Estimating nutrition information when eating out

JeepHair77

Suppose you have a deep and intense love for a soup from a little mom and pop shop from around the corner. They don't (and aren't required to) provide nutritional information.

You search MFP for "beef tortilla soup" but the results are all over the place. That cup of soup could range from 120 calories to, say, 500 (or maybe more, who knows?). This soup is delicious. Like, really, really good and tasty - so you kind of assume that it's on the higher end of the spectrum. (But suppose you also know that this particular mom and pop shop uses only fresh ingredients - they make everything in-house, from scratch. If that makes a difference. Which it probably doesn't.)

How do you enter that into your log?

WholeFoods4Lyfe

I'd probably analyze the ingredients and try to make my best guess. I tend to use google to find the closest match and go from there. Even if you are off a few hundred calories, as long as it isn't an every day occurrence, you should be fine.

janejellyroll

I would -- to the best of my ability -- try to figure out what was in it. Does it seem to have a lot of oil or other ingredients that would add a lot of calories? How much is in each serving? I might look at recipes online to see something that looks similar. And then I would make my best estimate.

Making things in-house doesn't really make a difference. Some of the most calorific things I eat are made in my own house from scratch.

elroyalty

If it's something you really love and eat regularly, try asking how they make it! If you're a regular customer and they're good business people, and you explain you don't want to change how they make it, just want to be able to keep eating there, they may oblige! For example, I recently asked a business owner for nutritional information for something that wasn't disclosed and they helped me figure it out. I was surprised, but happy, because now I can keep eating and just log away!

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage

If you frequent said mom and pop shop, chances are they know you. I would explain to them that you'd like to know the approximate measurements and ingredients because you are trying to lose weight and need to track your calories. If it's not a secret family recipe, I see no reason why they wouldn't oblige.

If they don't want to give out the recipe though, you'll have to just guesstimate to the best of your ability.

beadgalsarita

I'll often guesstimate by adding up all the ingredients I can identify and then often add 1T of oil, to cover for any fats that were used in the cooking. It's not exact, but it seems to be working so far.

If it's a food like mashed potatoes, I'll just use the MFP entry that has the most calories, as I'd always prefer to err on the higher side.

jacksonpt

I'd look at what's in it... log each ingredient as closely as I could, then add a little extra fat, because, ya know, deliciousness in restuarants usually = fat and/or salt. I'd double check with existing database entries to make sure my cals/macros are within reason, save it as a meal for easy reference in the future, then call it a day.

If it's a more complex meal, or if nutritional info was WILDLY variable, I'd just pick a chain restaurant's version of the food and use that. This is what I often do with things like pizza.

And no, fresh vs frozen/canned/whatever foods don't typically matter much in terms of overall cals. Other stuff, maybe, but cals not so much. At least not in my experience.

rnelson88

Always estimate higher than you would originally have guessed

thereshegoesagain

I would ask them to estimate the calories, then add 15% to what they say.

pebble4321

I look in the database then take a guess - usually not the lowest or highest calorie amount (I'm not in the US and I think US portions are generally larger than I'd find here).
Over time, if you find you just aren't losing weight and are estimating a lot of meals, then I'd bump up the estimations. If it's just an occasional meal, a near guess is going to be fine.