Why You Should Track Your Food Intake: Jacket Potato Edition🥔

Inspired by Secret Eaters (stay tuned for further commentary on my new favourite evening hobby).
One woman self-reported that she has a healthy lunch every day - just a jacket potato, with some beans and cheese.
A good choice right?
Chuck on a side salad too = even better.
So how had this contributed to her 8stone weight gain?
Because her healthy jacket potato with beans and cheese actually included a metric f*ck ton of cheese, and half a tub of coleslaw.
In her head:
Medium potato = approx 140kcals
1/2 tin of baked beans = 162kcals
Grated Babybel light = 42kcals
50g reduced fat coleslaw = 52kcals
Side salad no dressing
𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 = 𝟯𝟵𝟴𝗸𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘀
In reality:
Large potato = approx 200kcals
Tin of baked beans = 324kcals (19.4g p)
60g cheddar cheese = 250kcals
1/2 tub coleslaw = 310kcals
𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 = 𝟭𝟬𝟴𝟰𝗸𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘀
That’s a big difference - 686kcals difference.
Let’s say for arguments sake her maintenance calories (what she would eat to not gain or lose) were 1,800kcals a day.
After her lunch she’s left with 800kcals to spread across breakfast, dinner, snacks, and drinks.
It’s not much.
And you can soon start to see how her weight gain had occurred.
𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝘄 / 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗟𝗬 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝘁.
𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗸𝗲𝘆.