Hard to track items/foods/meals

N8r8r

Hello MFP'ers out there,

I was just wondering how the community handles it when you come across a food/meal that is difficult/impossible to track. For example, you're out with friends at a restaurant and you order something that isn't on MFP to use and track; or you're at a family gathering and someone brings a homemade dish? Do you guesstimate? Find something close? Not track it at all?

This issue has been kinda plaguing me since I started with MFP and I was just wondering what everyone else thought or if there was a general consensus out there of how to handle it. Please let me know your thoughts on the matter.

n8r8r

kp7665

bump!

rachelklewis3

I will often guess or try to pick something close to it but there have been times, especially at parties, weddings, etc., where I will skip that meal's entry for the day and write myself a note about it. I try to make the best choices I can in those situations, but it doesn't do me any good to worry about it.

peejaygee1

It's probably not the right thing to do, but it has worked so far for me: I look up a similar item on MFP and select one with a high calorie count and completely over estimate how much I actually had (i.e. if I had a cup I would enter 2 cups). I do that to cover my bases and then eat well for the rest of the day.

It will all work out in the long run if you just stick to doing your best to stay within your allotted calories.

apparations

Yup, I just pick something that I think is close to what I ate. A lot of times I break it down and add each thing in the dish separately ie. today I ate quiche, but instead of guessing at one of the many quiche options, I just broke it down into how much was in it and go with that.

horseplaypen

This happens to me fairly often - my friends and I love having dinner parties, and when we do go out to eat it's never at a chain restaurant, so on those days I'm doing a bunch of guessing! I usually try to find something similar in the database and choose something in the average-high calorie range to err on the safe side. After years of tracking my food, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of what things are calorically.

EMPulseKC

If I can't find something in the database that sounds very similar, I'll try to look up more nutritional info online and then add it to the database when I find it. For my own homemade dishes, I'll add the nutritional info of all my ingredients and then portion it out.

BigGamesJames1

I'd find something similar from a different restaurant and track that. Doesn't happen too often so shouldn't hurt unless you are constantly going places where you can't track the food items.

FitForMe83

I usually try to break it down into the ingredients in the dish that I can identify, and err on the side of caution when it comes to possible extra invisible ingredients like salt and oil. I usually add 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt to dishes I'm not sure about, and up to a tablespoon of oil, depending on how oily the dish seems to be. In other cases, I look up recipes for the dish and calculate the calories based on that (and try to choose a high-calorie version of the recipe, as I'd rather overestimate than underestimate my intake). You can also just choose something that's similar to what you ate that's already in the database. For example, if you have roasted chicken at a restaurant that doesn't list its calories, find roasted chicken from a similar type of restaurant that does list its calories.

FemFreda

I try to find something similar or add individual ingredients. Main dishes like the bacon cheddar cheese quiche i ate for lunch are just using one already online. However , I was able to identify the ingredients in my salad and list them individually. Nothing perfect, but better than no entry for my reports.

RWTBR

It's probably not the right thing to do, but it has worked so far for me: I look up a similar item on MFP and select one with a high calorie count and completely over estimate how much I actually had (i.e. if I had a cup I would enter 2 cups). I do that to cover my bases and then eat well for the rest of the day.

It will all work out in the long run if you just stick to doing your best to stay within your allotted calories.

This!

And, don't ever skip on logging your calories. Just do it.

N8r8r

Thanks for all the great answers, folks!