How to log food correctly?

Lil_Saponi

How would you go about in documenting food that you didn't prepare? or bought?
For instance, my office gave out bagged lunches (sandwich, two cookies, apple and a bag of chips).
I selected turkey. I removed the cheese and was grateful there was about a teaspoon of lemon dill mayo on it. If I search for turkey sandwich, there are multiple selections. How to tell which closely identifies with what I ate?

AnnPT77

You estimate. There are different methods.

In the case of the sandwich, I'd deconstruct it mentally (making up specifics here): 2 slices of sourdough (or whole grain, or whatever) bread, X slices of sliced turkey (or deli meat, or whatever; look for entries in the database that suggest a size, and think about a palm-sized serving being 3-4 ounces), tablespoon or two of mayo, etc.

For things that can't easily be deconstructed like a sandwich, pick a middling to high entry from the database after scanning a few to see the range. Be as specific as makes sense. (I'm talking "meat lasagna" vs. "vegetable lasagna" for example.) Look for an entry that helps you estimate in volume, if possible. (For lasagna, you might get lucky and find one that has in/cm sizes or things like "1/8 of XYZ size pan". If you weigh your food at home, you'll get pretty good after a while at guessing weights of things you can't weigh, too.) With these, if it looks like a thing you've had in a chain restaurant, use their web site to get an estimate.

Think about whether the thing was oily/greasy, add some extra oil or butter to your estimate if it was.

In some cases, where it's polite, I'll snap a quick photo of my food with my phone (no flash!) so it's easier to estimate later. I like to put a fork, part of my hand, or something of standard size in the photo to help estimate size later.

Try to stick with middling to higher calorie choices in the database, so you don't trip over entries in the crowd-sourced database that were made by people who imagine that if they log low calories (when not necessarily eating low calories! ) they'll lose weight. (There are some appalling lowball values out there, and it can be tempting to use those when estimating. Don't.)

Don't obsess about it, just pick some things that seem about right, and go on with life. It's not a big deal. The majority of our days determine the majority of our results, so it's daily routine repeated habits that matter the most. Also, any day you eat below your current maintenance calories (even if above goal calories), you can expect to lose some fat, just a bit less than if you'd been right at goal.

Don't let it stress you out - not worth it. Just estimate sensibly, log it, forget about it.

Best wishes!

tomcustombuilder

Just estimate the best you can as you'll never nail it perfectly no matter what.

Break it down by ingredients and add 10-20% to be safe.

Railgrl

Great responses. Couldn’t agree more.

Lil_Saponi

Thanks. That helps a lot.