Carb Counts for Prepared Foods?

You've eaten it now, so it really won't matter.

use google to find sites of popular restaurants like Ruby Tuesday and such.
not all restaurants have published nutrition info online...

Acertaingirl wrote:
|| Where can I find an online carb counter for prepared foods? I ate at
|| a restaurant yesterday and need to find out how many carbs I ate (I
|| think I was ok, but want to make sure).

I've actually started to download nutrition guides from my favorite
restaurants and place them in a file on my desktop. When I know where we'll
be dining, I can plan my meal accordingly.

DH has been going on and on about the cherry limeades at Sonic. He had been
after me for a long time to try one, since, he said, they have a diet
version. Well, he ordered one for me and brought it home. It was
delicious, and I was sure that it was chock full of carbs. I went to
Sonic's site and couldn't find nutritional info for the diet version. So I
emailed them and asked. It took them a couple of weeks to reply, but they
emailed me a pdf of their new diet items nutritional guide. Sometimes all
you have to do is ask.

By the way, the Route 44 Big Drink version had only 40 calories and 9 total
carbs (2 sugar carbs).

--
Linda
296/213/160
LC since Oct. 13, 2003
http://home.att.net/~lewis_linda/index.html

"Acertaingirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Where can I find an online carb counter for prepared foods? I ate at a
restaurant yesterday and need to find out how many carbs I ate (I think I

was

Quoted message said:

ok, but want to make sure).

The big problem with restaurant foods is that you usually underestimate the
portion size which may be much larger than any portion size you find in a
book or even on a company web site.

I have gone so far as to weigh muffins to compare their real weight with the
weight used to calculate the portion size and often the are anywhere from
1/3 to 100% larger.

So if you are starting out with your diet, you just have to be very careful
at restaurants and stick with things you know don't have carbs. Meat,
cheese, and green veggies (careful with the dressing! It can be full of
carbs even things like blue cheese you'd expect to be clean.)

Stay away from questionable "low carb" items like low carb wraps, ice cream
and cheese cakes, because there is always the chance that they are higher
than you expect. Plus, I'm seeing more and more "low carb" prepared food
that is full of transfats (partially hydrogenated oils) which are extremely
unhealthy and which all the low carb books tell you not to eat.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

"Acertaingirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Where can I find an online carb counter for prepared foods? I ate at a
restaurant yesterday and need to find out how many carbs I ate (I think I

was

Quoted message said:

ok, but want to make sure).

Acertaingirl said:

Where can I find an online carb counter for prepared foods? I ate at a
restaurant yesterday and need to find out how many carbs I ate (I think I was
ok, but want to make sure).

Check the resurants web site and if you don't have luck there try
checking your urine for ketones the next day. That's usually a pretty
good indicator to me that I've eaten something the day before that
screwed me up.

Laura B.

[email hidden] (Acertaingirl) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Where can I find an online carb counter for prepared foods? I ate at a
restaurant yesterday and need to find out how many carbs I ate (I think I was
ok, but want to make sure).

The USDA database has a lot of nutritional data for both indivdual
items and prepared foods.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Of course, the problem is, a lot depends on what went into the
prepared food. If you have a particular frozen entree from the
supermarket and it's in the database, then you can find an accurate
carb count. If you eat a steak or piece of grilled fish at a
restaurant, that's easy too. But if you eat something prepared, like
a sauce, or crab cakes, then it's anybody's guess as to what's in it
and how many carbs it has. The best you can do is pick menu items
that are relatively safe.

[email hidden] (Acertaingirl) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Where can I find an online carb counter for prepared foods? I ate at a
restaurant yesterday and need to find out how many carbs I ate (I think I was
ok, but want to make sure).

Hi,

Fitday has an enourmous food and dish database, and provides nutrition
information for all types of dishes. It is approximate, since
individual recipes vary, but I think it's a good starting point. All
you need to enter is the number of servings or weight or volume.

Their website is www.fitday.com. You need to register, it's free. I
use this site for daily calorie tracking.

Elana

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The big problem with restaurant foods is that you usually underestimate the

portion size which may be much larger than any portion size you find in a
book or even on a company web site.<<

I ate at a local Italian restaurant. I had a salad with some balsamic vinegar
and olive oil (not too much BV), a piece of chicken franchaise (the waiter told
me they dip it in flour and egg, not too bad). It was in a light sauce. I ate 5
(yes just 5) 1 inch by 1 inch cubes of roasted potato. I counted it as 20 carb
grams, that should be about right. I just don't want to get caught like that
again.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

nal.usda.gov<<Open ↗

Thank you for the link!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Their website is www.fitday.com. You need to register, it's free. I

use this site for daily calorie tracking.
<<

I'll go there now and sign up - I won't make last night's mistake again 🙂

Acertaingirl,

FWIW, I have found that foods with breading on them raise my blood sugar far
higher than I'd expect for the amount of carb that they appear to contain.
My Sweetie who is not diabetic but has started to test his blood sugar has
discovered the exact same effect. He has spiked up to abnormal blood sugar
levels after eating only a few onion rings, for example.

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with
breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb counts.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

"Acertaingirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The big problem with restaurant foods is that you usually underestimate

the

Quoted message said:

portion size which may be much larger than any portion size you find in a
book or even on a company web site.<<

I ate at a local Italian restaurant. I had a salad with some balsamic

vinegar

Quoted message said:

and olive oil (not too much BV), a piece of chicken franchaise (the waiter

told

Quoted message said:

me they dip it in flour and egg, not too bad). It was in a light sauce. I

ate 5

Quoted message said:

(yes just 5) 1 inch by 1 inch cubes of roasted potato. I counted it as 20

carb

Quoted message said:

grams, that should be about right. I just don't want to get caught like

that

Quoted message said:

again.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with

breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb counts.<<

Does that include flour? I guess so, since bread is made of flour huh?? It was
my first "real dinner" out in 11 weeks with a friend I haven't seen in awhile,
so I splurged. Meanwhile, she was eating "mozzarella in carozza" (mozzarella
sandwiches dipped in batter and deep fried). It looked delish, but I honestly
wasn't even tempted (yeaah for me!)

Acertaingirl,

If you read my various articles on long-term low carbing, you'll see that I
believe very strongly that there is a place for eating everything in a low
carb way of life that can be sustained for many years.

The real issue for me is not to say, "I won't ever eat X, Y or Z in a
restaurant," but rather to know what it is I'm eating. I will occasionally
eat something with 40 grams of carbs in it, on purpose, enjoy it, and move
on. The problem for me is when I think I'm eating something with 10 grams
of carbs and it turns out to have 40!

So my advice about being careful about the restaurant food was more to warn
you that you may be eating a bunch more than you expected if you are trying
to maintain your carb intake at some set level. But I, personally, could
not stay on a low carb regimen for year after year if I didn't have
occasional days when I could eat anything I want or have a treat at a
special restaurant meal.

I tried it the other way years ago when I started low carbing, with
everything high carb off limits all the time, and it worked for a year or
two, but by year 3 I was having serious deprivation issues that got worse
and worse and resulted in a lot of "rebound" eating of things I really did
not need to eat.

So I make room for off-plan foods now. I just try to make sure that I don't
get blindsided with hidden carbs when I think I am eating on-plan. My blood
sugar meter told me in no uncertain terms that very small portions of
breaded fried stuff had a whole lot more carbs in them than I thought, so
while I might still eat them, I know that a few bites of those onion rings
is going to be my high carb treat for the day!

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

"Acertaingirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with

breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb

counts.<<

Quoted message said:

Does that include flour? I guess so, since bread is made of flour huh??

It was

Quoted message said:

my first "real dinner" out in 11 weeks with a friend I haven't seen in

awhile,

Quoted message said:

so I splurged. Meanwhile, she was eating "mozzarella in carozza"

(mozzarella

Quoted message said:

sandwiches dipped in batter and deep fried). It looked delish, but I

honestly

Quoted message said:

wasn't even tempted (yeaah for me!)