Accurately logging purchased foods?

bkate24

Obviously, accurately logging is really important, but does anyone have tips for accurately logging purchased foods, particularly the kind that don't come with nutritional info? I make 90-95% of my food myself and weigh it, which helps with accuracy, but I like the gluten-free muffins at my local farmer's market but have no clue about how to calculate their nutritional content. I can ask them what ingredients are used, but I still have no info about what proportions the ingredients are used in. Any advice?

This week, with a farmer's market gluten-free blueberry muffin, I found an entry for a similar Trader Joe's muffin, figured out the weight for the Trader Joe's muffin, then weighed my own muffin and adjusted the numbers to account for the difference in weights. Is that a decent strategy to get a ballpark estimate?

I checked the stickies for this but didn't see it mentioned! Any advice is appreciated! : )

Zedeff

I do the same. At the end of the day, you can't find an entry for everything. My strategy is generally to log a fast food equivalent, since they are usually the "worst" for you.

Ie. If a friend gives me a muffin, I'll log it as from Tim Hortons or Dunkin Donuts. Go out to a local place for burgers? Log it as Mcdonalds. Yeah, it might be off by 10-30%, but in the long term as long as my weight is dropping, those details don't matter.

shadowfax_c11

Sounds like you have figured out what you need to do. The same thing applies to going out to eat at a restaurant that does not have nutrition information available on line. Just do your best and always lean toward overestimating rather than under.

bkate24

Thanks guys! I've just seen so many posts on here emphasizing accurate logging that I worried about being inaccurate. But I guess if it's only a few things and I overestimate just to be sure, it's okay.

Francl27

I estimate also and find a similar entry, but to be fair, I'll avoid eating something I don't have the info for more than a couple times a month.