Strategy for entering food at a friends house

Hutchins1945

I'm new to the app, but I already want to delete it. There are too many exceptions that would make the app irrelevant. Today for instance, I was going to enter in the leftovers my friend gave me, but I don't know what ingredients he used or what weighting he did. I mean, I can easily guess the ingredients by looking, but that doesn't tell me how much calories are in the,. Like one slice of an onion, I don't know what that has. What do you guys do here?

TavistockToad

You can log one slice of onion....

I would just guesstimate food like that if you didn't make it yourself. The more you weigh and log, the better you get at eyeballing portions.

genpopadopolous

I just guess at someone else's house.

So like - homemade burger, bun, slice tomato, slice onion, tblsp ketchup, tblsp mustard, half cup potato salad, 1 serving chips.

It's only hard if you make it hard.

MsBuzzkillington

How does this make the app irrelevant?

You just learn how to guess and make an estimate. You could also ask him "hey, this was really good! Can you tell me the recipe?" Then guess on portion amounts. It won't be exact, life won't always be exact.

AnnPT77

Estimate using a somewhat similar entry in the database, and don't pick the lowest one you can find. It'll be fine. I did that periodically over the past year or so, while using MFP to lose 60+ pounds.

But if you're looking for an excuse to quit, then "There are too many exceptions that would make the app irrelevant." is as good as any other. Shrug.

flatcoatedR

I love this app. If I don't know something, I look up a few different versions of the item in the data base and pick one of the ones where the calories are closest to each one another. Ex: if I have spaghetti at a friend's home. I may look up Olive Gardens, another restaurant, and maybe a few MFP members homemade recipes and pick one in the middle range.