How do you calculate calories in this situation?

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binab37
binab37 Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition

I'm pretty new and have read many posts about the importance of really weighing food and calculating the calorie amounts. What do you in situations where it seems impossible to do that with a food? For example, an event is comng up and I'm planning to have a small piece of cake (made by a local baker in her home) but have no way to calculate that. Do you look up a similar food item and estimate that way? I want to try and fit these types of foods into my plan as part of a healthy lifestyle change since in the past I've had the unsuccessful all or nothing mentality when it comes to food!

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  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
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    You take your best guess.

    There will always be times when you can't be accurate with cals - eating out at restaurants, eating at other people's places, events or parties when food is provided (like the multiple conferences I've had in the last few week, all including food!). You can't stop living and interacting in your community so it's good to get some practice at estimating.

    I usually have a look in the database and find something that seems close. Clearly, it's not going to be perfect, but you can only do your best. And I think that if you are being as accurate as you can with your cals the rest of the time, it's not going to be a problem.
  • JinjoJoey
    JinjoJoey Posts: 106 Member
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    I find similar items, but pick one with a higher calorie amount, just so I remember to behave the rest of the day. I jog a lot too, so worst case scenario, if I want to indulge and can't get a good estimate or at least, one I feel comfortable with, I'll go spin down the block a mile or two.
  • binab37
    binab37 Posts: 6 Member
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    Thanks all! That is what I figured!
  • cecsav1
    cecsav1 Posts: 714 Member
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    If it's made by a local baker, maybe you could give her a call. I've had to email restaurants before to find out the nutrition info (calories and macros) of a certain food. If she can't or won't help you out, go ahead and estimate like everyone else has said, but there's no harm in trying. :)
  • binab37
    binab37 Posts: 6 Member
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    cecsav1 wrote: »
    If it's made by a local baker, maybe you could give her a call. I've had to email restaurants before to find out the nutrition info (calories and macros) of a certain food. If she can't or won't help you out, go ahead and estimate like everyone else has said, but there's no harm in trying. :)

    That is actually a really good idea because she's a friend of mine and also on her way to becoming a dietician.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
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    The thing to remember is that there's not that much variation in the actual cake. It's going to fall somewhere on a spectrum between pound cake (one part butter, one part sugar, one part flour, one part egg) and fatless sponge (no butter, more eggs) - you can't really stray beyond that or the recipe doesn't work. So if you see an entry for pound cake, that's going to be a good estimate. What really makes the difference is the icing /frosting and filling - if you want to be accurate you can put in pound cake for the cake and then add the frosting separately.

    But to be honest, I don't take it to that level of detail. The most calorific cake is pound cake with buttercream, so I would enter that, or else find an entry for "birthday cake" which shows high calories. That's usually just pound cake with buttercream.

    If your cake has no icing, just enter plain pound cake. It'll be close enough.

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