On my way home from Colorado Springs, I had a connection at Dallas Airport. My two gates were close together, and right there handy was a Subway.
Mmm. Meatballs. I decided to go for it.
I ordered a foot long Meatball Sub with double meat. I asked for light sauce, melted cheddar cheese & sprinkled parmesan.
I didn’t plan to eat the bread, but didn’t order it without as I needed a “plate” (lol) and I also knew it would soak up what little marinara was left on the meatballs…
As soon as I finished my meatball mountain (and oh man, was it ever good!!!), it occurred to me that I may have just royally screwed up my carb count for the day. So I hopped on Facebook & Twitter and asked:
Anyone know the carb count on a Subway meatball??
Asking after I just ate about a dozen of them… lol
(I actually ate 14 I think) :blush:
Nobody was really sure, but the obvious concern was that there may be bread in them. So of course I had to look it up when I got back to my home office. And here’s the scoop – the ingredients in a Subway Meatball:
“MEATBALLS Beef, water, seasoning (soy protein concentrate, breadcrumbs [bleached wheat flour, sugar, salt, soybean oil, dried yeast], dehydrated onion and garlic, salt, spice, dehydrated parsley, caramel color), Romano cheese (made from pasteurized cow’s milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), caramel color.” source
Okay, so there’s breadcrumbs. Gotcha. Figured as much.
I was unsuccessful at finding the actual carb count per meatball (heh), but I did find the nutrition facts for the entire Meatball Marinara Sub:
http://www.subway.com/applications/NutritionInfo/Files/NutritionValues.pdf
According to that document there are only 60 net carbs for an entire 6″ meatball marinara sub – including bread and sauce! Can that really be right?!?
Hmm. Double that (I had a foot long) and double the meat (I had double meatballs), subtract the bread, subtract 90% of the marinara sauce, and divide by 14. If you’re good at math you should be able to figure out the carb count per meatball. 😛 LOL.
All said and done, I have no idea how many carbs I consumed in those 14 meatballs. Oh well. At least I ate “clean” the rest of the day – AND I skipped the bread, sauce, chips & cookie. 😀
Surely it couldn’t have been much? Still aiming to find out…
Lynn, the Subway nutrition tables also list the individual meats for the subs and meatballs are listed. So it says for a 6″ sub, the carbs in the meatballs only is 25. Guess you can estimate it a little better without the bread of the sandwich in the mix.
Gotcha. I missed that! Thank you π So that would make it approximately 21 net carbs for a normal serving of meatballs. Mine was probably close to x4 (foot long + double meat) for a total of 84 net carbs. Though that’s probably a high estimate since I doubt a regular serving is 3 1/2 meatballs…
I definitely went over my “carb budget” for the day there, lol. But not *horrible* – and I feel zero guilt over it. It was worth it! haha
another hitch in the math problem which may work to your advantage: I believe there are 4 meatballs on a 6″ sub but only 7 on a 12″ sub, hence your total of 14 meatballs on the foot long double meat. That’s when I gave up trying to figure it out π
LOL Ahh well. The good news is I’m *still* weighing in lighter π
Too bad I missed you when you came through DFW. I would have enjoyed visiting with you in person.
As for the carb count in any food, bear in mind that unlike the measurement of fat and protein, which must be fairly accurate, by law, carbohydrate counts are allowed to be grossly understated. This is because your government is afraid that you might not get enough.
Good to know, Howard – thanks! It’s my opinion that it’s best to eat “real food” (at home) whenever possible… which simply isn’t always possible (especially given how much I travel!). But when eating out, I tend to keep the rest of my meals that day “clean” to allow for any unknowns…
Subway’s nutrition calculator lists the Subway 6 inch Meatball Marinara sub at 53g total carbs, but when I logged it at MyFitnessPal.com it credits me with 113g total carbs. I’m at the point in my diet that I’m allowed 50g net carbs per meal. Any idea why MyFitnessPal doubles the carbs
Hi David,
A lot of MyFitnessPal entries are wrong, as they are entered by people – so human error. You just have to find an entry that matches the nutrition facts on the website, or the label on your food.
If you can’t find an accurate one, you can enter it yourself based on the website or label. π