Counting Calories

Thanks to the daily calorie counter I've started using at http://www.everydayhealth.com/, my favorite new fascination is how many calories certain types of foods contain. 

Today, I was headed to Subway to pick up lunch for some people in my office, so I decided to find out if I would be able to eat a sub myself without exceeding my 1,200 calories per day limit. Luckily, current nutrition information is easily accessible from restaurant web sites, so I was able to go online and calculate exactly which sandwich would be healthiest for me. Besides the Veggie Delight (no thanks, not enough for me!) the verdict was:

A six-inch turkey breast & ham sandwich on nine-grant wheat bread with American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, cucumbers, olives, pickles, salt & pepper, and fat free honey mustard... all for a total of 360 calories. A totally agreeable percentage of my daily calorie intake, I think.

However, as we were eating, one of my co-workers mentioned the obscenely high calorie content of one of fast food's biggest stars: Jack in the Box. Interested, I immediately pulled up the restaurant's nutritional information. I decided to check out one of my college midnight snack favorites, a Jumbo Jack with cheese. Surprisingly, this burger only packs 625 calories... I expected much more.

I realized that if I had eaten a foot-long Subway sandwich, instead of just six inches (which I have been known to do more than once), I would have consumed 720 calories... MORE than that greasy cheeseburger! Of course, one would never eat just a burger without about 450 calories worth of fries on the side, but still. I found the comparison quite interesting.

The more I read, and the more math I do, the more fascinated I become. It's just so easy to consume astronomical amounts of calories each day without even thinking about it. And now that I realize how many calories I was likely eating every day before I was more aware of these facts, I'm wondering... Since I've probably cut down my daily calorie intake by at least HALF (if not more), how long until I start to get skinny, dammit?!