Eating at Local Places

KharismaticKayteh

If I eat at a large chain, like McDonald's or Sonic, I can pretty easily find nutrition information for my meal online, so it's not too difficult to log. However, how do you generally go about trying to log your meal from a local business whose nutrition information you likely can't find online?

I had a big Thai meal (my first curry, and it was fantastic), but I'm clueless over how to log that, since I know the restaurant's information is not going to come up on here, and I don't believe I'll find it online either. Do you just log the ingredients that you know are in your food to the best of your ability, or..?

editorgrrl

Choose the best match in the database—but it's chockful of incorrect data, so choose wisely. Using a really low-calorie listing will never, ever get you closer to your goal.

For good "how-to" information, read the Sexypants post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

curlygirl513

Choose the best match in the database—but it's chockful of incorrect data, so choose wisely. Using a really low-calorie listing will never, ever get you closer to your goal.

For good "how-to" information, read the Sexypants post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

thank you so much for your helpful response. I am going to lunch next week and was going to wing it the best I could. I will read the article for helpful suggestions. I'm new at this. Never ever eaten controlled portions before or stayed within a range of a limit.

jcim1ru

I try to choose the same type of food from a chain restaurant that serves a similar item. And when I can't find that, I always err on choosing something with a higher caloric reading.

I tend to overchoose for food calories and underestimate for exercise calories. Keeps me honest!

defauIt

I eat most of my lunches from food trucks and just do my best to try to estimate it from individual components, assuming they add a healthy amount of full fat butter, oil and dressings to everything.

A typical sandwich I will assume is 600 calories at the base (300 calories for bread, 150 calories for meat, 75 calories cheese, 75 calories sauce) and will adjust each component up or down depending on the sandwich. For example, if I can tell a sandwich is just dripping in mayo or ranch or some other fatty sauce, I will up the sauce calories to something like 175 to compensate. If the meat is a lean, skinless turkey breast I might reduce the meat calories to 100 to compensate, or I might increase them to 250 if there's a lot of fatty beef or pork on there.

Is it perfect? No. But it has worked for me and allows me to eat wherever I want, not just at places which report nutritional information.

Lelah77

What others said, but also I have found that many places (even Mom & Pop places) have some sort of nutrition information. It is often online if they have a website, but some have basic printouts of the individual components in-shop - although I doubt the food trucks have these.
I also had one restaurant email me (after I contacted them) and the chef & I figured out the general calories/fat/carbs for a couple of my favorite dishes. So, if it a place you'll frequent, you might try that then add it to "your foods" for future notes.