Beware of Those Sneaky Calories

You’re having trouble losing weight but just can’t understand why. You eat many of your meals out – but are really careful with what you chose.  So you think!  The problem with eating out is that we always don’t know what is in the food. It is great that several cities, including NYC, have posted calories on some menus. However the majority of foods either don’t have the calories listed – or if they do, we may not be paying close attention to the label!

Here is where I find Sneaky Calories creeping into my clients diets:

Balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing
Many people think balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing (or any vinaigrette dressing for that matter) is low in calories because it contains mainly vinegar. Wrong! It is 3/4 oil. The little container (4 T.) from Cosi’s contains 359 calories and 39 grams of fat.

Japanese orange salad dressing
Even that yummy orange ginger Japanese salad dressing can contain up to 200 calories and 11 gm of fat for 2 T. That little take out container they give you contains 4 T. And I used to ask for extra as I thought it was low calorie!

Caesar, Cobb and Chef Salads
Many of us associate salads with dieting. Not these salads! The fat and calorie laden dressing and/or ingredients can add up to over 1000 calories and  80 grams of fat. Steer clear. If you must, at least get dressing on the side and use sparingly. With the Cobb salad, pick only 2 fattening ingredients (cheese, avocado, bacon, egg). Same goes for the Chef salad (cheese, ham, roast beef, egg).

Beverages
Flavored waters such as Vitamin water contains 125 calories for a 20 oz bottle.
A glass of wine (5 – 8 oz) contain 120-200 calories depending upon your the size of the pour

Tuna salad sandwich
Fish is healthy, therefore it must be low in calories. Not necessarily as it depends how it is prepared. Tuna salad from a deli tends to be loaded with mayo and tuna packed in oil. The sandwiches are also usually jumbo sized. A deli tuna salad sandwich can contain 650 calories and 35 grams of fat. The tuna melts are even worse – containing over 1000 calories and 60 grams of fat (Cosi’s again!).

Wraps
A wrap bread typically contains 240 calories as compared to 160 calories for the 2 slices of bread in a plain old sandwich. To make matters worse, wraps tend to contain higher fat ingredients such as special sauces, cheese, caesar dressing, etc.  Some wraps can contain 900 calories and up to 50 grams of fat!

Yogurt parfait
Yogurt, granola, topped with fruit. Sounds healthy and low calorie – right? Not necessarily. A 16 oz (the usual size) strawberry parfait is 400 calories, 12 gm fat and 52 gm carbs.

Olive oil
We know that olive oil has health benefits but tend to forget it is high in calories. A Tablespoons contains 120 calories and 14 grams of fat. Keep in mind that our fat cells really don’t know the difference between a good fat and a bad fat.
Check out my previous post on olive oil.

Oil added to restaurant food
A piece of grilled fish can easily contain an additional 150 calories of fat from added oil. 2 cups of sauteed spinach can contain an additional 175 calories from oil. Check out my previous post on estimating fat found in restaurant food
Remember that cutting out 50 calories a day will make you lose 5 pounds a year!