When you are unsure of the calories in food

I make my own food and use the recipe builder You could guess, but know you could be WAY off in one direction or the other, which will mess things up if you're precise on your calorie count.

Try to fnd something similar.

When my wife cooks I usually have to make her recipe once to have an idea about calories in hers. She kinda wings it. Me I make mine t he same every time. Or I will use something kinda close. Or I don't eat it. It's totally up to how accurate your logging is. You will get better at guessing tho.

Guesstimate and/or look for similar foods in the database.

As long as it's only a once-in-a-while thing (as in no more than once a week, and you're doing your best to practice moderation), and not a common occurrence, it shouldn't derail you.

This is exactly what I do and exactly what I preach

Clicked through to say exactly ^this...

I generally just try for an educated guess, and I think I am SOMEWHAT good at knowing if a food in the database is very high or low. I know a slice of pizza isn't gonna be 550 calories if it's thin crust and has just cheese and veggies. But I also know it's not going to be 70 cal unless it's a miniature slice on special "diet" crust. I usually look up 3-4 items of similar type and go with something mid range.

I regularly eat Thai food at local places with no nutrition info available. I just look up something similar in the database, and if it sounds crazy low I'll alter the entry to 1.2 or 1.5 servings instead of one. So far this seems to work fairly well.

Obviously there's no way to be completely accurate in those situations so I do try to limit them. But if I have to "guesstimate" 2-3 things each week I am okay with that.

I look in the database and see the calories listed for similar foods and pick one based on how many calories seems appropriate for what I ate. If you've been counting calories awhile, you start to be able to tell what is reasonable estimate for what you ate. I know that I eat a super small, low-cal sandwich that I bring to work that is like 250 calories, so obviously a sandwich at a deli that is much larger with higher calorie ingredients is probably going to be 500-800 calories or more if it is really big. If you're home, you can also weigh things on a food scale to pick an entry from the database for a similar weight. Also if the entry says it's for a cup, you know about how much a cup is and if you ate more or less than that.

And if the cook is a friend or relative, ask for the recipe! (Especially if it's good and doesn't seem like a calorie bomb. That way you can make it again.)

I take an educated guess. One reason why my deficit is not smaller is to allow for educated guesses and stuff I forget to log! I cook and bake a lot and worked for years in a chocolate shop, I am pretty good at guessing accurately weights by size and feel when I need to.

If it's something I make, I use the recipe builder on MFP. It it's something I have eaten at a restaurant or somebody's home, I research it in the MFP diary and make a best guess.

You could be sneaky and find out by asking them for the recipe, because you want to be able to make it again. :laugh:

Generally, I don't fret too much about it and just assume it's a lot and roll with it. I tend to make my food from scratch, so I've gotten good at guess what's in something, and how much of it I ate, then I build it in the recipe builder, and sometimes I'll add calories to that amount just to be safe.

I try to find something similar and take the higher calories...

Whenever I'm in a situation where I'm eating foods not prepared by me, I always err on the side of caution and maintain reasonable portion sizes. As far as logging it, I'd just try to find something similar in the database and ballpark it. Unknown homemade food can vary so much that it's all an educated guess, anyway.