I will never eat another SONIC chili cheese coney again!!!!! 600 calories!!

Oh my goodness!! I am still in shock!! I just found out a SoNIC chili cheese coney is 600 calories!! This is my first day and I was putting in what I ate. LOL!! But really not so funny! I had no idea!

Anyway, I guess I will be more selective next time. Any suggestions for a decent fast lunch???? WE do have a mc ds, wendys, subway, taco bell, kfc, LJC, lotta burger, sonic and arbys here. I find the calories to be burned and the calories to be eaten confusing. So, do I need to eat the number of calories suggested and also burn xxx number of calories a day or what?

I would appreciate your input- ty

PACK YOUR LUNCH!

Id go with the corn dog next time ...250 calories :)

both of the above suggestions are good too, but your best bet if you can't pack a lunch is probably subway, but i'd avoid their dressing, chips and cookies.

Hi!  I work 24 hours at a time and I seem to find myself eating out a lot.  Here lately I have been really good at packing my lunch with lean cuisine meals & vegetables.  When I do go out though, here are just a few things I get:  MCDS  I usually get a happy meal and give the toy to my son.  Or I just get the grilled chicken but without bacon on it.  At subway, I get usually any six inch sub.  Most of them are pretty low in calories.  Just make sure you don't over indulge in the mayo!!!  I usually won't get the meatball or tuna unless I have cycled and really lost a lot of calories (just because they have more cals)!  At sonic, the grilled chicken wrap is really actually pretty good.  My biggest down fall is the fries.  I absolutely love french fries and have had to force myself not to order them anymore!!  But when I do, I just get a kids meal like at MCDS.

Also, remember when you're on the run you can always stop by a grocery store for an apple, snack bar, or what have you.

Look at the taco bell website.  If you MUST eat out, they have food that you can order "fresco style".  This is where they take out the cheese and add kind of a pico de gallo salsa instead. I ordered the Fresco Style chicken Tacos and I think they are only 170 calories and less than 7 grams of fat...But they have other fairly decent things that you can order too.

OR get a grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo.

I tend to eat out often and have found these items to fit into my calorie budget.

Wendy - baked potato, side salad, chili
Subway - subway club, roasted chicken - I load up on the veggies.  I use vinegar as the only dressing to minimize additional calories
Taco Bell - spicy chicken soft taco or chicken ranchero soft taco fresca style as mentioned above

Also at mcd you can get a grilled chicken sandwich without the bun and a side salad and apple dippers......subway also has some healthier options. With this said I have to mention that I hardly ever go to mcd's but really like someones suggestion of the grocery store...also have some healthy snacks in your car so you don't have to stop to :)

Thank you all for your great ideas! I will put them to good use!

 

 I know how you feel. I called the nutrition info hotline for butterfingers and found out today that 1 fun sized butterfinger has a whopping 100 calories in it. FUN SIZE! I shutter to imagine how many cals a whole bar has in it. (I rarely eat chocolate bars, so I'm not sure.)

I always make it a point to check the calorie contents before I go to eat somewhere.  That way I avoid any 600 calorie suprises.  Be careful going to any sit down restaurants, some of their menus items can pack 1000 or even 2000 calories in one sitting!

Boston Market and Panda Express are very diet-friendly if you order properly!

Boston Market ... roasted turkey, garlic dill new potatoes, green beans. (Don't eat the cornbread unless you have an extra 130 calories to spare)

Panda Express ... steamed veggies, mushroom chicken and green bean chicken. (The broccoli beef is a good deal, too ... just 150 calories).  (Don't eat the fortune cookie unless you have an extra 30 caloires to spare and watch the soy sauce if you're watching sodium.)

Sonic ... corn dog (250) and tater tots (220) are a pretty yummy (albeit high fat) way to go.

Taco Bell ... 2 grilled steak or chicken tacos, al fresco (no cheese)

Subway ... 6 " turkey sub, no mayo/no cheese (or just choose 1)

KFC ... mashed potato/gravy side dish (130 calories),  (Don't eat a 220 calorie biscuit!) original recipe wing (130 calories), original recipe drumstick (140 calories), corn on the cob (70 calories)

=^..^= MOLLY

Nearly all the fast-food places have meal-salad options, now, and many of them are pretty good.  Watch out for add-ons, though; skip the croutons, ask for the low cal dressing, ask for no cheese, go for the grilled chicken option rather than the battered and fried strips, and check the ingredients list for hidden calorie surprises.  The Martha's Vineyard salad at Arby's is good, for instance, but the Craisins they put in it, while tasty, add a lot of calories for the taste.  Fazoli's grilled chicken with manderin oranges and pineapple was very tasty, too, but I counted the fruit in it as one of my fruits for the day to offset the calories and carbs.  You'll also occasionally find places that don't carry low-calorie dressing--amazing, these days, but it happens, even in "real" restaurants.  So if I think I'm going to be eating out and am not sure where, I'll sometimes pop a low-cal Italian dressing packet into my purse, just in case.  I find I enjoy my lunch/dinner salads out as much as I once did burgers and fries, because there's so much variety out there, now. 

I have some "HOW many calories?" horror stories, too.  Just yesterday my daughter wanted to eat at Jimmy John's subs, and I found they had no salads.  They did have Unwiches, though--subs rolled in lettuce leaves instead of bread.  We were in a hurry, so I asked for their Italian club option, something similar to the Subway BMT, because it's something I know I like and I was unfamiliar with JJ's menu.  That and a diet Coke, and I thought I was doing fine.  Got home and checked their website for calories, and, WOW.  The original verision of that sub on bread is over 900 calories!  The Unwich version is over 600!  Good grief!  It sure didn't feel like 600 cals going down!  In future, I'll remember to get the turkey club or chicken breast.  Man.

A few months ago, I split a Culver's pumpkin shake with my daughter, shortly before starting on this site.  When I started here, a day or two later, I thought I'd check it out (because it's something I'd like to have again.)  I found that one medium pumpkin shake had 700 calories!  And I'd even drunk one alone, about a week before!  How do they get 700 calories into a medium-sized shake?  I was boggled.  Calorie counting ROCKS.  *g*  I can't imagine the trouble I'd be getting myself into if I weren't keeping track of my cals.  No wonder previous diets failed!  My new eating lifestyle is an informed one, and I'm so grateful for that.  (And I'm going to use the recipe analyzer to try to create a yummy pumpkin smoothie with pumpkin and skim milk and ice and Splenda and spices to approximate the taste of Culver's, without the cals.  *g*) 

Don't eat at that place!!! My daughter ate there at least 3 times a week for a year, she got so fat!!! Her neck even got big!!! I would never eat there!!! Oh my!!! you probably want to try preparing your lunch!!!

um 600 cals for one meal just doesnt seem all that drastic? Or am I wrong? Most days my meals vary from 300 to 600 cals and I have managed to lose over 40lbs...................

In my opinion, 600 calories is about average for a fast food item.  You will be surprised at how high the calories can go for some complete meals. 

try to avoid fast food whenever possible because generally all of it is loaded with a lot more calories than you think. but i've found that two things work in an absolute pinch.

 a 6" subway sandwich on wheat, with mustard, NO cheese, and all the veggies is something like 270

and ONE taco bell crunchy taco is something like 170.

If you have a Chik-Fil-A around you, they are the best.

Side salad - you can ask for no cheese but I enjoy the taste so I just count the extra cals. They also have a very good fat-free honey dijion that I love. I can eat those salads everyday.

grilled chicken sandwhich - its so good that you don't need to put anything on it. (you can also ask them not to butter the wheat bun to cut back even more)

They have other stuff that's health and calorie friendly but that is what i usually stick with.

angiethe1_2005 - the 600 calories may not seem like a lot for one meal but then you have to think about how small a meal it is and that you will be comsuming ALOT of fat as well. You will also probably be hungry again in a few hours leaving you to only eat even more.

The chick-fil-a chargrilled chicken sandwich is my favorite.  I eat it 'as is' as well - so good.  I didn't realize that they buttered the wheat bun - I knew they buttered the white bun but assumed that they didn't butter the wheat.  I'll have to ask for no butter in the future - thanks for the tip!