I was just reviewing the meals I had at WDW during our trip in January. Here's one from each day, and then I'll put them in perspective afterwards:
Saturday: Artist Point: Cedar Plank Salmon, house salad, balsamic dressing, broccoli, green beans, a little bit of butter. 488 calories, 49 gm protein.
Sunday: California Grill: Seared Tuna, mushroom/green bean/snap pea medley, a little bit of butter, fruit salad for dessert. 494 calories, 55 gm protein.
Monday: Spoodles (our extravagance meal!): Hummus, baba ganoush, french bread, crispbread, veggie platter [beet greens, corn, grilled eggplant, mushrooms, onions, peppers, summer squash, tomatoes (both sun-dried and fresh grilled), and a little bit of butter. 710 calories, 27 gm protein.
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom counter service: Hamburger, french fries. 1114 calories, 54 gm protein. (See explanation, below.)
Wednesay: Jiko: Grilled bass, grits, roasted tomatoes and onions, salad with citrus vinegarette. 486 calories, 33 gm protein.
Thursday: Narcoossee: Swordfish, field greens with gorgonzola, asparagus, summer squash, blackberries and sorbet. 920 calories, 60 gm protein. [Big surprise: The sorbet put me over the top, so I surplussed that day.]
Now, only three of those six meals are respectable from a low-calorie stand-point, but each of the meals indicates something I learned in my weight management efforts.
Clearly, the meals from Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday show how you can carefully consider the choices on a menu, and then work with the chef to craft a meal that replaces a lot of empty calories with a lot of low-calorie veggies. I believe all of those meals "came with" some kind of starch, probably smothered in butter. I simply asked to have it replaced by another steamed or grilled vegetable choice. I've typically called a day ahead to ensure such arrangements are possible, but I've found that at WDW's deluxe restaurants the answer is always the same: No need to call ahead for "minor" requests like that. (Minor to THEM; major to ME; but that's a WIN-WIN situation!)
Note how those three meals are not only low in calorie, but high in protein. I did NOT go hungry, or deprive my body of necessary nutrition, to cut my calories. That's a non-starter (pardon the pun)!
Now, the hamburger was clearly NOT a low-cal meal. However, that day I exercised off 973 calories -- almost that entire meal. I ended up surplussing for the day 81 calories. If I did that every day, I'd gain a pound every month and a half. On vacation, I surplussed 3 of 7 days (2 of 6 if you don't include the flight home), but deficited for the week overall, since my surplusses didn't add up to as much as my deficits did. Careful recordkeeping kept me in line, and I knew that with that tool I could "draw outside the lines" a little, and still keep myself on track.
Even though the hamburger was the highest calorie meal, it isn't clear whether it was "worse" than the great meal we had at our favorite restaurant, Spoodles. While that meal was a bit lower in calories, it had a lot less protein. Many of the calories came from the fat in the dips, and from the empty calories of the breads. By the same token, the fats, at least, were all good fats, and the meal had the equivalent of six or seven veggie portions (using my weight-loss program's much larger portion sizing; 1 cup fresh == 1 serving). So even where we "drew outside the lines" we tried to keep an eye on nutrition.