Help a college student--no calorie info available at all?

forkofpower

Hi, I'm a college freshman. My school forces freshman to be on a meal plan -- basically, I get 5 meal blocks a day at any campus eating location. Since this is prepaid for, I only want to eat on campus; however, none of the campus dining locations give calorie info? I tried to estimate the calories the best I could, but it makes me quite paranoid. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

TavistockToad

why does it make you paranoid?

given your situation, make a best guess and dont worry about it. if you're not losing weight after 4-6 weeks then you may need to look at it again...

bareessentials56

Just try and eat healthy options, try the salad bar and add some lean protein instead of fried chicken + chips

libbydoodle11

Look at your plate like a clock. Fill your plate between the 12 and the 8 with fruit and veggies. Between 8 and 10 a lean protein and 10 to 12 whatever you like.

Flabbby

My school offers two meals (lunch and snack) a day with no calorie info as well. What I do is I log everything I have on my plate individually.

For example, a cup of salad, tbsp of mustard dressing, 150g mashed potatoes and 100g of salmon. I add all separately, and myfitnesspal gives me about the right calories and nutrition values. When in doubt about the weight, I add an extra 50g (1 ladle is usually 1 or 1.5dl, so about 110 or 160g).

I don't know where you're from, but the ingredients in some foods change country by country. Therefore I always search the food in my own language first. (Finns don't put fatty milk in mashed potatoes )

felblossom

People on MFP seem to live by the one rule that if you don't measure eeeeverything that pass your lips then you're not going to lose weight. I find this to be untrue, since I haven't weighed a single thing since I started using MFP and I've lost 45 lbs (gained some of them back because I stopped logging completely) and now I've lost 12 lbs on my second go.
I'm in a similar boat as you, where I eat a lot of food that someone else has cooked and served. What I do is I look up a couple of different recipes for the meal, and I log the one with the highest amount of calories. It's always better to guess a higher number. I also don't eat back my exercise calories for this reason. It may not be optimal for the MFP-method, but it's working for me and it's the only way I can do it in my current situation.

Liftng4Lis

Log each item individually as if you were at a buffet. You're not going to get exact but you'll be pretty close. When in doubt, guesstimate up!

forkofpower

why does it make you paranoid?

given your situation, make a best guess and dont worry about it. if you're not losing weight after 4-6 weeks then you may need to look at it again...

Because I'm the absolute worst at estimating calories, and intuitive eating. That's what made me gain too much weight, lol. The only thing that has ever worked for me is counting calories; I've tried not counting calories and just eating more intuitively (still as healthily as I can), and I gain weight every time. I've actually already gained five pounds since starting college.

Also, if I felt like I was limiting myself and doing well, and then found out in a month that I'd just been maintaining/gaining the whole time, I'd be very disappointed. But I guess I'll just have to do my best with the salad bar. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Oh, and I'm only 5'1, and my TDEE is about 1400 (when not exercising) to 1600 (workout 3 times a week) calories. So, it doesn't take much to go from eating my usual small deficit to going into surplus. That's also what makes me paranoid about this. The margin for error is so low!

uconnwinsnc1

Hi, I'm a college freshman. My school forces freshman to be on a meal plan -- basically, I get 5 meal blocks a day at any campus eating location. Since this is prepaid for, I only want to eat on campus; however, none of the campus dining locations give calorie info? I tried to estimate the calories the best I could, but it makes me quite paranoid. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

UConn used to list the calories and serving sizes. I bet you can ask people at the dining hall and they can give you the information. You can do what I did and ignore all calorie limits and just stuff your face and workout like crazy. My roommate and I used to eat a big milkshake with every meal near the end of senior year. I'd drop 3k calories at least per meal. Unlimited swipes per day into dining halls. I used to go absolutely ape**** with food. Still managed to start losing weight at that time, though...:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

radmack

People on MFP seem to live by the one rule that if you don't measure eeeeverything that pass your lips then you're not going to lose weight. I find this to be untrue, since I haven't weighed a single thing since I started using MFP and I've lost 45 lbs (gained some of them back because I stopped logging completely) and now I've lost 12 lbs on my second go.

I notice it mostly brought up in the context of people being puzzled that they are not losing weight. So they are advised that maybe the logging is not accurate and they should measure. Pretty good advice.

swingsintherain

My college dining hall was similar. Try to do some research: ask the people working there if they know where/if calorie info is posted, or talk to someone like the manager of the dining hall (there's usually someone in charge of what is ordered, etc). Is it part of a larger company that supplies food to multiple places? If so, then try to find their website and see if you can't find some info there. Check your college's website too, and see what info there is about the dining hall.

While in college, I knew a girl who would bring a food scale with her to the cafeteria, put it on her tray, and weigh her food as she dished it out. This could be an option if you want to do more accurate tracking, though it will get you a few funny looks for the first few months you try it.

Finally, dining halls tend to have a few dishes they rotate through every two weeks to a month, so once you start to get an idea of how many calories different dishes are, it will get easier!

Kalikel

You should check out choosemyplate.gov

1/2 the plate should be fruits and veggies (more veggie than fruit).
A little over 1/4, whole grains.
A little under 1/4, protein.

And some dairy.



That sucks that the college doesn't have nutritional info! You should call and suggest it!

albayin

guess you can do portion control in this case? get less than you would normally get and evaluate after a month?