What The Restaurant Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

The other day I wrote about a study where people who kept an accurate food journal lost twice as much weight as participants who didn't. You can find it here.

Below are quite a few reasons why that's the case. I think most people know when they're eating high calorie food but many times I don't think a lot of folks realize how many calories are in those foods.

For example, Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion contains 2210 calories. Even if you split it with 2 other people you've just consumed over 700 calories on just an appetizer.

Want to go one worse? Another Outback appetizer, their Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing has 2,900 calories! It ranked #1 on Men's Health list of The Worst Food in America.

Here are some more:

Burger King Whopper with Cheese - 770 calories

Dunkin' Donuts Supreme Omelet Cheese Croissant Sandwich - 490 calories with more than half (270) from fat

Dunkin' Donuts Egg Cheese Bagel Sandwich - 470 calories and 1130 mg of sodium

Dunkin' Donuts Sausage Egg Cheese Croissant Sandwich - 1300 mg of sodium and 630 calories, 400 of them from fat (a whopping 68%!)

So you're smarter than that, right? You know better than to order a sandwich on a croissant or bagel if you're trying to cut back. Think you'd be safe ordering a Turkey sandwich at Dunkin'? Think again. Their Turkey and Cheese Sandwich contains 510 calories and 1380 mg of sodium.


Are you a fan of the Dairy Queen Blizzard? Of course, everyone knows that ice cream is not diet food but do you know how much that DQ splurge could cost you? Here are calorie counts for a variety of large Blizzards:

Thin Mint Blizzard, the July flavor of the month - 1080 calories and 31 teaspoon of sugar.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard - 1300 calories

Heath Bar Blizzard - 1260 calories

Oreo Cookie Blizzard - 980 calories

M&M's Blizzard - 1150 calories

Banana Split Blizzard - 780 calories

Snickers Blizzard - 1140 calories

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard - 1060 calories

Strawberry CheeseQuake Blizzard - 930 calories


Think you can't go wrong with a salad? Guess again. Check out the calorie and fat count in these popular chain restaurant salads.

Chili's Southwestern Cobb Salad - 970 calories

Pizzaria Uno's Chicken Waldorf Salad - 920 calories and 62 grams of fat

Arby’s Santa Fe Salad - 844 calories and 55 grams of fat

T.G.I. Friday's Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad - 750 calories and 50 grams of fat


I'm not saying you should never enjoy a Blizzard or other less than perfect food choices but if you're interested in dropping fat you need to be aware of exactly what you're taking into your body. How something is prepared - deep fried, drenched in high calorie cream sauce or salad dressing, battered, etc. makes a difference. Even fat-free and sugar-free muffins, including bran muffins, still contain about 600 calories and are not your best choice.


Here's an eye opening article to check out:
16 Secrets The Restaurant Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

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