How can I measure my school food?!

enrique_Morales94

I’m a college student and I eat at an all you can eat cafeteria I’m just how I can calculate calories should I bring measuring cups or something I’ve never done this before.

Cats_fitness_journey

Hmm this is a hard one. You could bring a scale but that would be kinda weird so I would just eyeball it and over estimate the calories just to be safe. Focus on portions, there are times where you can’t count and that’s ok!

MacLowCarbing

I agree with the above poster where you may be able to learn to eyeball certain things. Can you bring stuff back to your room? Maybe fix a plate of things you like then go back to your room and pull out a measuring cup/scale to calculate portions, you can figure out then about the size you should be taking every time you go down there.

Mainly be careful of sauces/toppings/dressings/etc., that's where a lot of calories are bound to be.

snowflake954

There are ways to lose without measuring. You'll have to learn your portion size and which foods are high calorie (to be avoided or limited). As mentioned, sauces are high calorie, as are butter and oil. If you see a dish swimming in oil--better to choose something else. Deserts are also high calorie, so go light with them--choose fruit instead. You'll have to learn to make good choices. Vegetables are a good choice. Try for 2 weeks, if you're not losing cut back a bit and go another 2 weeks.

PAPYRUS3

That is a hard one. The universities in my city supply the calories of all items in their meals - more schools need to do this!

I am wondering if you could inquire the recipes?

It makes it difficult if they are using a lot of fat/cream with soups, casseroles, etc.,

yirara

Tough one. I used to work in an office with lovely mostly southern Indian and Arabic food. Every now and then I'd get a double portion of food, fill the second serving into a plastic cup and take it along to my desk where I had a food scale. Of course I'd still not know how many calories but at least knew how much I had, and then used a reasonable database entry based on macros and especially amount of fat. Would do this every two months or so for various dishes because portion creep is totally a thing. I did lose weight as expected (yeah, that was for weightloss).

springlering62

There are small electronic travel scales that are the size of a deck of playing cards that you can discretely use (once you get over the hump of balancing things on the tiny scale plate!)

Also, I’d just ask the cafeteria staff. They probably have a nutritionist or dietician helping plan the meals.

Just asking was how I discovered where my local grocery store posted a nutrition chart of all their bakery goods. I snapped a photo. It’s very helpful.

Also, a lot of cafeterias use suppliers like the one whose name I’m totally blanking on. Ameripro or something-serv. Their nutrition info is in the database. Ask them who they’re using.

Jacq_qui

another vote for just asking the staff. My school kids have allergies, staff are definitely planning what ingredients and how much goes into stuff