How do I count my calories when a restaurant doesn’t have the calorie count?

elizabethdzenitis

Ughhh this happens to me all the time and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Should I just find the food on here and guess how many calories it has?

rheddmobile

Yep, that's about the best you can do. If you can find something similar at another restaurant which has nutritional information listed, that may be the way to go. I try to limit eating out, and overestimate restaurant calories, in order to stay in a deficit.

kgeyser

I find the closest item I can in the database and work with that. If I know I am going to be eating at a restaurant, I try to leave some extra calories for the day as wiggle room since the entry won't be exact.

KateTii

Personally, I don't go to restaurants enough to worry too much about calorie contents. I log my day except for that meal and be done with it. If i'm just guessing, and i'm going to eat it anyway, then who cares what the calories are - feels like a bit of a waste of time.

collectingblues

When I'm at a place where I don't know the count, I look for the equivalent among Sodexo or Aramark -- they're two of the US' largest food catering/supplying groups, so I figure it's the closest thing I can get to a count that includes not only the food itself, but also how it was likely prepared.

Include "sodexo" in your search, and that's how you can find those entries.

kgirlhart

In those situations guess. I just use the nutrition information for a similar dish at similar chain that has their info online.