Denny's 'Fit Slam' Could Have 100+ More Calories Than Advertised

Many chain restaurants, including Applebee's, Denny's, and Olive Garden are offering new, lighter-calorie menu items in order to pull in a growing breed of health-conscious diners.

The Lighter Fare menus list nutritional information to help consumers control their caloric intake.

Consumer Reports recently investigated the accuracy of calorie and fat counts listed on menus and websites.

In general, their results were in range of the restaurant's numbers. But there were a few exceptions that mostly had to do with the portion sizes served in different locations.

Denny's Fit Slam, a breakfast dish featured on the diner's Fit Fare menu, is one example.

The meal consists of egg whites scrambled together with spinach, grape tomatoes, and two turkey bacon strips. It also comes with an English muffin and a cup of fruit.

The whole feast is listed as having 360 calories and 13 grams of fat on Denny's website.

"We found those approximate levels in two restaurants. At a third, the Fit Slam had 494 calories and 19 grams of fat," Consumer Reports writes.

That's 134 more calories and 6 more grams of fat than advertised.

The discrepancy highlights the challenge of quality control in food preparation. Even small tweaks — a little more cheese there, an extra splash of sauce there, can make big caloric differences on one plate of food.