Do you trust fast food nutrition on their websites?

_tierachanel

Occasionally I will enjoy fast food and always log what I eat. I get my information off the restaurants website. Do you trust that information? It bothers me to think I could be thinking the calories are "this" but really is "that". Like, the small fry I ordered may have been more closer to a medium..

Do you know a better way to get a more accurate count of calories? Scale? Just wanted to see what you guys think.

amitkatz0

Well owing to the fact that the employees are not using a scale in the kitchen to measure out how many fries they put in a carton, or how much ketchup they're squeezing onto your burger, you'll have to accept that the nutritional guide is just an average.
You can bring your own scale and measure (and get weird stares from every patron in the establishment), or you can play it safe and add 15-20% to their published values (better to overestimate than to underestimate in weight loss.)

_tierachanel

Okay thanks. I think I will just play it safe and over estimate.

amitkatz0

That's what I do. And just remember that it's not the end of the world if you want to go out to eat and have to go over your calorie budget for the day. Just so long as you balance it out over the week.

maxit

I use the website information. I let my data (calories eaten and calories burned log, activity log, weight, measurements) be my guide. There is no way to be exact on any of this so I don't try to over think things.

melimomTARDIS

i trust the website's info.

lizzocat

i always add like 20 - 25 % over, I don't trust published values of any prepared foods.

Mr_Knight

I trust fast food nutritional information more than I trust restaurant nutritional information. The reason is that fast food margins are very very thin, they *have* to get close and consistent to their defined servings, and the food products themselves are far more standardized.

Zedeff

Mr_Knight wrote: »

I trust fast food nutritional information more than I trust restaurant nutritional information. The reason is that fast food margins are very very thin, they *have* to get close and consistent to their defined servings, and the food products themselves are far more standardized.

100% agreed.

For the poster that said that fast food workers aren't weighing everything and you could end up with more food than advertised, I guess this is true, but you'd be at least equally likely to end up with less food for the same reason. You get a few extra fries, a touch less mayonnaise on the burger, the drink isn't topped up all the way... is that more or less calories than advertised?

It's a mean. Log it that way. This week's fast food might be over, next week's might be under but they'd vary by fairly little and in the end it's a wash/

ktekc

I know back when i worked at Mcdonalds we had dispensers for all the ketchup and sauces and such in the kitchen. One trigger pull put the same measured amount out each time. I am assuming most "fast food " places have the same type of thing.

Amanda4change

To be fair it's been 20+ years since I worked in fast food as a teenager. However when I worked at Taco Bell during training in making the food they did make us weigh the portions out, and would randomly break out the scale (because the profit margins were tight they were obsessive about not having heavy servings). I think they are pretty close, definently closer than some sit down restaurants (that aren't a chain where it all comes pre measured). I eat it so rarely that I don't worry about it.

TimothyFish

No one is going to be able to tell you exactly how many calories are in their food, but fast food chains produce food that is about as uniform as you can get.

Rogstar

I trust them to an extent, but I try not to eat everything I'm given. Like I'll always leave many of the fries or some of the bun and not have any of the sauce (unless it's delicious!). But I'll log the whole amount.

Everything they publish is probably an average, and based on ideals. So sometimes I'll get less, sometimes I'll get more, but it's probably close enough.

tmauck4472

I trust the website then trust my exercise will cover the difference, which is why I don't eat back my exercise calories.

Lasmartchika

Yeah I trust them, I always put down their numbers into my diary (without changing anything like others have suggested) and I'm still losing weight.

liekewheeless

Provided the rest of my day is pretty accurate and I don't eat fast food more than ones a week, one under logged meal won't hurt my progress. Even if it's 200 calories off,.. what's 200 calories extra in a week?

vschwgrt1

I just use the web sites from fast food as general idea, nothing written in stone. For instance I like to go to Taco Bell now and then if I am in a hurry, I order 3 soft chicken tacos, split the filling of one between the other 2, throw away the one shell (they are showing as 100 calories pert tortilla!) and count the calories as 380 per their web site.

WickedPineapple

I worked at arby's. We weighed the roast beef every time and any other meats came in pre-weighed portions. (Otherwise you run the risk of putting on too much meat which equals less profit.) However, the fries were more willy nilly. Just whatever fits into the certain sized container. So I'd trust the sandwich info as accurate and the fries as pretty inaccurate (which is one of the reasons I tend to stay away from them).

kimreagan87

I was a manager at a fast food restaurant for many years. I would not trust the nutritional facts that they give you.

TimothyFish

tmauck4472 wrote: »

I trust the website then trust my exercise will cover the difference, which is why I don't eat back my exercise calories.

That's an interesting thought, but even the most accurately weighed food can vary in calories by as much as 20%. Given that fast food meals have about 1000 calories, that could easily be 200 calories over. That's a lot of calories to make up for by not eating exercise calories.

vschwgrt1

Personally I think all food is a judgment call, always guess on the high side to be safe, it's way easy to not count a few calories here and there, and that adds up quick!

cookiealbright

When I worked at McDonald's the ketchup on the burgers are calibrated so is the hotcake batter. Everything is made the same everytime. I trust it, but don't eat it anymore.

Wiseandcurious

Considering how rarely I have it (Subway 1-2x a month, burger joints more like 5-6x a year) I totally trust it, it's not worth bothering over. But what people above have said regarding the standardization of portions to keep profits consistent makes a lot of sense.

Zedeff

WickedPineapple wrote: »

I worked at arby's. We weighed the roast beef every time and any other meats came in pre-weighed portions. (Otherwise you run the risk of putting on too much meat which equals less profit.) However, the fries were more willy nilly. Just whatever fits into the certain sized container. So I'd trust the sandwich info as accurate and the fries as pretty inaccurate (which is one of the reasons I tend to stay away from them).

I f'n LOVE Arby's, and I know that's a minority opinion. My go-to, since I can't squander calories on anything but the best, is to get 2 regular roast beef sandwiches, throw away one bun, and have a gut-busting mega beef burger. It's so much fat and protein that it'll satisfy me most of a day and you know what, it's not that bad on the nutrition-o-meter.

500 kcal, 36 carbs, 24 fat, 37 protein.

My question is... how the heck do you make that beef? It's obviously processed and industrialized somehow, it doesn't look like any beef I've ever purchased. Did it weird you out "cooking" that stuff?

_tierachanel

Thanks everyone. All good thoughts and opinions. I wont think to much into the logging I guess. After reading this, I'll just go by what the website says and make it easier on myself. I try not to eat that much fast food anyways so it shouldn't hurt too much in the week.

WickedPineapple

Zedeff wrote: »

WickedPineapple wrote: »

I worked at arby's. We weighed the roast beef every time and any other meats came in pre-weighed portions. (Otherwise you run the risk of putting on too much meat which equals less profit.) However, the fries were more willy nilly. Just whatever fits into the certain sized container. So I'd trust the sandwich info as accurate and the fries as pretty inaccurate (which is one of the reasons I tend to stay away from them).

I f'n LOVE Arby's, and I know that's a minority opinion. My go-to, since I can't squander calories on anything but the best, is to get 2 regular roast beef sandwiches, throw away one bun, and have a gut-busting mega beef burger. It's so much fat and protein that it'll satisfy me most of a day and you know what, it's not that bad on the nutrition-o-meter.

500 kcal, 36 carbs, 24 fat, 37 protein.

My question is... how the heck do you make that beef? It's obviously processed and industrialized somehow, it doesn't look like any beef I've ever purchased. Did it weird you out "cooking" that stuff?

Have you ever been to a grocery store deli and seen the big packaged meats in the display cases? The beefs are received at the stores like that, except frozen (if I remember correctly) and not as nice looking. They actually roast the beefs in an oven for three hours in the morning and then slice it to order. So pretty standard and not too weird.

I also used to work at a grocery store deli. The beef at Arby's is comparable to the cheap turkey/ham they have in grocery store delis. However, those grossed me out more than the meat at Arby's because the meat was slimy.

Liftng4Lis

Nothing is 100% accurate.

Lourdesong

_tierachanel wrote: »

Occasionally I will enjoy fast food and always log what I eat. I get my information off the restaurants website. Do you trust that information? It bothers me to think I could be thinking the calories are "this" but really is "that". Like, the small fry I ordered may have been more closer to a medium..

Do you know a better way to get a more accurate count of calories? Scale? Just wanted to see what you guys think.

I trust it. I don't have the patience to fuss about over it.

LaurenAOK

Lourdesong wrote: »

I trust it. I don't have the patience to fuss about over it.

This. I eat out rather a lot (I pretty much am only ever home to sleep) and I have always just trusted restaurant/fast food websites. I have also always lost right on track with what MFP predicted, so it hasn't led me astray so far.

Those numbers are definitely estimates/averages but they're close enough for me to not worry about it.

honkytonks85

To an extent, especially for places like McDonald's who are pretty thorough about using the same measurements of foods each time. That's why you generally get the same thing every time. However, all it takes to add a hundred calories is to add an extra tablespoon of mayo. Some places will be more particular than others.

joan23_us

you need about roughly 3,500 kcal to gain a lb of fat... so if you aren't eating that much over I wouldn't worry too much... Don't stress to much about the minor things... In the grand scheme of things, fatloss is a direct result of CONSISTENTLY putting yourself on enough calorie deficit over the course of days, week, months, etc. EAT log it, exercise progress... das it mayne!