Welp, I've got no idea how to log this.

marshmallowhunter

There's no nutritional information on the label. The barcode isn't in the MFP system. I'm at work, so no food scale is available.




What am I eating, guys?

marshmallowhunter

This is what it looks like on a plate.

lx1x

Lo mein with dumplings it looks like

marshmallowhunter

lx1x wrote: »

Lo mein with dumplings it looks like

If I just search that, will packaged meals I find in the database be likely to have similar enough portions that selecting one would be a good estimate, or should I try to estimate how much chow mein, sesame chicken (I think), and dumpling is in the dish, and log them individually?

wilson10102018

1200, I'd guess. It'' be in the breading and oil. Remember sesame oil is 123 calories per tablespoon. That could easily have 6.

pinuplove

That's a lot of calories. Easily 12-1500 depending on how big that plate is.

lx1x

marshmallowhunter wrote: »

If I just search that, will packaged meals I find in the database be likely to have similar enough portions that selecting one would be a good estimate, or should I try to estimate how much chow mein, sesame chicken (I think), and dumpling is in the dish, and log them individually?

Personally I'll measure all three separately if you want a fair accuracy.

Noodle as lo mien
Sesame Chicken
Dumplings

suziecue25

I hope it tastes better than it looks.......close up photos sometimes do a dish no favours at all.

Mbierschbach

This forum is usually pretty "judgement free" so I'll be honest while trying to be gentle. The short answer is: "don't eat that." That's how you avoid this conundrum.

If you can't even imagine how to approximate what's in what you're eating, why would you put it in your body? So often we're surprised when we look at some kind of restaurant meal/portion: "OMG this dish has THAT many calories?" You're setting yourself up here for that kind of surprise.

You could get that same KIND of food (this is where I/we don't judge your choices) by going to a number of national chains that do publish their calorie counts based on their serving size. Your best bet is to check one of those (Panda Express, Magic Wok, etc.) and do your best to sub in a like for like. If they have a lo mein side, a portion of orange chicken, etc - you can get close.

atgnat1

I didn't think it was even legal to sell packaged food without at least an ingredients list...

aokoye

atgnat1 wrote: »

I didn't think it was even legal to sell packaged food without at least an ingredients list...

That would be dependent on the country. In the US I suspect that that's true (though I would be unsurprised if there were various exceptions), but I don't know about other countries that use dollars.

aokoye

Mbierschbach wrote: »

This forum is usually pretty "judgement free" so I'll be honest while trying to be gentle. The short answer is: "don't eat that." That's how you avoid this conundrum.

If you can't even imagine how to approximate what's in what you're eating, why would you put it in your body? So often we're surprised when we look at some kind of restaurant meal/portion: "OMG this dish has THAT many calories?" You're setting yourself up here for that kind of surprise.

You could get that same KIND of food (this is where I/we don't judge your choices) by going to a number of national chains that do publish their calorie counts based on their serving size. Your best bet is to check one of those (Panda Express, Magic Wok, etc.) and do your best to sub in a like for like. If they have a lo mein side, a portion of orange chicken, etc - you can get close.

Because it tastes good? Because you are interested in trying ingredients that you've never eaten or cooked with before (I suspect the OP has eaten everything in this dish before), because you're really hungry and don't have other options, because you're at one of the thousands likely millions of restaurants that doesn't have it's nutritional data available - I could probably keep going.

The lesson here isn't, "don't eat that!" it's "it would be useful to try to learn how to estimate how many calories something has even if you haven't cooked it and don't have access to a restaurant's nutrition data."

neugebauer52

For me just looking at it not appetizing at all. My calorie alarm bell would ring, the other one - the carbs alarm bell would ring and the next one - the fats alarm gong would chime in between. Those dumpling - like structures are not evenly cooked either. Is food served on plastic plates nowadays? I enjoy looking at well cooked, well presented food first, otherwise I wouldn't bother...

comptonelizabeth

The op isn't asking, should I eat this? They're asking how to estimate the calories.

wilson10102018

OK, let's review the objective. Calorie counting works because the continuous logging trains us to make better food choices. It does this by us having to manage a daily limit on calories within traditional foods. But, some things have to fall out of the rotation depending on one's overall goals and calorie limits if this is to work. A person on a 1400 calorie diet just can't eat a serving of General Tso's chicken at 900 calories.

Now we have some people here who are stubbornly adhered to the belief that nothing can be taken out of the rotation and they hang on to their beloved high calorie dishes such as pizza, lasagna, etc. Then they post recipes for putting ground cauliflower in the lasagna so it has 800 calories instead of 1000.

If one wants to lose some weight and then gain it back, just go on a diet of stuff you don't really want to eat until you lose the weight. Then you can gain it back.

If you want to lose it forever, let the process train the highest calorie foods out off the rotation. Hence, the legitimacy of "Don't eat that."

glassyo

wilson10102018 wrote: »

OK, let's review the objective. Calorie counting works because the continuous logging trains us to make better food choices. It does this by us having to manage a daily limit on calories within traditional foods. But, some things have to fall out of the rotation depending on one's overall goals and calorie limits if this is to work. A person on a 1400 calorie diet just can't eat a serving of General Tso's chicken at 900 calories.

Now we have some people here who are stubbornly adhered to the belief that nothing can be taken out of the rotation and they hang on to their beloved high calorie dishes such as pizza, lasagna, etc. Then they post recipes for putting ground cauliflower in the lasagna so it has 800 calories instead of 1000.

If one wants to lose some weight and then gain it back, just go on a diet of stuff you don't really want to eat until you lose the weight. Then you can gain it back.

If you want to lose it forever, let the process train the highest calorie foods out off the rotation. Hence, the legitimacy of "Don't eat that."

Maybe we should review how calorie counting works. MFP gives you a calorie goal to lose/gain/maintain weight. Food has calories. Eat food and stay within your calorie goal to lose/gain/maintain said weight. 900 calories of pizza or lasagna is the same as 300 calories of chicken, 300 calories of pizza, 300 calories of ice cream (calorie wise).

wilson10102018

Years ago, I did some credit counseling for wealthy people who were clients of the CPA firm I worked at (yes, people with high income can get into some pretty serious credit problems).

The only thing that worked was logging spending at or as contemporaneously as possible to the point of purchase. Mom has to come out of Macy's and write that $300 of makeup on the log which shows a budget for "Personal Care" items of $500 per month.

It was the only thing that worked. I did dozens of them.

There are two parts: Losing weight and keeping it off.

So, I'm on board with eating 300 calories of ice cream or whatnot. But, there are just some things that have to get dropped off the rotation if successful food habits are to be developed and sustained. Habits become preferences. The OP's dish above is one of those that should not be retained. High calorie AFF.

And, trust that eventually you can actually prefer the Lemon Italian Ice at 120 calories per cup to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream at 550 calories per cup.

ladyreva78

wilson10102018 wrote: »

Years ago, I did some credit counseling for wealthy people who were clients of the CPA firm I worked at (yes, people with high income can get into some pretty serious credit problems).

The only thing that worked was logging spending at or as contemporaneously as possible to the point of purchase. Mom has to come out of Macy's and write that $300 of makeup on the log which shows a budget for "Personal Care" items of $500 per month.

It was the only thing that worked. I did dozens of them.

There are two parts: Losing weight and keeping it off.

So, I'm on board with eating 300 calories of ice cream or whatnot. But, there are just some things that have to get dropped off the rotation if successful food habits are to be developed and sustained. Habits become preferences. The OP's dish above is one of those that should not be retained. High calorie AFF.

And, trust that eventually you can actually prefer the Lemon Italian Ice at 120 calories per cup to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream at 550 calories per cup.

Except: OP didn't ask if it was okay to eat the food he/she bought. They asked help in logging it.

You have no idea on their calorie goal. Might be that they're trying to bulk and have a TDEE of nearly 4K? Maybe it's a one off because it's a favorite meal of theirs that they now eat once a month instead of daily? Maybe they're still learning the calorie content of things and will know better next time from having read our estimates? Live and learn. But it's not our place to judge what foods fit into someone else's day and situation.

OP: I hope you enjoyed every last bite of that.

aokoye

wilson10102018 wrote: »

OK, let's review the objective. Calorie counting works because the continuous logging trains us to make better food choices. It does this by us having to manage a daily limit on calories within traditional foods. But, some things have to fall out of the rotation depending on one's overall goals and calorie limits if this is to work. A person on a 1400 calorie diet just can't eat a serving of General Tso's chicken at 900 calories.

Now we have some people here who are stubbornly adhered to the belief that nothing can be taken out of the rotation and they hang on to their beloved high calorie dishes such as pizza, lasagna, etc. Then they post recipes for putting ground cauliflower in the lasagna so it has 800 calories instead of 1000.

If one wants to lose some weight and then gain it back, just go on a diet of stuff you don't really want to eat until you lose the weight. Then you can gain it back.

If you want to lose it forever, let the process train the highest calorie foods out off the rotation. Hence, the legitimacy of "Don't eat that."

Can you define "traditional foods"?

Edit: I missed the "don’t pick apart how something is said; rather focus on the meaning/message." from the mod post above.