How to estimate the calories in a restaurant meal?

nykismile

What do you do when you're at a restaurant and you don't know the nutrition info? I've been googling the place but I've had no luck.

It's a chain place called Charm Thai and I get the same meal every time. It's called "Tofu Royal" and it's comprised mainly of vegetables, but it comes with tofu and brown rice and everything has an oily feel to it. I have no idea how many calories it can be since I don't know how much oil they're using.

What do you do when in a similar situation?

missiontofitness

I recreate the recipe as best as I can based on the food database, or find something comparable in the database.

meridianova

if the restaurant's nutritional information isn't listed anywhere, then try doing a google search on the food itself. rather than using the name "tofu royal", do a search of "thai food tofu veggies brown rice". some restaurant somewhere probably has a very similar dish, and it may show up on other food databases (MFP foods will show up on a google search).

your other choices would be to ask the restaurant if they have the nutritional info on their dishes, or to order something else.

cwolfman13

Find something comparable in the database and do the best you can. You can count on most anything at a restaurant being about double the recommended serving size and anywhere between 800 - 1200 calories on average unless they specifically have a low calorie menu. It is for this reason that I eat out very rarely and it's a special kind of treat for me when I do. My wife and I often split and entree.

soopaang

If it seems oily it probably is. Ask for the sauce on the side so you can control it because that is most likely where the unknown cals are. You can always look up rice, veggies and tofu easily.

nykismile

Okay, thank you guys!

jbee27

Find something comparable in the database and do the best you can. You can count on most anything at a restaurant being about double the recommended serving size and anywhere between 800 - 1200 calories on average unless they specifically have a low calorie menu. It is for this reason that I eat out very rarely and it's a special kind of treat for me when I do. My wife and I often split and entree.

This is what I usually end up doing. I find something that looks comparable in the database, or I try to sort out the ingredients individually and guess at portion sizing the best I can.

RodaRose

Google Tofu Royal --- whatever comes up is probably close.