How to figure out the amount of calories in unlabelled food ?

aaargh2437
aaargh2437 Posts: 2 Member
in Getting Started
I'm new to the whole calorie counting thing and I have no idea how to figure out how many calories are in my food. For packaged food from the supermarket it's on the packaging so that's fine, but what about the sandwich I just bought at a sandwich shop ? They don't list the calories, besides I doubt the number of calories is exactly the same each time they make a sandwich.

How do I figure out the exact amount of calories in unlabelled food ? Is there some way to measure it ?

Replies

  • raspberriliana
    raspberriliana Posts: 61 Member
    There are two different approaches to this, I believe:
    1. You can stop eating unlabelled food, but that's a bit extreme and can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. Some people choose to do that though, in order to be 100% sure of their intake.
    2. You can try to guesstimate. If you can see the weight of the whole sandwich written somewhere, that'd be useful. Or you can weigh it at home and try to log things manually - x grams of bread, y grams of the different toppings you got.
    It's tricky and you can never be certain if your log is correct, but my advice is: overestimating is usually a better idea than underestimating.
  • fruitily
    fruitily Posts: 75 Member
    Eyeball, or search up similar food items, and then add 25% more calories than you think is in it.
  • ExistingFish
    ExistingFish Posts: 1,259 Member
    What others have said, estimate or find something similar from a chain that has their nutrition posted. Most chains have their nutrition posted, we don't have too many local non-chains here, so I haven't had a problem.
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    aaargh2437 wrote: »
    ExistingFish wrote: »
    we don't have too many local non-chains here, so I haven't had a problem.
    Chain restaurants aren't a big thing in my country. There's a few like McDonalds an BK and one or two sandwich shops but every real restaurant and >90% of lunchrooms are non-chain. It's not common for them to post nutricion facts.

    Besides, I'm not looking for the average calories for a type of sandwich, I'm looking for the EXACT amount of calories in the actual sandwhich I'm about to eat. I don't want to estimate, I want to know.

    I mean, what's the point of using this app if there is such a large margin of error that you can be hundreds of calories under or over your target without knowing ? The two sandwiches I had yesterday could have been anything from 400 to 1600 kcal according to the apps database.

    If you want accuracy, make your own sandwich

    Precisely. You cannot expect to know the "exact" amount of calories, especially not in food you did not prepare yourself.
  • perkymommy
    perkymommy Posts: 1,642 Member
    aaargh2437 wrote: »
    I'm new to the whole calorie counting thing and I have no idea how to figure out how many calories are in my food. For packaged food from the supermarket it's on the packaging so that's fine, but what about the sandwich I just bought at a sandwich shop ? They don't list the calories, besides I doubt the number of calories is exactly the same each time they make a sandwich.

    How do I figure out the exact amount of calories in unlabelled food ? Is there some way to measure it ?

    If you are where you can use a food scale then take it apart and weigh the meats and cheese if possible. If not, then look up something on the list on MFP that is most closely related and use that. I have to do that a lot of times when I eat out.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    aaargh2437 wrote: »
    ExistingFish wrote: »
    we don't have too many local non-chains here, so I haven't had a problem.
    Chain restaurants aren't a big thing in my country. There's a few like McDonalds an BK and one or two sandwich shops but every real restaurant and >90% of lunchrooms are non-chain. It's not common for them to post nutricion facts.

    Besides, I'm not looking for the average calories for a type of sandwich, I'm looking for the EXACT amount of calories in the actual sandwhich I'm about to eat. I don't want to estimate, I want to know.

    I mean, what's the point of using this app if there is such a large margin of error that you can be hundreds of calories under or over your target without knowing ? The two sandwiches I had yesterday could have been anything from 400 to 1600 kcal according to the apps database.

    If you want accuracy, make your own sandwich

    Yep.

    As you get more practice weighing out servings, it gets easier to estimate when you are eating already prepared food. You can mentally deconstruct what you are eating - what kind of bread, about how much meat, what's in the dressing, what kind and how much cheese. But it can be hard at first, when we are used to what we "think" a serving of food looks like.

    I'm going to assume you were being dramatic saying those 2 sandwiches could be anywhere from 400-1600 cals, but once you get a couple of months practice of weighing and logging under your belt, you really should be able to tell the difference. Regardless, you will never be able to be exact, even food you make yourself. Calories in and calories out is more a process of trial and error, tweaking as you go. Everything is estimated to one extent or the other, luckily you don't need to be exact for it to work.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    Also keep in mind that food from chain restaurants is not precise either: everything done by people will be imprecise, and also people doing nothing than making sandwiches all day will suffer from portion creep
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Also keep in mind that food from chain restaurants is not precise either: everything done by people will be imprecise, and also people doing nothing than making sandwiches all day will suffer from portion creep

    depends on where you go. when i worked at mcdonalds everything was in dispensers. you might get a bigger handful of lettuce but your mac sauce was shot from a gun. and my subway weighs everything their owner mes them keep track of how many sandwiches they get from a package.
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    edited August 2018
    If it worries you that much, pick the 1600 calorie one and move on with your day. If I can't find one that is spot on, or close, I pick one of the highest calorie counts in the database because I'd rather over shoot than under shoot.

    As you spend more time doing this, you'll feel more confidant in your estimates. You'll get that way because after 4-6 weeks, regardless of your methodology - you'll either be losing more or less than expected, maintaining or gaining. You'll adjust accordingly, and re-evaluate again in 4-6 weeks. After a few rounds of this, you realize at the end of the day not knowing what is in 1 takeout sandwich isn't the end of the world - it's the overall consistency that is important.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    I see you are from the Netherlands.

    A sandwich constructed there, either in a sandwich shop, or at home, may well differ from a sandwich constructed in the USA, where a lot, not all, of the entries come from.

    I live in Canada but spend time in the UK. Ordering a ham sandwich is very different from country to country.

    Canada
    2 large,thick slices of wholemeal bread, one with butter the other with mayo and mustard, all generously applied.
    ~50g ham piled on
    A good handful of lettuce
    Onion
    Tomato.

    UK
    2 regular sandwich (thin) slices of bread, butter one side. Mustard, a lick, on request.
    2 waifer thin slices of ham laid flat.
    No accessories.

    There is a big difference in the calorie content of these 2 sandwiches.
    With a bit of practice, it is easy, to take a peak inside the sandwich and do a reasonable approximation of the calories.

    A teaspoon is 5g. How much of any of the dressings got close to a teaspoon? 1g-5g.
    The bread, once you have weighed s few slices of bread at home you will get good at comparing the slices at home to those in the shop. Is it 75% of the home slice, or 125%?
    Same with the meat/cheese/fish portions. Practice with weighing at home will give you the confidence to estimate away from home.
    The veg portion, I log as 5g usually, unless I can see there is substantially more. I like knowing what veg I've eaten in a day, even teeny tiny amounts.

    If I was logging the sandwiches from the estimates you gave, the Canadian one would get the high cals, the UK the low.

    I know it's frustrating to begin with, but it will become easier with practice.

    If you tend to get your sandwiches from the same shop, once you are confident logging the individual elements, you can save that sandwich as a meal then every time you have it you will just go to your meal drop down to enter it.
    ie: Forsythe's ham on wholemeal sandwich.

    Cheers, h.

    @yirara, I could be wrong, but you have lived in the Netherlands haven't you?
    Any input that may be country specific help?
  • SLOgal
    SLOgal Posts: 7 Member
    It helps to keep in mind that you also can't precisely measure the calories you're burning. So there will always be some uncertainty with both intake and output. Just get as close as possible.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    @middlehaitch Sandwiches, the ones you can buy at petrol stations are fairly similar to what you get in the UK. But there are lots of things you can't get, like sandwiches with filet americain (gosh, now I NEED some), or soft rolls simply with cheese or various meat products you can't get in the UK.
  • 425Recess
    425Recess Posts: 271 Member
    Lots of good advice here and I definitely agree. The only thing that I would add is to be accurate as possible. It is easy to start estimating more and more and then portion creep is a problem. If closely accurate most of the time, the times you are off won't matter much.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    aaargh2437 wrote: »
    ExistingFish wrote: »
    we don't have too many local non-chains here, so I haven't had a problem.
    Chain restaurants aren't a big thing in my country. There's a few like McDonalds an BK and one or two sandwich shops but every real restaurant and >90% of lunchrooms are non-chain. It's not common for them to post nutricion facts.

    Besides, I'm not looking for the average calories for a type of sandwich, I'm looking for the EXACT amount of calories in the actual sandwhich I'm about to eat. I don't want to estimate, I want to know.

    I mean, what's the point of using this app if there is such a large margin of error that you can be hundreds of calories under or over your target without knowing ? The two sandwiches I had yesterday could have been anything from 400 to 1600 kcal according to the apps database.

    If you're unwilling to estimate, then stop buying unlabeled food and stop eating food that you didn't prepare yourself. That's the only way you can be 100% confident.

    Or you can adopt the strategy that has worked for many people here. Measure accurately when you can and make educated estimates the rest of the time.

    You're going to be maintaining for your whole life. Are you truly never going to eat anything ever again unless you can know 100% what the calorie count is?

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