Best guesstimates for local, non-chain restaurants?

NuggetLovesEdie

Hi.

I have a difficulty with using MFP. Its something I get stuck on kind of regularly, so I'm sure some of you must have figured out how to solve this issue as well.

When I cook at home, I can enter my own recipes. But when I eat out, I tend to not eat at chain restaurants... more like Mom and Pop places for Indian and Vietnamese.

I'm always a bit stymied on trying to enter a good guess based on what other people put in the food database.

What I've been doing so far is to look up a couple of recipes on line and try to find something in the database that is close...

What do you do that works?
Is there any way to tell if that entry for chicken saag includes rice already figured in?
How do you guesstimate when the serving size is listed as "1 container"?
(No, Officer. I've only had one beer... but it was a big one!)

Your meaningful responses would be really appreciated.

Responses like "just don't worry about it and enjoy your food" are kind-hearted intentions, but you should know this is an issue I run into once or twice a week (because I'm lazy in the kitchen sometimes).

alaskaang

What I do is look for a recipe online typically on Foodnetwork.com that looks close and use that as a guide to input the individual ingredients in the approximate amounts that I ate. It's still going to be a guestimate, but at least eliminates not knowing what someone included in the database.

kaylalryan

Well...the obvious answer would be to save your money and eat at home but I know that is not always an answer.

When you eat out, you are running the risk of having no clue what you are eating ---even when you eat at chains that have posted nutrition information, that does not mean that the food is prepared at the same standard.

I estimate...And I estimate on the high side usually. That's the only way to do it really...and it's not going to be perfect. I am so anal about tracking my food that not knowing the content of eating out has caused me not to eat out. My wallet and my weight loss ticket have thanked me accordingly.

missmegan831

I totally agree with you!!!!

d_Mode

I look up stuff on Calorie King...

www.calorieking.com/

mrsburghart

I am so anal about tracking my food that not knowing the content of eating out has caused me not to eat out. My wallet and my weight loss ticket have thanked me accordingly.

Same with me! Except that I look up what a restaurant has online first. Like tonight we ate out at a local bbq joint, which only had a few things in the MFP database, so I got that instead of something that I couldn't measure.

It gets easier to guesstimate what calories you are eating the longer you track. You soon realize what ingredients add calories and can guess just a bit easier. You also might just try looking up whatever it is you are eating and get a "general" calorie count of what that food typically is. (Like looking up lo-mein instead of the chain name. It might not be 100% accurate but it helps!

momentsend

While I recommend not eating out, I understand that relationship wise it may not be a good idea.

You can generalize or you can plan ahead by researching low calorie options for the type of restaurant you will be eating out at.

You can also eat at home before going out to dinner. Then just get a salad and have a glass of white wine (25 calories per ounce) while the main course is eaten.

wildkatt7

I always estimate based on similar things already on MFP when I cannot find exactly what I had.... and I always estimate on the high side.... and I like to eat out as much as I like to cook...

clover5

I just choose a similar restaurant entry, even though it's not my local cafe.

steponme123

Due to food allergies, most local restaurants have a list of ingredients available. You just have to ask. I also just try to find a similar recipe and determine the nutritional value. Using the ingredients list and a serving/portion size chart, you can also build a recipe that would be close to what you ate at the restaurant and you can determine the nutritional value yourself. Here is an example chart: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Healthy/Live-Well/Smart-Eating/Portion-Size-Chart
Even with this, I also estimate on the high side. At first, I felt ridiculous trying to determine if I had a baseball portion of beans or a golf ball sized amount of dressing, but once you realize what a serving size equals, it becomes much easier.

agoofynut

I try to find a chain restaurant that offers something similar and base it off of that. I also tend towards estimating high and make sure that I exercise any day that I'm going to eat something that I can't be 100% sure of the calorie count.

NuggetLovesEdie

Thanks for the helpful thoughts.

Will continue to chip away at this one.

djc315

What I do, is I log each thing I see on its own. Rice salad? What is in it, nuts cheese rice? How much of each do you see? Plus, they more than likely cooked it in some kind of oil or broth. BBQ chicken with cheese? Log chicken breast, bbq sauce, cheese. I also typically will always add a quick calorie of 100-250 depending on what I ate just for room for error. You will get better at estimating how much of each thing ate the more you do it.

Another example that I do is, yesterday I ate a bakery cupcake. I looked at about 10 different entries into MFP and took the higher average of the 10. I might not always look at 10 entries, but I do always take the higher end instead of lower.

edit - I also NEVER use an entry that doesn't have a weighted amount of volume amount. If it says "1 serving" or "1 plate", I skip it and don't even consider using it in my logging.

cmriverside

After a long period of time logging foods, you can probably estimate within a few hundred. Being too obsessive about exact calories doesn't make a lot of sense, since even restaurant numbers that are printed on a menu or a website are going to be off by as much as several hundred calories. Humans in a kitchen are not using measuring spoons and gram scales, they are throwing "some of this and some of that" into the recipes. Then it depends on how much they ladle into the serving bowl, how much of it you eat, etc.

You know you aren't getting exact numbers - ever - right?

NuggetLovesEdie

re: getting exact numbers...

Yep. Pretty clear its on average.

Just trying to figure out a strategy for whether that chicken saag is more like the frozen entree with the rice already figured in, or more like the restaurant dish which doesn't indicate whether the rice is figured in.

Its definitely easier to log when I eat from home, but this is a problem that I haven't figured out yet.

I've been doing something like ballparking a high average (as someone else described).
Hadn't thought about adding "room for error" calories, though.

Clearly, I need to eat more veggies so I don't worry about it so much.

VelvetAcidVixen

When I go out I try to eat simply. Protein and veggies are a pretty safe bet. Fajitas at a Mexican place are good. I try to stay away from too many sauces besides marinara because you just don't know what's in it. PIzza will vary wildly in calories as well. But you won't be that far off with an 8oz filet and sauteed veggies ya know?