Panera Bread – Weight Watchers Points Plus
Ouch!
I went to Panera bread this afternoon for lunch. For some reason I had in my mind that Panera Bread was this healthy place to eat and that the points would be low.
I step up to the counter and order the Sierra Turkey sandwich with an apple – no chips; no bread. A turkey sandwich with a piece of fruit. I get back to my table, punch in the points, and BAM – 16 freaking points on the Weight Watchers Points Plus!!! If I had the bread it would have been another 4 points – that would have been 20 points for a freaking sandwich! To make it worse, the apple was small, tiny and pitiful.
Here’s the real kicker – they say they put this chipotle mayonnaise on there which adds like 9 points to the sandwich! I had a “skim” of the mayonnaise on my sandwich, but I have no idea how they calculated 9 points of the stuff. That would have been like a 1/2 cup of mayo globbed onto my sandwich, at which case I would have lost my lunch over biting into a glob of mayo. Their nutrition guide actually gives this sandwich a value of 25 points plus, but I’m denying the fact I ate 9 points of mayonnaise.
Traci, my wife, had a nice Fuji Apple salad – but, after calculating those points, this salad is 14 points as well! I took the menu home and figured up a few more items. Here’s what I found:
- Smoked Turkey Breast sandwich – 16 points
- Cuban Chicken sandwich – 23 points
- Chipotle Chicken sandwich – 22 points
- BBQ Chopped Chicken salad – 13 points
- Chopped Chicken Cobb salad – 14 points
- Grilled Chicken Caesar salad – 11 points
I found out I had the lowest point sandwich. Most of them were 19 points or more. The salads are at least 11 points.
Yes, I know it’s bread. Bread has points. I guess I was expecting something better when they throw around words like “baby greens, field greens, garden this and garden that.”
Don’t be deceived – Panera Bread is BIG points on the Weight Watchers program. Was it tasty? Of course! It was very good. But, what else could I have had in the 16-22 point range at other restaurants:
- McDonalds Quarter Pounder with med. fry – 21 points
- Houlihan’s Stuffed Chicken breast, mashed potatoes, veggies – 22 points
- 2 1/2 cups of ice cream with topping – 20 points
- 3 packages of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups – 18 points
- 5 Hostess Twinkies – 20 points
- 3 Chargrilled Chicken sandwiches from Chick-fil-a – 18 points
You get the point. I guess I’m just a bit disapointed. 20 points is 20 points. I just hate to blow 40% of my daily points on a small sandwich. If I’m gonna blow points, I like to do it it bigger fashion.
So, just a bit ticked off and feel like Panera Bread puts off this image of healthy, fresh, and straight from the garden. This goes for Atlanta Bread company or St. Louis bread company, or any other place like them. They are no better than any other fast food place out there. There are many other choices where I could have gone for half the points if I was going to eat a sandwich.
But, my fault… I should have gone to their site before I went out to see what the deal was.
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I just had my first eating experience with Panera Bread. I kept hearing how good it was so I figured I should finally just try it. If you get the YP2 (you pick 2) the points go down. Of course this is because you are eating 1/2 of a sandwich. I opted for the veggie mediterrenean with an “all greens salad” or what they call “classic”. Therefore, there is no additional points in eating the salad. My meal was 8 points. I will definetly eat there again. And I have recently started weight watchers. What I have come to find is that we are human. We will eat what tastes good. Therefore, I will eat bread from time to time. However, next time I think I will go with the regular sourdough. Hope this helps in assisting you find other options there. Good luck.
Thanks for the advice on Panera. I am going to revisit them this week and see if I can do a better job this time at choosing something for less points.
I think more than anything I was caught off guard because in my mind I’ve always considered them a “healthy” place to eat. But, I think every place has their high and low point options. I just need to be better prepared and take my time with my Weight Watchers points calculator on my phone.
If one is careful at Panera, you can do good with WW Points Plus. I just had the you pick 2, Thai chicken salad with dressing (5.5 pts) and veggie pesto soup (3.5 pts).
I finished the salad, but could only eat half the soup. After I left the place, I did some research and found out that a better soup option is the low fat chicken noodle (its good) and all greens salad (kinda plain).
With some more effort, I can get a little better on points wit having good flavor too.
When I feeI like a “Panera Splurge” I get a bowl of broccoli cheddar (8 pts) with a side portion of multigrain baguette (5 pts). For 13 pts it’s really filling and to me it feels like a whole lot more points than it is.
I get the broccoli and cheddar with a baguette as well. It definitely fills me up. I read somewhere that the bowl is 7.5 pts, the cup is 5, a french baguette is 4 pts, the multigrain is 5. Or at least thats what I saw.