I am going to a chili cook off, how do I figure out calories for that?

HiImToniTorres

There will be tasting cups for each, probably the size of the little water cups is what I assume.

Corina1143

Wow! That's a tough one! Count your cups. Estimate how much in each cup. Use a reasonable entry in MFP. Then accept that you've done the best you can do and move on.

This is why I started using one "cheat meal" a week-- not a meal where I went wild and ate everything, but an occasional event where I didn't have to log "perfectly"; as good as I could do was good enough.

AnnPT77

Yup, like she said: Estimate.

Estimate the volume of chili you ate (in terms of number of cups/bowls and their size). Then pick a medium-to-high estimate for "chili" in the MFP food database to log it. You might want to browse in advance and pick an entry that has a useful/relatable volume in the serving-size drop-down, so you're prepared to estimate in those terms.

But no need to stress about it: Sounds like this will be a one-time or at least rare event. Close is plenty good enough. One rare day is a drop in the ocean. It's the majority of our days that will determine the majority of our outcome. The implication is that focusing on good daily habits is more important than hyper-accuracy on that rare day.

Enjoy the cook-off!

lynn_glenmont

Good answers above. You might want to keep track of how many cups of meat-only, meat & beans, chicken, and veggie chili you eat (assuming this event has that kind of variety), because those are likely to be the biggest difference makers. But if that's too much, and your main concern is calorie counts, just assume they were all meat-only, because that will be the highest calories. Or meat and beans if you're in an area where most of the chili comes with beans.