Disney Calories

[amylock]

Thank you for this!

I completely understand that other people may prefer not to count or prefer to cut loose but I've lost 50 pounds with another 35 to go, and I didn't have a very healthy relationship with food. Binge eating is a serious and dangerous issue I've dealt with and going "wild" at Disneyworld is about as healthy for me as for an anorexic to just not eat at all their entire trip. I'm planning on enjoying a few treats when I go next January but my way of balancing that is by eating much lighter the rest of the time. It's good to know I can request food be prepared with minimal butter or oil. Is it possible to sub out starches, etc with vegetables too?

I'm not sure on food preparation, but you can usually sub a vegetable for fries, or just order without fries at QS places (they take like $1 off). If I am trying to watch how I eat there, I take buns off of burgers and chicken sandwiches, go without the carbs for the most part, eat salads, etc. Also, I will use Myfitnesspal and log food in as McDonalds if it's QS and find similar substitutions for other meals. Also, don't go for the dining plan. There is dessert at every meal.

 

[TiffanyA]

I'm low carb and I cheat a little at Disney. Love fat and sodium for what it's worth and eat a ton of it while maintaining a very healthy weight (about 110lbs at 5'2). I eat this way for my health. High cholesterol runs on my father's side and this diet helps me control that.

I try to choose low carb choices at Disney - nothing breaded, salads or a turkey leg for lunch, steak or seafood with veggies for dinner and for dessert, choose ones with high fat content - creme brulee, gelato etc. It takes longer to digest fat, thus fat keeps you feeling full longer. I always have dessert after every meal (not just at Disney). If I want a cupcake for dessert at Disney though, I will have one.

I feel the key to any lifestyle change is to not feel you are depriving yourself and this is important too on vacation, where a bit of indulgence is welcome. I also partake in my favorite dessert wines - and I normally do not. I always try to pay attention to how full I actually am and find this also especially important at Disney as it is easy to go overboard. I am pretty active normally and try to stay active at Disney. It's wonderful staying in the Boardwalk area since I really enjoy walking to EP and DHS. I've never gained any weight at Disney doing this.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Disney doesn't publish nutritional information or calorie counts. Apparently Florida law does not require them to. The only WDW place I've ever seen publish anything like that is Be Our Guest.

 

[amylock]

I'm low carb and I cheat a little at Disney. Love fat and sodium for what it's worth and eat a ton of it while maintaining a very healthy weight (about 110lbs at 5'2). I eat this way for my health. High cholesterol runs on my father's side and this diet helps me control that.

I try to choose low carb choices at Disney - nothing breaded, salads or a turkey leg for lunch, steak or seafood with veggies for dinner and for dessert, choose ones with high fat content - creme brulee, gelato etc. It takes longer to digest fat, thus fat keeps you feeling full longer. I always have dessert after every meal (not just at Disney). If I want a cupcake for dessert at Disney though, I will have one.

I feel the key to any lifestyle change is to not feel you are depriving yourself and this is important too on vacation, where a bit of indulgence is welcome. I also partake in my favorite dessert wines - and I normally do not. I always try to pay attention to how full I actually am and find this also especially important at Disney as it is easy to go overboard. I am pretty active normally and try to stay active at Disney. It's wonderful staying in the Boardwalk area since I really enjoy walking to EP and DHS. I've never gained any weight at Disney doing this.

This is true. While I eat fairly strictly (entering a fitness competition) even my trainer has me carb cycling and eating a cheat meal once a week. When traveling for business I don't indulge as much, but Disney is vacation, so I do have treats when I really want them. My problem with the dining plan is being "forced" to take a cupcake 2X a day when I want one maybe every other day. I eat better when a la carte.

There are many "healthy" options at Disney, whether one eats low carb, low fat, calorie counting, etc. Low carb is by far the easiest for travel - meat, vegetables, salads, etc. In fact, my trainer has agreed for my travel (I travel probably 40% for work) since most carbs at restaurants are in the form of bread, fries, etc. I stick to the protein and vegetables and try to keep an eye on portion sizes.

 

[Lisa F]

Thank you for this!

I completely understand that other people may prefer not to count or prefer to cut loose but I've lost 50 pounds with another 35 to go, and I didn't have a very healthy relationship with food. Binge eating is a serious and dangerous issue I've dealt with and going "wild" at Disneyworld is about as healthy for me as for an anorexic to just not eat at all their entire trip. I'm planning on enjoying a few treats when I go next January but my way of balancing that is by eating much lighter the rest of the time. It's good to know I can request food be prepared with minimal butter or oil. Is it possible to sub out starches, etc with vegetables too?

As someone who has struggled with her weight her whole life, I get this. Going completely hog wild can be hard to recover from. Even if I watch and eat healthy, when I travel I always put on 10 lbs... I think just the act of flying twice makes me retain water like mad and it can sometimes take a few weeks to rid myself of it.

that said, it is good practice for real life to not worry so much about calories and just try to make healthy choices and portion control. It sounds crazy maybe but I just said this on another post... I find it MUCH easier to do the "moderation" thing at buffets than pre-plated places. I fill up on salads and lean proteins (dressings on the side and maybe small spoonfuls of premade stuff). If there is peel and eat shrimp I am in hog heaven, lol. It is very lean and low calorie and takes time and effort to get at giving your body a chance to realize it is full. Then when I've filled up on healthy stuff I will allow myself a small spoonful of this or that. If you're not STARVING really a taste or two of the heavier things is plenty. If I'm starving and I hit that stuff I will put away a day's worth of calories before I know it. Then fruit for dessert. For some reason I feel less deprived that way than going to a regular TS and stripping it down to the bare bones One little single bite dessert won't kill you either and is usually more than enough for me.

good luck. you don't have to go COMPLETELY hog wild to not feel deprived, it's great practice of moderation at Disney. You don't have to eat ALL THE FOOD to still feel like you are treating yourself.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

You don't wanna know.

I eat pretty healthy year-round. I've lost 90 pounds in my lifetime. I go on a very strict diet between Thanksgiving and our Christmas trip. I know when I get to Disney that I'll be eating a lot of unhealthy foods and splurging on calories. In my head, I'm eating 0 calories. In reality, there's a strong chance that I'm taking in 5,000-6,000 calories a day.

I wear a Fitbit charge. I didn't have it for my last trip but I have one now. On a normal workday (sitting most of the day and working out in the AM or night) I burn close to 3,000 calories. This sounds like a lot, but I've found it to be pretty spot on. If I'm burning ~3,000 calories sitting most of the day and working out for 1.5 hours, I'd assume that I'm burning ~5,000 calories walking all day in Disney.

By the time I get home from an 8-day trip I'm extremely bloated. It's actually really funny looking at photos as they progress through the trip. I still have some fat on me. I'm what they'd call "skinny fat," so it shows when I'm bloated. My stomach actually gets sore to touch from all the water retention and bloating. That's because of all the sodium.

BHere's the thing - I eat a TON at Disney. I'm talking non-stop eating and things I wouldn't normally eat. I always get coffee with a splash of milk at Starbucks. In Disney? I get an iced frappacino with whipped cream. That's already 600 calories I wouldn't normally take in. I trade my grilled chicken in for steak or fried chicken and I eat more desserts in that week than I do in a month. I enjoy the heck outta myself and feel like a glutton at the end of the trip. When I get home and step on the scale I weight about 10 pounds more than before the trip. BUT - it's water weight. Within a week I'm back to my normal weight - maybe 2 or 3 pounds more, but I take that off within a week or 2.

Don't stress it. Unless you have dietary restrictions for health reasons, enjoy yourself. If something happens and you can never go to Disney again, you'll be left wishing you had that Mickey ice cream.

Edit: Just realized I posted on here twice. Sorry, slow day at the office!

 

[TiffanyA]

While I eat fairly strictly (entering a fitness competition) even my trainer has me carb cycling and eating a cheat meal once a week.

Good luck with all the cutting! It is TOUGH.

 

[kirstenb1]

I try to find a balance of meals there. For instance, every morning is a simple light breakfast bar in the room. Then either lunch or dinner is a salad with dressing on the side, pasta and red sauce, or a grilled chicken sandwich (there are plenty of other foods that meet that loose criteria, but you get the idea). Then the other lunch or dinner, I enjoy something like fried chicken, but with veggies, not fries. So a cheat, but not a huge deal. It also helps that I'm not a sweets person. Now toss me a bag of Fritos, and I'll wipe them out, lol!!

 

[techtony]

I just wanted to put in some common sense advice here. If you do not want to forego your diet (which I personally would - but that is me), then I suggest packing your meals and snacks and taking them with you. You will save money and it is very doable. We do it everytime (we live here) and we save tons of money on food. We just buy our drinks there. Disney allows you to do this. We put our soft sided cooler in a locker (costs 7 bucks all day) and go back to the locker at lunchtime - find a spot nearby and have a picnic. Snacks are usually atkins bars (because they are so dense) or we take fruit/veggies. They do have diet drinks there and unsweet tea (just bring Splenda if you prefer). All of this is easy to do. The only thing is dinner - and if you are low carb (dare I say this) - go to a wafflehouse and order cheesey eggs and bacon YUM!

 

[amylock]

Good luck with all the cutting! It is TOUGH.

Thanks! I am a way out still. Need more muscle.

 

[Aurora0427]

Thank you for this!

I completely understand that other people may prefer not to count or prefer to cut loose but I've lost 50 pounds with another 35 to go, and I didn't have a very healthy relationship with food. Binge eating is a serious and dangerous issue I've dealt with and going "wild" at Disneyworld is about as healthy for me as for an anorexic to just not eat at all their entire trip. I'm planning on enjoying a few treats when I go next January but my way of balancing that is by eating much lighter the rest of the time. It's good to know I can request food be prepared with minimal butter or oil. Is it possible to sub out starches, etc with vegetables too?

My husband lost 40 pounds a few years ago, and he manages to eat healthy and not gain weight every trip to WDW. You just pick the healthiest options... Grilled chicken, fish with no sauce, ask them to cook with olive oil, lots of plain veggies, minimal desserts, etc etc etc. He doesn't count calories, he just makes the healthiest choice possible.

 

[karen1987]

Like everyone else has said, with the amount of walking we do at WDW, calories don't count!

 

[steviethegreat]

It's good to go at Disney with a plan, though. So if you know tentatively where you're planning to eat, you can look at the menus and decide what the best options for you at each place would be. And then guesstimate based on the protein and the sides. I've read that you can sub out a dessert for a side (like soup or a salad?) and you might even be able to get a kid's dessert instead. I've seen several kid desserts offering fruit. At QS, you can order ONLY the entree.

When I went, I walked so much that whatever I was eating counterbalanced. But I also dragged my dad criss-cross around the park. We'd do Space Mountain and then walk to all the way over to the Haunted Mansion. (You know, the long way around.) If you drink more water (or even water with lemon or cucumber(!!)) you can keep the water gain from the extra salt to a minimum. I just learned not to deprive myself, so that I felt like I ate what I wanted, but I made wise decisions via the protein, the sides, and the desserts. I split almost every dessert I picked with my dad. And if I felt full, I left food on the plate.

But really, I think guesstimating is your best option. Good luck!!

 

[LovesTimone]

Wait... a minute.......... There is no such thing as calories on vacation.... That's my story and I am sticking to it....

 

[pooh2001]

love this thread - sometimes the healthier options are on the children's menu
Can an adult get the children's menu food item ?
fruit cups ? grilled chicken ? carrot sticks ?

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Just order a diet soda with your meal. They cancel each other out.

 

[Bob Dolewhip]

I also gained weight on our last trip to Disney because I was STUFFING myself. Even the extra 7000 steps a day could not balance out the insane amount of food I ate.
If you use a website like MyFitnessPal you can search for a similar meal and get an estimate of the calories. That is how I normally keep track now that I’m almost back to my pre-vacation weight.

I live in a state that mandates nutritional info to be clearly posted so I am used to knowing the calorie counts. I wish the rest of the country would follow along.

 

[AdamsMum]

Does WDW restaurants have calories on their menu? If not, could you ask for them from the waiter?

They don't publish the calorie counts, but I'm sure you can ask for modifications. i.e. extra veg instead of potatoes or rice, meat or fish grilled or served without the sauce. As others have said, you will probably walk around 8-10 miles a day so that helps, but I still gain weight when I go. There are just too many treats that I love available. Good luck.

 

[TiffanyA]

love this thread - sometimes the healthier options are on the children's menu
Can an adult get the children's menu food item ?
fruit cups ? grilled chicken ? carrot sticks ?

Yes they can. My mother eats like a bird and prefers to either share or get a kids meal at many places. Not a problem. You might be charged a higher price is the place is AYCTE, but you can still get it. Disney is pretty accommodating that way.

 

[lovethesun12]

Personally, I think the Mickey check meals (kids meals) are the best bet. No calorie count but they generally have no condiments (kids here) and good portion size.

We did the dining plan last time and portion sizes were way too big. Mickey check meals were generally perfect.