home with family - estimate dinner calories

AnneeeLicious

Hi there,

I am a university student and this week I've got a week off of uni. Normally I live on my own and prepare all meals myself. This coming week I will be living with my parents for a week and I have no means to weigh everything that goes into the meals. Because I'm also afraid that I'll have too large portions without noticing, I tend to overeat when I'm having fun and talking and stuff, I figured to estimate the dinner calories by about 800, Do you think this is accurate?
Also, my parents are not on board with me watching my diet by counting calories, so it is not an option to help prepare all the meals and log like I would normally do. I've also considered maybe cooking one or two meals all by myself and keeping my mom out of the kitchen so that she has a night off of cooking and I can properly log. In the end however, I would still like your opinion on the estimate.

Xx Anne

Ninkyou

I would just enjoy the week home and try to be mindful of what I eat. In the end, one week out of the year is not going to be that detrimental to your goal.

As for estimating, I just look at the MFP database for whatever I'm eating and choose something similar and a little higher on the calories, just in case... since you don't know what went into the recipe. If you go over, you go over. Don't worry about it. If you really feel terribly about it, go for a walk after dinner.

AnneeeLicious

Being mindful of what I eat the rest of the day is a really good tip. Leaving enough calories to make sure dinner will put me at a healthy net, but also leave a bit of room for a larger dinner. Today I cycles about 20 kilometers, so that makes up for a lot. I'm going to try my best to be extra active each day

dt3312

This helps me:
Look up on the internet search: Portion size hand

There are websites that show you things like your thumb is about 1T, your fist is about 1c. This helps me estimate what I'm eating when I'm out at a social occasion. It also helps me to remind myself, "Stop eating when full."

Aaron_K123

You didn't put on the weight you are trying to lose in one week and you wouldn't lose your progress in one week. I'd just exercise some portion control and consider it a small break from your diet to reset before launching back into it.

It is very unlikely that you are going to so far exceed your maintenance calories every day as to lose any significant progress you have made thusfar over the period of one week.