How much do you trust posted calorie amounts?

jelleigh

In Canada restaurants now legally have to post their calories for dishes but there is no way that each meal is made the same every time is there? How do you handle this? Just enter a buffer?

Terytha

I assume every calorie amount I ever enter for anything is wrong. Only lab tests could tell you for sure. It doesn't matter. The generalization is close enough.

I tend to try to leave 100-200 calories on the table at the end of the day anyway.

Zhatan

Not much you can do about it. The calorie amount that is specified on any product can be pretty inaccurate as well. Just do as best you can and don't worry to much about it.
If you consider that the calculation for how much you can eat is also an average that might not match reality that well you realise it's all just to get an approximation of what you can eat.

apullum

Calorie counts for restaurants, like calorie counts for everything that you didn't cook and/or weigh yourself, are estimates. As you said, most restaurants are not going to weigh out every ingredient in every portion of every dish. Whenever you eat something that you didn't cook/weigh yourself, estimate high.

koalathebear

I'm pretty relaxed about it. For the first month or two of my weight loss journey, I didn't have a garmin and was relying on gym equipment, not realising that it was frequently out by 50-100 calories - but i still managed to lose weight. I'm ok with approximate amounts. For me at least, precision doesn't seem to matter much - as long as I am in the rough ball park calories-wise when it comes to food and exercise, it seems to be working out fine. I log everything, but am not too fussed if the numbers aren't spot on or if I'm under or over a little, as long as I'm comfortable I have achieved a deficit each day.

robthephotog

I assume its within 20-50 cal more or less.

Whatll get you is if you eat out ALOT and the portions vary (like extra cheese slices or extra mayo etc.

nooboots

I am highly suspicious of nearly all recorded calories even on packets. I have had advice here on this forum to trust the packet amounts.
However, I am now eating my tea which consists of some Iceland Luxury Aberdeen Angus Quarterpounders.

On the packet they say that per grilled burger, they are 171.

Bargain I thought.

But as I was scrolling down the list on the food entries,, I noticed that nearly every single other 'quarterpounder' burgers are at least around 220.

Why would this be so low? It makes me think that actually they are 271 each, not 171 each and cannot possibly be this low in calories.

LyndaBSS

I let common sense dictate what to trust with listed food nutrients/macros

lemurcat2

nooboots wrote: »

I am highly suspicious of nearly all recorded calories even on packets. I have had advice here on this forum to trust the packet amounts.
However, I am now eating my tea which consists of some Iceland Luxury Aberdeen Angus Quarterpounders.

On the packet they say that per grilled burger, they are 171.

Bargain I thought.

But as I was scrolling down the list on the food entries,, I noticed that nearly every single other 'quarterpounder' burgers are at least around 220.

Why would this be so low? It makes me think that actually they are 271 each, not 171 each and cannot possibly be this low in calories.

I looked it up and it appears to be 85% lean, 15% fat, and the numbers line up well enough with that. .25 lb raw comes out at 192 cal cooked (remember the cooked size is going to be less than .25 lb as the water is cooked out) according to USDA estimate for that kind of beef, while 100 g cooked is 250 cal, which matches up to the package numbers.

You could check the actual size of the patty and use the 85% ground beef cooked, but it won't be right in other ways, like if there is added salt.

Cals are just for the meat, presumably, not whatever it's eaten with.

MikePTY

In the US, the actual amount is allowed to be 20% higher or lower than the posted amounts.

There is always a bit of uncertainty and estimation to this, but errors also don't usually trend one specific direction. Sometimes what you eat will be more calories than the posted amount, sometimes it will be less. It usually just about evens out over the long term.

nooboots

lemurcat2 wrote: »

nooboots wrote: »

I am highly suspicious of nearly all recorded calories even on packets. I have had advice here on this forum to trust the packet amounts.
However, I am now eating my tea which consists of some Iceland Luxury Aberdeen Angus Quarterpounders.

On the packet they say that per grilled burger, they are 171.

Bargain I thought.

But as I was scrolling down the list on the food entries,, I noticed that nearly every single other 'quarterpounder' burgers are at least around 220.

Why would this be so low? It makes me think that actually they are 271 each, not 171 each and cannot possibly be this low in calories.

I looked it up and it appears to be 85% lean, 15% fat, and the numbers line up well enough with that. .25 lb raw comes out at 192 cal cooked (remember the cooked size is going to be less than .25 lb as the water is cooked out) according to USDA estimate for that kind of beef, while 100 g cooked is 250 cal, which matches up to the package numbers.

You could check the actual size of the patty and use the 85% ground beef cooked, but it won't be right in other ways, like if there is added salt.

Cals are just for the meat, presumably, not whatever it's eaten with.

Yes I have 2 left in the freezer, Im going to weigh them after cooking next time to find out what the cooked weight is, as I suppose if they shrink down a lot I could be only looking about 85 grams or so. A lot of liquid and fat came out during the cooking

WynterDreaming

If I'm eating out? I generally always try to remember to add an extra 1/8 portion to my log. Even in prepackaged foods it's better to estimate high since generally they're going to be over the advertised serving size by a bit. No estimation or logging is going to be perfect. But overestimating what you have, it's always going to put you closer to what you're actually putting in your mouth I find.

Unknown

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John772016

Only restaurants over a certain number (chains) have to post calories. The rest do not. As I usually eat at the rest, I estimate.