I guess rice is my enemy..

I cook my own rice at home using a small 1.5 cup rice cooker I bought on Amazon. Servings are weighed raw using the pot before cooking. Needless to say when you prepare your own meals, you know exactly how many calories are in it :flowerforyou:

I don't do Chinese buffets or any of that really often (due to not being able to control myself and portions) and I have never found a prepackaged rice that didn't taste like vomit. But if rice suddenly got wiped off the planet I'm jumping off the next cliff I see

I eat rice all the time. 75grams (raw) of white rice between 300 and 400 calories as part of a main meal is no problem. Add to it veggies if you want a fried rice and no problem.

You'll be looking at 95-110 calories per 1/2 cup.

COOKED!!

My white parboiled rice is 170 calories per 1/4 uncooked cup. I'm pretty sure you know that Mr. M, just wanted to clarify for the casual reader

You'll be looking at 95-110 calories per 1/2 cup.

COOKED!!

My white parboiled rice is 170 calories per 1/4 uncooked cup. I'm pretty sure you know that Mr. M, just wanted to clarify for the casual reader

There are MFP entries in the database for cooked rice - why make it over complicated - I assume if it's a MFP entry without the * that it's fairly accurate

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My problem isnt so much portion size, my problem is determining how many calories are in that portion. I have no idea and I've tried to use the database but sometimes the calorie information is all over the place. i don't know how many calories are in the rice so I'm afraid to eat it and when I do eat it I feel horrible not knowing where I am calorie wise.

Try this thread created by SezxyStef :

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

I won't repeat the way to surely know how many calories are in your rice meal again

Edit: haha I see your response above. True, I can't always log accurately when I eat out. So I log my best guess and just maybe double the servings or something. I did see more consistent results by making my own food but come on! There's a reason food chains and restaurants exist and make good money - they've got great product we like!!

There are also ways to approximate it when you go out to eat. I usually use Panda Express as my generic Chinese food restaurant. So even when I get the same thing at a local Chinese place, I use that as my calorie count. Part of the reason for that is because they have the serving size listed in ounces and I weigh all my food.

Having continued to eat Chinese food while losing all my weight, I've discovered that most places give you 2.5-3 servings. So when you get your food, separate your plate into 3 parts and then guesstimate the best you can based on a similar restaurant. It'll at least ball park the calories. It certainly hasn't hindered my weight loss to do it that way.

There are MFP entries in the database for cooked rice - why make it over complicated - I assume if it's a MFP entry without the * that it's fairly accurate

I don't think it's overcomplicating things to use the NI information on the actual product you have in your kitchen. This is just my personal preference here, but I only use the pre-entered data on MFP when I have to. If I can use the uncooked NI off of the actual package I'm using, I much prefer to measure it out uncooked to know that it's the amount the label is talking about. Only when I don't have NI in front of me do I use the MFP entries, because they can be so varied, depending on the brands various people submit.

Dude, they have rice you can make at home. Doesn't have to be from a restaurant. If you suck at making rice, or are just lazy like I am, there is rice in a pouch you can nuke for 90secs and comes out perfect every time.

And it's not that i'm lazy I just don't make it taste as good as at the restaraunt hence the reason I like to get it from there lol.

I'm afraid I can't help you then. I'm in the "log it as something close and move the eff on" camp haha

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Estimating the calorie content of what you're getting when you go out to eat is difficult if not impossible. Even if nutrition information is available what you're actually getting could be way off. If you're not comfortable with this, eat at home more and eat out less. If you limit your restaurant sessions to once every couple weeks or so then really regardless of how much or how little you're off by it won't matter one single bit in the grand scheme of things.

Eating spanish or fried rice gets you in the neighborhood of 500 calories ( and sometimes even more ) per cup of prepared rice.
I lived for almost 20 years in Asia and now for almost just as long in Mexico and developed a rice addiction. But even eating just white , steamed rice often three times a day got me way over the calories I needed and greatly contributed to my weight gain.
Rice by itself is not the enemy ( even white rice is ok ) IF you eat it in the appropriate amounts. Of course if the rice is cooked with a lot of fat ( usually the unhealthy kind ) and laced with food scraps that are also cooked in fat, or fatty meats there is really not much you get to enjoy in calorie appropriate amounts.
If I had to have spanish or fried rice, I would only eat it if I cooked it myself and was in control of the ongredients; their quality as well as the amounts. I would especially not eat fried rice in a restaurant, because there it is usually cooked from left over stuff without much control over the quality of the ingredients.

Finding good recipes and making your own rice at home is a lot better than just giving it up all together. Why go from restaurant rice to no rice at all? Learn to cook it at home, if you feel it wont come out right then try a rice cooker ....good luck!

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