PLEASE ADVISE! MFP restaurant calories accurate?

linalovekitty
linalovekitty Posts: 187
in Food and Nutrition
I have been using MFP's restaurant calorie database to help track my calories. Are these calorie amounts confirmed to be accurate? I guess Im concerned bc most of the places I use MFP for to calorie check dont publish their own calories counts on their websites/menu so Im wondering how MFP got access to them.

For example I like the chain Grainte City. They have a monterray chicken wrap sandwhich on whole wheat lavash. Its delish and MFP says 1 wrap is about 450 calories. It also says their cheese soup is only 250 calories a cup. Although the cup is small and the wrap is not huge, it seems kind of too good to be true.Since lunch is my biggest meal of the day I could totally eat the wrap + a cup of soup adding up to about 700 cals. But since Im counting cals, every one counts- usually I have a small (200 CAL OR LESS) snack instead of dinner as I am aiming for 1500 cals/day- and my cal count prior to dinner dictates how big of a snack I have. So Im a little concerned. PLease advise

Replies

  • akb2006
    akb2006 Posts: 198 Member
    Its been pretty accurate for me but I eat at more national chains like olive garden, ect when we go out. I believer estaraunts have to provide you with nurtrition info if you ask so it might be worth calling and asking how many calories are in those things. Otherwise I know people just find something similar and do the best they can guessing but I know if your eating out regualrly that adds up really fast!
  • fougamou
    fougamou Posts: 200 Member
    I always try to get the calorie data from the restaurant's website.

    If the restaurant does not provide the data online, I am a bit skeptical of the what is in MFP's database. It is pretty much user provided data, and I don't know how they ordered their meal (ie hold the mayo) or whether it is accurate or a guesstimate.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    you might want to check Granite City website and see if they list their nutritional information on the site and compare it to MFP. some chains do not list the nuritional informaiton of their foods and people then "guestimate" what the calories are. I eat at a lot of non chain places so I usually have to put something in from another chain..not the best method but at least you are trying to log it..
  • UrbanLotus
    UrbanLotus Posts: 1,163 Member
    If the restaurant doesn't provide it, I'm skeptical. I don't really go to chain places so this is a big reason I don't eat out much at all, I don't really know about the calories.

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