Ever Doubt a Restaurant Calorie Count?

MsCzar

Just finished a delicious dinner of chain restaurant chili. According to the restaurant web site, an entire pint of chili made with ground beef and red kidney beans is 250 - 125 calories per cup. I find that VERY hard to believe - especially since most chili clocks in at least 200 per cup. Next time, I have half a mind to separate out the ingredients and weigh out the meat and beans.

Ever have a dubious take-out calorie count? If so, how do you log it in your food diary?

callsitlikeiseeit

it really depends on how veggie heavy it is. if more veg than meat, it will come in lower. also depends on if its a lower fat ground beef.

my chili comes in at around 300 calories/serving (before any add ons like sour cream or cheese, etc)- which would be about 2 cups worth, give or take (I actually need to redo that recipe and get a current run of what it is, I created it a long time ago, but its probably pretty close)

you can always add in calories on the diary, too. there's a spot for that.

springlering62

All. The. Time.

You have to use your own common sense and experience weighing and logging. I always guesstimate the weight and ingredients and enter them in my diary individually.

Yet another reason to weigh and log carefully- makes it easier to eyeball.

panda4153

So chain restaurants actually have to be pretty accurate in their reporting. It’s better if their site lists servings my weight, but food margins in restaurants are pretty slim so serving since and ingredients are pretty accurate. I speak for chains not the mom and pop places. Chains use a lot of predetermined recipes for consistency across locations. I do trust it for the most part. I have not seen any unexpected results on my loss or gain of weight when using the data listed on chain sites nutritional info.