts