When you can’t find out how many calories is in something

beastmode2718
beastmode2718 Posts: 108 Member
edited November 22 in Food and Nutrition
Like at restaurants or a family dinner. I always end up blowing my deficit because I can’t tell how much I’m eating. How do you solve this problem?

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I use the internet to find calorie counts for dishes that look similar and use that to create an estimate.

    I log as accurately as I can the majority of the time so that when I'm having to estimate, it won't have as much of an impact.

    As you get more consistent with logging, you may find that you become better at telling when you need to estimate more calories. For example, I typically get a dish with mock duck and I estimate a certain amount of calories. This weekend, I was having a mock duck sandwich (made someplace else) and I noticed that some oil was dripping from it as I ate it. This let me know that I needed to log at least a tablespoon of oil with the meal, above and beyond what I would have counted for the mock duck itself. Pay attention to your food, when things taste sweeter or richer than what you would expect.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    You estimate based on something similar. You make better choices. You compensate with a meal earlier or later in the day.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I know the calorie counts of lots of foods. I would find a similar restaurant entry or recipe and log it. If it is a family dinner I might just ask for the actual recipe. I like to cook so it isn't unusual to talk about how the food was prepared or recipes.

    Do you weigh food you eat at home? Pay attention to what portion sizes look like.
    Choose items that are not a combined dish so you can log things separately. Get grilled or baked meats.
    Put more vegetables on your plate. Go easy on salad dressings, bread, rice, and noodle portions. Eat less of stuff covered in creamy sauces, butter, fried foods, cheese, gravy. Drink low calorie or no calorie drinks.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited October 2017
    Just make a best guess.

    I know others are concerned about accuracy & precision in logging but "close enough" has been "good enough" 4me for both weight loss and maintenance.
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