“The survey proves that even nutrition professionals can’t estimate accurately the calorie and fat content of restaurant meals,” said Dr. Marion Nestle, the chair of New York University’s (NYU) department of nutrition and food studies. “If nutritionists can’t tell what’s in restaurant meals, consumers certainly can’t. Huge restaurant meals are one of the reasons why so many American are gaining weight,” she said.

The findings appeared in a study released by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit organization which specializes in food and nutrition issues. The research, conducted last fall at an annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association, was conducted by researchers from New York University and the CSPI. Foods analyzed by the dietitians included a hamburger and onion rings, lasagna, grilled chicken Caesar salad, a tuna salad sandwich, a porterhouse steak dinner, and a glass of whole milk. The majority of meals represented typical portions of foods served in a restaurant.

Most guesses were quite off the mark. While the majority of the nutritionists guessed accurately the calories and fat grams contained in the glass of milk, they weren’t so sharp for the rest of the foods. While the burger and rings weighed in at 1,550 calories and 101 grams of fat; the guessed calculations averaged 863 calories and 44 grams of fat.

The tuna salad sandwich was equally hefty: it had 720 calories and 43 fat grams, but the estimations averaged 374 calories and 18 grams of fat. The rest of the foods were also estimated to have far fewer calories and fat grams than they actually did.

“Even highly trained health professionals can have trouble accurately estimating the calories in food because the portions served in restaurants have been steadily expanding,” said Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Human Nutrition Program at the University of Michigan. “People have a mental image of a 200-calorie muffin, but what they’re, in fact, served is a huge 900-calorie muffin.”

“Even well-educated nutrition professionals consistently and substantially underestimate the calorie and fat content of restaurant meals,” the study concluded. To stay mindful of restaurant meals as a consumer, it’s a good idea to ask a server how large a portion actually is. Ask for sauces and dressings on the side. Knowing which foods can add fat — such as butter, sour cream, egg yolks, or cooking oils — can help keep the calorie and fat gram counts in check.

Even though it is not wise to lose an extreme amount of weight, countless websites still advocate extreme weight loss. It’s not surprising to note that these websites are marketing a product that they claim will help make this weight loss occur.

The weight loss needs to be slow to be sustainable. Look at it this way: if it took years to put on a bunch of weight, to lose it safely you need to lose it at a similar rate. When you eat and workout differently little by little, weight loss becomes your lifestyle rather the feared “D” word.

In the case where rapid weight loss is required for medical reasons, it must be done with a doctor’s supervision. For instance, bariatric surgery will result in extreme weight loss as a result of a surgical procedure and close medical monitoring. Some liquid diets will provide results as well (this was the method that Oprah Winfrey used when she lost weight initially), however it is difficult to keep the weight off.

Not only does extreme weight loss not work, it can cause you to become quite ill. It could even be fatal. Luther Van Dross is probably one of the best known celebrities to succumb recently as a result of extreme weight loss. He engaged in yo-yo dieting and did not control his weight related diseases.

Ultimately, it might be smarter to remain overweight than to participate in extreme diets, repeatedly.

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