Eating foods that I'm not able to accurately record...

Gypsym00nJill
Gypsym00nJill Posts: 14
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, this is a major issue for me that has derailed me from MFP a few times. I'll be doing well, recording everything I'm eating, and then I'll go into mental meltdown trying to decipher how to track a food that is either from a restaurant, homemade by someone else, or unlisted in general with no access to nutritional information. What should I do when this happens??? How can I work around this?

Replies

  • cevalid
    cevalid Posts: 59
    I feel your pain.

    In these circumstances I just find something comparable in the database.
  • nicoleisback
    nicoleisback Posts: 184
    I find if I am 'eating out' most restaurants these days will tell you what is in your meal (generally to make sure you aren't allergic to anything) and most friends I would eat with would be happy to share their recipes. It never hurts to ask.

    I am not sure what foods you would be eating that are 'unlisted in general?'
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Yesterday I had a chicken salad in at a mexican restaurant: that taco shell (at half only), romaine lettuce, about half a tomato, about half an avocado, and approximately four ounces of grilled chicken. For the life of me, I couldn't find anything comparable, but I found all the ingredients separately. So, that's what I did--logged them separately.

    if someone makes a food, I estimate and find something that I think is similar.

    In restaurants, I always ask for nutrition information if the menu does not have it. This way i know pretty much what I'm getting, though I suspect those calories are underestimated.

    I NEVER use quick added calories because to be that indicates that I don't know what the heck I put in my mouth.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    What I have been doing is type in "homemade" whatever into the database and choose the highest calorie, closest approximation to what I had. I also try not to worry about it too much.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    Find the closest thing in the data base, or try and list items separately, or quick add calories. If you're accurate the majority of the time it will be okay if you're not perfect 100% of the time.
  • Cortneyrenee04
    Cortneyrenee04 Posts: 1,117 Member
    I try to find something comparable and overestimate the calories just in case. It should get you close enough if it's just every now and then. In the food notes you can write what it actually was for reference.
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
    Today I asked at the deli for the calories in a chicken breast stuffed with Brie cheese and apple. (my birthday dinner) They looked it up for me-I copied down calories and protein and sodium. Then I had them reweigh in grams by chicken as the serving size was 100 g. My chicken turned out to be 200 g so I just doubled everything
  • Gypsym00nJill
    Gypsym00nJill Posts: 14
    Thank you, everyone! I feel a lot better equipped to handle situations like this in the future!

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