How to determine calories

fougamou

Hi, I am new here and planning on starting with logging all my food this weekend.


I have never been a calorie counter and am a bit intimidate by it.

How do I calculate the number of calories in food, particularly those that I didn't make myself?

For example today I had a Calazone at lunch (yeah, I know, I shouldn't have) that was purchased at a local restaurant. How do I even begin calculating calories?

cserg

This is the HARD part!

Some restaurants will list their nutritional content online so I will check there before going out to get an idea.

if that is not an option I try to search for the ingredients one by one - MFP has a HUGE data base. Or I will log insomething similar. In this case, maybe pizza with the same ingredients. Sometimes you just have to take a guess and do your best. TRY to keep to food you can get an accurate count on because those resturaunt foods have WAY more than you think!

tootoop224

This is the HARD part!

Some restaurants will list their nutritional content online so I will check there before going out to get an idea.

if that is not an option I try to search for the ingredients one by one - MFP has a HUGE data base. Or I will log insomething similar. In this case, maybe pizza with the same ingredients. Sometimes you just have to take a guess and do your best. TRY to keep to food you can get an accurate count on because those resturaunt foods have WAY more than you think!

I do the exact same thing. Also, when looking for similar items, I review items from several different restaurants to compare calorie amounts, and then go with one a little higher than average, just to be on the safe side. Don't be intimidated, there is no right or wrong answer. Just be honest, and as accurate as possible, as often as possible and the weight will come off.

Skeebee

This is the HARD part!

Some restaurants will list their nutritional content online so I will check there before going out to get an idea.

if that is not an option I try to search for the ingredients one by one - MFP has a HUGE data base. Or I will log insomething similar. In this case, maybe pizza with the same ingredients. Sometimes you just have to take a guess and do your best. TRY to keep to food you can get an accurate count on because those resturaunt foods have WAY more than you think!

I do the exact same thing. Also, when looking for similar items, I review items from several different restaurants to compare calorie amounts, and then go with one a little higher than average, just to be on the safe side. Don't be intimidated, there is no right or wrong answer. Just be honest, and as accurate as possible, as often as possible and the weight will come off.

Really good advice here. I just got back from vacation and was eating at a lot of "local joints". I had a gyro sub sandwich. Talk about hard to find that! But, if you piece together what you can from the database to be close and compare the calories from different places, like he stated, it helps. Just be careful and BE HONEST! If you ate homemade mac n' cheese somewhere and look in MFP, you will get a range of like 100 calories to 900 calories...varies big time. Don't take the easy way out with the lowest number. Try to take an average of the ones that have the most consistent values. It will take time. The most important thing is to hold yourself accountable and make the effort.

Ely82010

According with the MFP database a large calzone has about 960 calories. A "cooking light" calzone which I don't think that is what restaurants offer, has about 450 calories.

Google the name of the restaurant and see if they have nutritional information on line; if not, just check the MFP database for something similar and be conservative with the numbers.

You are in a learning curve, so don't worry because not everyday will be perfect.

fougamou

Thanks for the ideas, yes, this is a huge learning curve.