Ever Wonder How Many Calories Are In A 12 Oz. Steak?

Have you ever wondered how many calories are in a steak?  You know – that “tiny” 12 oz steak you had for dinner last night?  I made the mistake of looking up the answer to this question after a business dinner, and boy, oh boy was I shocked.

How Many Calories Are In A 12 oz Steak?

I have gotten to the point of generally trying to avoid restaurant food these days.  I can tell I’m getting older and crabbier, because I usually find the food overpriced, not cooked how I’d like, portion size just outlandishly large, or some combination of the three.  Toss in the inevitable bad service, and I’d usually rather just cook it myself.  It keeps the calories in my food down, too.  But even still, sometimes its nice to go out and not have to clean up the mess.  Throw in the odd business dinner and I dining out is the occasional fact of life.

The business dinner is what got me a few nights ago.  I’ve taken a pretty good shot at learning how many calories are in the worst dishes at most of the chain restaurants, but we went to a local steakhouse, so I had to wing it.  I happened to be the first to arrive and I was sitting there looking at the menu trying to decide what to order.  A waitress stopped by, so I chanced to ask about the portion size of the “Little Horn Prime Rib.”  Turns out “little” was 12 oz.  I knew that was a bad choice, since the USDA recommended portion size for a serving of meat is a measly 3 ounces.  Back to the drawing board.

The rest of the party arrived as she walked away, and not wanting to be a killjoy, I withheld further questioning.  When she returned, I decided to go for the filet mignon, reasoning that the filet is usually a premium cut and therefore smaller than some others.  I skipped on the alcohol, had one slice of “Firebread,” rather unwisely ordered the salad, but did go for the grilled vegetables instead of a potato.

The main course arrived, and I looked at the steak and thought to myself “maybe a tad larger than a deck of cards,” but shouldn’t be too bad I guess.  Long and short is that I ate the whole thing and it was delicious.  I was also nearly sick from stuffing my face, and as I waddled out I asked the waitress about the portion size.  She comes back with 12 oz.  A 12 oz filet! No wonder I felt so bad.

I tried to resist, but couldn’t help myself.  When I got home I looked it up.  The basic nutritional information for a 12 ounce filet is:

Calories:  650

Protein:  98-grams

%RDA fat:  42%

%RDA cholesterol:  90%

By comparison, the 12 ounce ribeye I was considering comes in at:

Calories:  668

Protein:  100-grams

%RDA fat:  36%

%RDA cholesterol:  88%

Probably not a big surprise that the two are pretty similar.  Of course, I ate the entire thing (minus the bacon it was wrapped in, whoo hoo!).  That’s something I guess.  It goes to show that I a) have no idea how to inherently judge portion size, and b) I will (like most people) eat whatever size portion is placed before me.

So when you go out to eat, how do you manage the portion distortion?  Maybe I would be disciplined enough to cut my steak in half and push it to the size, but probably not.  What about you?

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