Calorie Creeps

From Dr. Bert Herring's Fast-5 lifestyle:

"Calorie creeps are foods that are casually consumed when location or labeling obscures the calorie content of the food, letting a lot of calories creep into your body, hampering your efforts to lose weight...

Calories can also creep into your diet using alternative names for sugar or substitutes that have significant calorie content, such as dextrose, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, glucose, lactose, maltodextrin, maltose, sorbitol, sucrose, invert sugar, juice concentrate, and molasses. Check the nutrition label for calorie content if you’re not sure."

At a restaurant with friends:

"Eat, but practice damage control. Restaurant chefs pile on the calories to make the food taste the best possible at the lowest practical cost. The portions are often excessive because the food cost for a typical restaurant is only about 10 percent of the total. Serving large portions lets the restaurant boost apparent value without adding much in cost. It’s culturally Un-American to serve a plate with room on it for more food. 

One method of damage control is to order the thing on the menu that you like the least. It’s likely to still be palatable fare, but it won’t compel you to push any more of it into your belly than necessary. Choosing from the low-carb options or the salads can help with damage control, too.

Apply the Sunk Cost Rule. Once you’ve ordered an entrée, the economic principle of sunk cost applies. No matter how much of the entrée you eat, the amount you have to pay will be the same, so you should make choices that maximize your benefit. Enjoy the food and savor each bite. There is no reason to eat it all. You’re better off with the excess in the trash than on your waist. If millions of people eat less, the portion size may decrease, leaving more supply at the source for the starving people of the world."

"An imaginary friend can help. As a last line of defense, try to mentally divide the portions in half, and imagine you are sharing with someone who is expecting to eat the other half. Leave half of everything behind."