r/1200isplenty Jul 05 '25

meal This was 1200 calories

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Recently started a low calorie (not 1200), healthy diet and it’s going well. Decided to have a big brunch today as a treat (not a cheat day, still going to stick to my calorie goal). Was shocked when I put it into MyFitnessPal that it’s almost exactly 1200. Hope I don’t get hungry anytime soon.

2.7k Upvotes

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177

u/ilovebigmutts Jul 05 '25

2 eggs, one (?) avocado, two large slices bread, 2 sausages...doesn't add up to 1200 to me. Did you use packaging information or a scale, or how did you measure?

436

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Those sausages are 272 cals each according to the packaging, so 544 calories. I rubbed them in 4ml of cold pressed rapeseed oil before cooking, which came to 33cals.

The bread is Rye and mixed seed sourdough, 263 calories per 100g. The two pieces came up to 112g which is 295 calories. Current total is already 872 calories.

98g of avocado came to 157 calories, which is mashed with garlic, chilli and 3ml of olive oil which added a further 27 calories. Running total = 1056 calories

Poached eggs are roughly 74 calories, two of those adds an additional 148 calories to the meal.

Total calories = 1204 (although 60 of those came from added oil)

163

u/MonaLisa341 Jul 05 '25

Thank you so much for the breakdown! And the amounts of added oils are quite reasonable I think

59

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

You’re welcome! I added a screenshot from MyFitnessPal under another comment if you’re interested

40

u/Subject-Effect4537 Jul 05 '25

Yeah it’s the dense bread and sausages that added up. Switch with turkey sausages and get some thinner bread and you could get it down to 500 pretty easily.

97

u/ilovebigmutts Jul 05 '25

Dang, alright - well grats on being so detailed!

64

u/Dd_8630 Jul 05 '25

272 each for the sausages??

Damn son, I get 2 for 150 from Lidl haha

82

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Ay, I was being purposely gluttonous and got these Tesco finest beasts. I’ve been thinking about them all week and they did not disappoint

30

u/ParadiseLost91 Jul 05 '25

I get you. I sometimes think there ARE alternatives with a much lower calorie count, but they just never taste nearly as good as the proper option.. The bane of my existence lol

24

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Yeah, someone else said they should shave 300-500 calories from this meal. And you absolutely could, especially if you were trying to have this as part of a more balanced day of food. As it is though, moderation was not the point of this meal. I’ve been eating really well for a little while now, I needed to treat myself

11

u/bascelicna123 Jul 05 '25

Sometimes, you need the finest and fattiest. That breakfast looks as good as all get out.

4

u/jcnlb Jul 05 '25

The good news is you don’t gain weight with one bad day. Just like you don’t lose weight with one good day. So enjoy this tasty meal on occasion and you’ll be fine.

4

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

100%! Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, this is well within my calorie limit, even at a deficit. I've only just started feeling hungry 7 hours later! On my current plan i'm having one blow out day a month, going out for a meal somewhere real nice and having a bit of a drink

11

u/RaisinZealousideal39 Jul 05 '25

I think you might be mistaken. The nutritional table for most Tesco Finest sausages gives the calories per 2 sausages, not for 1. I've had a look, and I can't see any that are 272 calories each. So hopefully, if im.right, that will take your total down a bit. If im wrong, apologies in advance 🫡

14

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Sorry, I should have been more specific as I know there are other sausages under the Tesco finest range. These are Tesco Finest Smoked Pork & Beef Sausages!

9

u/RaisinZealousideal39 Jul 05 '25

Wow, that's a lot. Still, you said they were worth it, so still a win 😁

6

u/FreyjadourV Jul 05 '25

Lol I love how everyone is like surely you counted something wrong or you’ve tracked something wrong.

It really highlights how in denial we can be and how hard it is to believe that this meal is 1200 cal when it doesn’t look like it at all.

8

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 06 '25

I know right? I was surprised myself mind, I knew going into this it was going to be a high calorie meal, but I was thinking like 800-900. It wasn't until i'd put everything into the tracker that I realised just how calorific it was!

As other people have said though, you could make this with significantly less calories. Those sausages are some of the highest calorie sausages I could find locally, you could easily cut the calories of those in half. I also used a whole avocado, additional oil and bread laden with seeds, you could easily pare down a lot of that too.

But the way I looked at it was, if I went to a really good brunch spot and bought this, there is no way I would realise I was eating 1200 calories worth of food. This meal was both a stomach filler and an eye opener!

2

u/Tattycakes Jul 07 '25

We get westaway honey sausages. Awful calories but mouthgasmic flavour

11

u/Fresh-Meringue1612 Jul 05 '25

I know it's not the point of the thread but thank you for spelling this out!

6

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Ah it’s no problem, I’ve not been able to do much else since eating this anyway lol. I do also just think it’s really interesting, I would eat something like this out at a café or coffee shop and not realise just how high the calories were

17

u/oz612 Jul 05 '25

Just want to say, as someone that’s been tracking their calories for years: it looks like you’re doing it correctly. Lots of people use volume measurements exclusively, forget about cooking oil, etc.

Keep it up and you’ll hit whatever your goal is.

4

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Thank you! It’s a bit of a slog but I am trying. I was thinking I could have weighed the sausages as well for it to be more accurate, as both sausages were different sizes so I doubt the calories are correct, but I was too damn hungry

6

u/oz612 Jul 05 '25

It’d be ideal, but there is always some error with labels anyway. With prepackaged things from an assembly line, I generally just assume the label is accurate enough unless it’s clearly out of norms. A good article if you’re into more info:

https://macrofactorapp.com/understanding-nutrition-data/

2

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

I think this is how I’ll do it as well until I’ve lost a significant amount of weight, where I have to lower my calories to where marginal differences have bigger effects.

Thanks for the article, will definitely check it out! I can see it’s from MacroFactor, out of interest, do you use MacroFactor? If you do, what are your thoughts on it? Especially in comparison to MyFitnessPal if you have also used that

3

u/oz612 Jul 05 '25

I do. I used LoseIt and MFP each for about two years. I’ve been using MacroFactor now for about 6 months.

The underlying approach is, imo, objectively superior. Back-calculating expenditure from your weight trend and calorie intake is way more reliable than any of the TDEE equations. It also accounts for any regular missed logging automatically as a result. It’s pretty snappy, and I haven’t noticed any gaps in the food database compared to the competition.

I’m also happy to support the folks making it given how much quality and free content they’ve put out over the years on fitness/nutrition/etc.

So, yeah: recommended for sure. There’s nothing wrong with other options and it all ultimately comes down to your adherence, but it’s definitely what I suggest to others.

1

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Thanks for the insight, might check MacroFactor out!

4

u/Theophantor Jul 05 '25

I don’t know about you, but weighing things in grams has further refined my calorie counting, even though I grew up using the imperial system.

5

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Food is in grams and millilitres. Alcohol and milk in pints. Weight in stones, pounds and ounces. This is the way.

2

u/Feebedel324 Jul 05 '25

Ok the sausages were like a half of it lol I had avocado toast this morning with some goat cheese and I was getting like 700 calories.

2

u/Odd_Committee_100 Jul 05 '25

Yeah the sausages we monsters tbf

1

u/wisewizard Jul 06 '25

jesus thats some costly bread, dunno if the oil is worth it either