Hungry Girl Tip - Don't Trust Restaurant's Published Calorie Counts

This just in from hungry-girl.com — watch out for restaurants that post their calories on meals…….

Shocking Restaurant Nutritionals… AHHHH!

Our inbox has been FLOODED with emails about this story since it broke about two weeks ago.

In case you're unfamiliar with it, here's the scoop. Eight Scripps-owned TV stations in different cities had reporters order a total of about twenty so-called "healthier" meal options at Applebee's, Macaroni Grill, Chili's, Cheesecake Factory, etc.

The food was then sent to a lab to be tested, to see if the nutritional stats provided by the restaurants were accurate. The results were ASTOUNDING, to say the least.

The worst offender of the bunch was one of the Pollo Magro "Skinny Chicken" samples from Macaroni Grill. It contained nowhere near the "less than 6g fat and 500 calories" the menu claims (let alone the 330 calories and 5g fat listed on the website's nutritional page) — it actually had over 1,000 calories and just under 50 grams of fat. INSANE! (FYI, a "Skinny Chicken" sample t aken from another city actually had only 320 calories, but still contained 14g fat. So you never know!)

All four items that were tested from the Chili’s Guiltless Grill menu contained more than twice the fat they should have had — the Guiltless Chicken Platter actually had more than 30g fat, as opposed to the 9 grams claimed by Chili's!

Many of the other offerings had about 100 more calories and 13 additional fat grams than they were supposed to.

Instead of just crying over this, let's be reasonable and take away some valuable info here…

1. You can never fully trust the restaurant nutritionals you read on websites and menus. There are too many unknowns (like who is actually preparing the food, how closely they follow directions and measurements, etc.).

2. Pay VERY close attention to your food. If the portion seems WAY too large to have the calories listed, chances are it has more calories. If it is supposed to have 6g fat and it is floating in oil, trust u s — it DOESN'T contain just 6 grams of fat (sorry!).

3. For more control over your meal, special order when you can — even the "lighter" dishes. Ordering things grilled or steamed with sauce on the side is the best way to go.

4. Ordering items listed as "diet-friendly" or "light" is still probably better than ordering standard menu options — if the stats are off on the lighter dishes, just imagine how bad the regular stuff could really be!

For full lab results on the items tested, click here — it's worth checking out.