Estimating Restaurant Calories?

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InspiredSAM
InspiredSAM Posts: 98 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm not sure how to estimate how many calories I just enjoyed at dinner? We went to a local Mexican restaurant so their website doesn't provide nutritional information.

Here's what I ordered: Bacon Wrapped Shrimp / Jack Cheese / Jalapeno / Mango Lime Rice / Fresh Grilled Vegetables

I had them leave off the cream sauce and only ate some of the rice. I know the bacon is a splurge, but I thought this was an overall healthy Mexican choice. Better than the chicken chimmi I love so much.

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  • InspiredSAM
    InspiredSAM Posts: 98 Member
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    Do I try to figure out the pieces part of the meal? Bacon, then shrimp, rice....
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
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    Here's what I ordered: Bacon Wrapped Shrimp / Jack Cheese / Jalapeno / Mango Lime Rice / Fresh Grilled Vegetables

    I had them leave off the cream sauce and only ate some of the rice.

    Here's how I do it: I note the ingredients, and estimate the amounts ... then I locate them on MFP and add them to the meal. I wouldn't bother recording the jalapeno, or the mango and lime in the rice, if it were me. When I go to Chipotle's, I order a burrito bowl and ask for a half order of the brown rice, and ask them to add fajita veggies as well as meat. For your meal, I would also ask for the sauce on the side, and add a spoon or two.
  • jadb22
    jadb22 Posts: 5 Member
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    I've had this same problem and I googled the food followed by "nutritonal value" and usually multiple similar meals will show up. I pick the closest based on how similar it sounds. Good luck :)
  • Alta2000
    Alta2000 Posts: 655 Member
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    Pick a similar food type chain and you will find a similar food item in the mfp database for the food chain. I was just reading in a newspaper a couple of days ago that small restaurants actually have more calories in their food than chains.

    Just tried to look for Bacon Wrapped Shrimp in the database and there was one for On the Border and one for Red Lobster.
  • InspiredSAM
    InspiredSAM Posts: 98 Member
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    Pick a similar food type chain and you will find a similar food item in the mfp database for the food chain. I was just reading in a newspaper a couple of days ago that small restaurants actually have more calories in their food than chains.

    Just tried to look for Bacon Wrapped Shrimp in the database and there was one for On the Border and one for Red Lobster.

    MORE calories in the smaller restaurants? Wow, I really thought it would have been the opposite.

    Thanks for all the great suggestions!
  • MyOwnSunshine
    MyOwnSunshine Posts: 1,312 Member
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    I find a similar item from a different restaurant. For example, if I had a large piece of cheesecake from a local restaurant, I might enter a piece of cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.

    Restaurant calories are probably never going to be exact, even if you get the information from the restaurant's website. I read an article recently that stated calories from meal to meal and location to location vary based on the person cooking and portioning the meal. One line cook may add more butter or sauce, or serve a larger portion than another, even though meals are supposed to be standardized.

    I agree with a previous poster that On The Border would be your best bet to find your foods.

    Just do the best you can to log accurately, but don't sweat it too much.
  • Alta2000
    Alta2000 Posts: 655 Member
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    A person’s local diner or family-run restaurant was just as likely to pile on the calories as a big chain, the Boston study found. In fact, local, small-chain restaurants tended to have slightly higher calorie counts per meal (an average of 1,437) than national chains (1,359), although the difference wasn’t statistically significant.

    “Many of these [local] restaurants make fast food look healthy,” Roberts said.
    http://news.health.com/2013/05/13/typical-restaurant-meal-loaded-with-fats-salt-calories-studies/
  • JennedyJLD
    JennedyJLD Posts: 123 Member
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    I concur with everyone here. I find a similar item and go with that. It might be a couple hundred calories (or more) off, so I always try to find the worst thing on the list, figuring "It probably isn't worse than this..." As someone pointed out, you could have the same meal at the same restaurant five times, and it's not going to be the exact same thing every time. Most kitchens eyeball servings rather than weigh them out, etc. so there are always variations. The only way to be *sure* is to prepare food yourself. Actually, you can't even be sure then - nutritional labels are allowed a pretty wide latitude for accuracy, too. ;-) Still, at the end of the day, as long as you're doing a decent job of estimating and don't eat out too often, you'll stay on track.
  • RLMsFitnessPal
    RLMsFitnessPal Posts: 81 Member
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    My wife and I went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner last night. I've only recently started counting calories, so I was trying to figure it out, too. I have a FitBit One linked to MFP, so I check both sites to compare notes when I check in. I was pretty certain I was going to have to do some guess work on this meal, so I ate slowly studying what was in each bite to get an idea of ingredients. I usually order the same foods, so I kind of have an idea already. I've always been kind of a picky eater, but now it's for different reasons.

    So, I made some notes in my food notes. Later in the evening after dinner, I set about searching the database for similar recipes. I also did some reading on the internet about estimating calories, and made some comparisons. After all of that, I made a best guess. I tend to be conservative, so I estimate high on calories eaten and low on calories burned. I don't entirely rely on any one tool for guidance. I generally go with what seems reasonable based on available information.

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