Do you under or overestimate calories on purpose?

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Magoo64
Magoo64 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I travel a lot on business and although I am very good in making really good choices from a menu, it is still hard to really know the calories of each item due to hidden things like oil or butter. So I try to always just put in a guesstimate of added fat calories and try to stay under my daily calorie goal for that day just in case it was worse than I guessed. So often times I am under my calories for the day. Is that a good strategy or should I let myself go over by a bit so that I'm not too far below my calories. This often puts me below 1,200.

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  • Sahara0815
    Sahara0815 Posts: 55
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    I try to estimate as close as possible. If things look a little out of whack with the calories listed in MFP, I will check other sites and see if they come close and then just use the very best average possible and use that info to get where I try to be. I think the key is to try to be consistent and not have wild swings. If you travel that much then yes, it is going to be hard. But when you're traveling, you need to try to eat as nutritiously as possible to stay healthy, too! Best of luck to you ... sounds like you have a few extra challenges but with some work I'm sure you can overcome, stay healthy and achieve your goals. Best of luck!
  • Armyx2
    Armyx2 Posts: 10 Member
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    I generally try to over estimate if the food is not already provided in the database. I figure that way, I've accounted for calories that might not have even been consumed so I'm not accidently eating more than I know. If you end up actually eating less calories than you really did, all the better!
  • kellicci
    kellicci Posts: 409 Member
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    When I eat out I try to choose the closest option to what I ate. I read what the menu says was in and try to find something close often I find something forma large chain restaurant that is similar and pick that. I do add extra calories if I feel like I'm missing some butter or cream in my estimation...like when I eat at my mom's I ask how she made it and she gladly tell me everything that's in it but I know she always forgets the butter...so I add some. I may over estimate but I'd rather think I'm over and have a nice drop on the scales later than think I'm always under and see it not move at all.
  • becs_91
    becs_91 Posts: 180 Member
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    I generally try to over estimate if the food is not already provided in the database. I figure that way, I've accounted for calories that might not have even been consumed so I'm not accidently eating more than I know. If you end up actually eating less calories than you really did, all the better!

    I do this too! If I'm not sure, I usually overestimate a bit. I'd rather eat less than I thought than more than I thought.
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
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    Sometimes I pretend like my 40g of peanut butter is one serving... but usually I'm pretty good about being honest because your body keeps an accurate record, even if you don't :)

    ETA: I tend to overlog if I don't know... unless I'm short on calories. Then sometimes I'll pick a middle value.
  • Nessiechickie
    Nessiechickie Posts: 1,392 Member
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    Over estimate.
  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
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    Sometimes I pretend like my 40g of peanut butter is one serving... but usually I'm pretty good about being honest because your body keeps an accurate record, even if you don't :)

    ETA: I tend to overlog if I don't know... unless I'm short on calories. Then sometimes I'll pick a middle value.

    Haha me too. I was putting it down as one serve although in my heart I knew it was more. The other day I bougth food scales and weighed a usual serving. Definitely closer to 40g than 7g.

    I tend to over estimate with low calorie foods like veggies. With higher calorie foods I try to get it as acurate as possible and am trying to weigh things at least once to get an idea of portion size
  • cncrafton
    cncrafton Posts: 82 Member
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    If I'm at a restaurant and I can't find anything in the database or online that seems like what I have, I overestimate a ton. Case in point, I log the bowl of drunken noodles at my favorite Thai place as 1,000 calories. That seems highly unlikely, but I would rather be under than over.

    With fruits and veggies, I'm not super careful. My scale doesn't have an digital reading, so when a serving of pineapple chunks is 140g, I figure it's good if it's under 150. When there's a negligible difference like that in something that's good for me, I don't care. And on the contrary, when it's something that's high calorie, I try to be super, super accurate, honestly because I want as much as I can get, haha. I figure it all comes out in the wash.
  • Magoo64
    Magoo64 Posts: 13 Member
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    Thanks all! I'm on the tail end of a two-week biz trip and feel like the over-estimating has kept me on track. Will keep doing that just to be safe. Of course I am DYING for some French fries right about now! Ha!
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
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    I overestimate some food items when I've been sneaking nibbles of other things and am too lazy to log them.

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