What is the less caloric "typical" american breakfast food?

My host family is taking me out to have a typical american breakfast; this involves, choosing either waffles, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, cheese omelet, french toast, hashbrowns, etc. I fear it will be hard to avoid many calories - and I just can't say no, you have to understand my situation as an exchange student, that would be a bit rude and I could be offending them :S

What is the lesser evil?

I was searching for the calories of each on the website and, really, pancakes or waffles seem to be the best because I could eat them without syrup (I only plan on eating one btw). But then again I kind of wanted to avoid carbs...

l need your opinion! Thank you!

if they can make an omelet, then can make it without cheese....

I wonder where youll be going...most places you can do like...an egg beater (egg substitute) omelet with whatever veggies.  Try asking for a little oil or butter as possible.

That **should** be fine...

Waffles get amazingly bad (but oh oh oh so good). I know IHOP just started doing their stuffed french toast again....Im now drooling on my keyboard. Probably a whole day's cals though

OMG! I LOVE to go out for breakfast and I did worry abouti t way back when, But I have discovered that no matter where I go I can order a 4 egg white omelette with mushrooms and ham, with some fresh tomato and cucumber slices instead of hashbrowns.  Or I order a fruit salad (only if it is fresh fruit, not canned) with cottage cheese.   Or if at a complete loss I will sometimes order oatmeal with a side of apple sauce.   I have ordered these items even in the crappiest little truck stops and they are always more than happy to accommodate me.  A LOT of people are eating like this, we are not weird.

thank you! I will probably do this ^^

If you can get oatmeal (made with water and not milk/cream) then that would be a good option. As mentioned above also, egg white/egg beater omelettes made without cheese and lots of veggies are actually very healthy and can be made relatively big without being so high in calories. If you run out of options, I would suggest going for the pancakes. I know that some people here would say otherwise, but once when I went out to Denny's I "splurged" and got their pancakes. They were very big, and there were 3 of them, and when I checked their website for the nutritional info, without syrup and butter (which I did not use and which you said you will not use) it was only 400 calories with 5 grams of fat. That's not bad at all. You said you wanted to avoid carbs - but if you're out of options I'm sure they would not be bad. 

I love egg white omelets or scrambled egg whites- a little salt and pepper tastes quite good without adding butter.

thank you very much everyone! :) I really got some insights!

It's one meal, and it's supposed to be a special occasion. There's no point in going to to order a 'typical American breakfast' if you're going to eat a bowl of plain oatmeal or an egg-white omelette with no cheese. Order whatever you want and enjoy it! You can always eat much less for the rest of the day to make up for the extra calories.

Wherever you go they'll probably have a 'sampler plate' of some kind that gives you a pancake and some eggs and bacon etc. There's no law that says you have to eat the whole thing, but don't deprive yourself of trying the food just because it has a lot of calories. I assume you're not going to be going out to breakfast every week - if you were, then it would be time to start worrying.

When DH and I go to breakfast (maybe once every six months now because it's not cheap and it IS terribly calorific!) we share an order of biscuits and gravy and he orders a breakfast that comes with pancakes or a waffle and I just have half of one of his pancakes, or a small bit of the waffle so that I can enjoy the special treat and not overeat or waste food.

I agree completely with Kajikit. But, you don't have to have a major blow-out on your breakfast.  And you don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.  There are a lot of options that won't seem "weird" to your family.  My son and I go out to breakfast from time to time.  I usually order scrambled eggs and wheat toast with butter on the side and hash browns.  Nothing weird about that. Pancakes without lots of syrup?  Now that's weird

If its IHOP they have several less than 600 calories options on the back of it...not sure if this is true at all of em, but they all looks decent to me.  Take note though that not all of them are that it has a little symbol next to each meal that signifies if its low in carbs low in calories and such.

The saying starts out "Breakfast like a king".....but I'd go with an egg over easy, dry toast and a couple strips of bacon at 250-300 calories. And lots of hot sauce and coffee.

Almost any breakfast place will have toast, eggs and various fruits.  I'd stick with that.  Toast has much less sugar and fat than pancakes or waffles. If you wanna splurge, have a sausage or a couple strips of bacon.

buisciuts and gravy? for breakfast? in america? never heard of it haha. even the lowliest of diners should be able to do eggs any way you like them, toast, oatmeal, fruit.

Biscuits and gravy is a southern American breakfast. It has migrated to the northern states (I'm in Michigan) but it's certainly not a traditional breakfast for me....same with grits....nope, not here.

Another suggestion: Ask your host family to have everyone order their favorite breakfast and have everyone share a piece off their plate. Then you don't have to eat a full order of everything 'American'.

Now where's the grits?  Gotta have grits.

or how about eggs benedict and just ask for the holindaise (sp?) sauce on the side?  its basically a poached egg with either spinach or canadian bacon on top of a small english muffin.  canadian bacon is very low in fat and not high in calories at all.  the eggs are poached so there is no added fat in the cooking process.  my fav is to have the spinach instead of the canadian bacon..i think its called eggs florentine?  mmm..get your greens, protein, carb...all at once! 

and like the others said, its a special occasion and its just one meal.  a little splurge wont hurt ya!  have fun and enjoy the good times! 

Ohhh c´mon! Its a breakfast! you have the rest of the day to burn extra calories eaten, if it was a dinner ok maybe u can worry. As the others say, is a special ocassion, why just dont enjoy it. The family u are staying at, perhaps feel dissapointed if they are taking u out to a restaurant and u order oatmeal or fruits!! you can have that at their house any ordinary day!

I'd go with a pancake or waffle with grits and bacon on the side.  About 200cal for the pancake, 50cal for the syrup (go easy), 100cal for the grits (about 2/3 a cup), and 100cal for two strips of bacon.  :)

i'd personally go for just the omelette without the cheese. eggs aren't THAT high-cal, plus they're full of protein to keep you full.

if they have a fruit bar or something like that, you could have a bowl of fruit too.

i'd definetely avoid the gravies and syrups too.