Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Taco Calorie???


So I went to lunch with a friend today at a local Mexican restaurant, Margaritas. This is a really wonderful place and the food is amazing.... however they flatly refuse to disclose nutritional information. I ordered 4 tacos (hard shell, beef, cheese, lettuce) on their buy 1 get 1 lunch special. So how many calories did I eat?
Again, as they refuse to post this information; Let me be the first to make a guess-estimation based upon several items online.

  1. Eat this not that: Says I should have ordered a burrito instead of tacos because of the frying process the taco shells undergo. My first blunder.
  2. The Lose-it app for the iPhone places general crunchy beef tacos at 571 calories each. DAMN!
  3. Another app, GoMeals, places a taco between 160 - 200 calories depending on ingredients.
  4. Comparing Margaritas tacos to Taco Bell tacos is not very scientific, but thankfully, Yum! Brands does give out nutritional information. Taco Bell beef tacos come in at 170 calories.
  5. An unnamed person did a great job of gathering Mexican meal nutritional information. It appears 2 small tacos are: 395 cal.
  6. Calorie Count website estimates a crunchy taco at 571! The same number as the Lose-it app. .... ugh... I can feel chest pains already.

So there is some discrepancy, so let me break this large fried taco down:
  • Taco Shell (large): 100 calories
  • Beef: 90
  • Iceberg Lettuce: 10
  • Cheese: 57
  • Salsa: 10
  • TOTAL: 267 calories

So... how many calories did I eat at lunch for the 4 tacos? Well I don't know for sure... but I will tend to error on the high side as Margaritas' tacos are a bit greasy (which makes them damn yummy... ya I know I disgust myself). So I'm guessing a Margareta fried taco is around 300 calories each. How did I get to this number. It seems to be within average of the online estimates and close to my estimate. I would love for the large restaurant to offer real hard numbers, but in the mean time, I'm sticking with my number.

Now for the sad part.... because I didn't eat breakfast, I was hungry and ate all 4. They filled me up... and added 1200 calories to my bottom line. Guess I need to get on that treadmill. :)