What do people do for logging when you can't weigh the food you're eating?

Losingthedamnweight

I log it as 1 calorie and eat it

ValerieMartini2Olives

I look up several similar items in the database and then go for the average

jrose1982

I just do the best I can. But I also try to minimize these situations. I.e. I don't go to restaurants as often as I used to. I'm finding I have more success the more I cook at home, and this is a big part of why.

mustloseweight2015

Thanks everyone for helpful hints!

mustloseweight2015

tomatoey wrote: »

I visually estimate - if this is weird for you, there are guides online like this.webmd.com/diet/printable/wallet-portion-control-size-guide or this.

And yeah, I'd take the higher values from the database. Most restaurants use fat for taste; if it tastes really good, it probably has more fat and therefore more calories.

Also, weirdly, after a while you can kind-of learn to feel (very roughly) how much things are. Like after a while logging, I was able to correlate the number (very roughly!) with my feelings of satiety (taking portion sizes into account as well as what I know about the food). If I feel full and satisfied, odds are fat was highish, protein was highish, and the overall count was around 500-700 (excluding beverages), so I'll pick the database option that goes with that. If feel full to bursting and heavy, like I don't want to move and want to just sit for a while, it was probably 700-1000. If it feels tasty and filling immediately upon eating but leaves me sort of empty-feeling, odds are it was carby and fatty and probably 500-700. If I feel about 80% full, but satisfied, it was a good balance of macros and about 400 calories.

Like I had a chicken schwarma last night. I noticed that they used a 6" pita; I watched how much chicken they put on, etc. Database options offered values as low as 400 and as high as 800. Mine was small and not packed full, but it did have hummous and tahini, and I know the chicken in schwarmas is fatty; and, I felt "full and satisfied", so I picked 600.

(I wouldn't rely on those feelings, because they take a while to learn, but they can help when you're deciding between database options.)

These visual guides are very useful! Thanks for sharing.

zeal26

I haven't weighed *anything* in over 6 months because I don't have a scales right now. I just make the best guesses I can and leave it at that. I'm still losing on track so the precise measuring I did for the first 6 months doesn't seem to be necessary right now.

FromHereOnOut

To be clear, I love fat...I really do and I eat a lot of it. But, when it comes to situations where you can't weigh, you might want to make lower fat choices, because although a mistaken guesstimate in a high water, carby, or protein item might not throw you off too much, a mistake of every gram of fat is 9 calories, so like cream soups, buttery stuff, cheesy stuff, creamy sauced stuff, full fat salad dressing, etc can get thrown way off by guesstimate errors. Just as a tip.