Never Underestimate Restaurant Calories!

OK, yes I am trying to vary my intake based on my activity levels, but I don’t think a 1000 calorie difference from one day to the next is really what is required here! My nutrition was pretty average yesterday, right up until my husband and I decided to go see a movie followed by dinner out (a quick FYI: Real Steel is awesome!). I didn’t have any popcorn or candy at the movie theatre, so I decided not to stress and just have what I felt like at the restaurant, without going overboard. So I had a creamy cocktail and ordered potato skins to start, but only had 4 of the 6 skins served me (and less than half the sour cream), split the ribs with my husband and had broccoli for my side. I knew I’d had at least 600 calories, but I just about fell off my chair when I went to the nutritional information on the Tony Roma’s website and discovered that, according them, I’d just had well over 1100! Not such a big deal if you are trying to maintain your weight, but if you are trying to lose weight I can see how just one big night out a week can completely sabotage your efforts!

It’s not a disaster, but it is a bit discouraging since I was doing so well up until yesterday’s night out. The overall calories for the week were pretty good, so even with yesterday’s night out I averaged 1914 calories per day (50 less than last week), with the average daily balance being 22% protein to 47% carbohydrates to 29% fat (and 2% alcohol).  Again, the overall balance is pretty good and while the calorie count is still not below 1800, it is coming down. As well, I burned almost 300 calories per day on average through exercise, which means I am usually at least 200 calories in deficit. And any deficit means pounds lost, however, slowly!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2560.54	119.77g	298.85g	89.49g	14g	20.88
	18.7%	46.7%	31.5%	3.8%
Calories burned through exercise:		408

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson’s Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury’s pressed apple juice	200mL
08:30	Black tea	500mL
11:00	Brazil nuts	8g
	Cashews	17g
	Be Fruity dried fruit bar with strawberry	25g
13:30	Homemade Turkey Cottage Pie	280g
	Spinach	25g
	Tomato	93g
	The English Provender Balsamic Italian Dressing	15g
	Sainsbury’s Freefrom iced rich fruit cake slice	1 slice
14:45	Nap
15:45	Easy Run
	Tri-Berry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	500mL
17:00	Sponser chocolate Recovery Shake	40g (2 scoop)
	mixed with skim milk	300mL
20:45	Tony Roma's Potato Skins	4 skins
	Tony Roma's Original baby back ribs	4 ribs
	Tony Roma's Cooked broccoli in butter	1 serving
	Pina Colada	1 glass

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.