how to "guesstimate" food at restaurants and pot lucks

kathleennf
kathleennf Posts: 606 Member
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
Hi every body!! I am trying to log my food intake as accurately as possible to make this work. However, a lot of restaurants where I live do not have nutrition info, so I have to just guess what's in the meal. This also happens when eating at a pot luck (I have another one this week!) etc. Any ideas?

Replies

  • melee0116
    melee0116 Posts: 2
    Good question. All I have done is put in a similar food, or try to break it down into the ingredients which can be frustrating. Good luck, though. I will keep an eye on this thread, because I am curious too!
  • CarterGrt
    CarterGrt Posts: 289 Member
    This is probably a lazy approach, but I frequently look for similar food items at restaurants that have been profiled. So, today, I had a 12 ounce sirloin at Logan's Roadhouse. Nothing on MFP. But, typing in "sirloin 12" I got a ton of other 12-ounce sirloins. I look at a coulple, find a common theme, then pick one for my dinner. If you estimate on the high end of the range, this gives you more of a cushion if you stay under your goal for the day.

    This works for a LOT of stuff for me. Every now and again, I will use the recipe tool to try and back-engineer a meal.

    Good Luck!!!

    --Carter
  • somigliana
    somigliana Posts: 314 Member
    I agree with Melee's approach.

    I usually try to pick the "cleanest" option from the menu or off the table and estimate from meals/foods I have worked out calories for.
    I try not to pick things that might have hidden calories in them, like mashed potatoes (hides buttah and cream) and sauces. So I'll ask for dressings on the side, no butter or oil on vegetables and choose plain baked potato or plain rice etc. They also can't do much to add calories to a plain piece of steak or salmon.

    It can be a bit hit and miss to guess accurately, but the longer you've been logging and working with calories, the easier it gets. And sometimes I just roll my eyes and call it a "treat meal".
  • LainMac
    LainMac Posts: 412 Member
    This is how I do Restaurant CSI. Eyeball the ingredients and the amount you took. Guess at the size of each. Log that. Add between 2-6 pats of butter/teaspoons of olive oil and 1000mg of salt and that will get your close get you close.

    For pot lucks, you can do the above halving the butter/olive oil and salt addition.

    For example, if you had 2 cups of noodles with veggies at a Italian restaurant in a tomato sauce, You'd have something 1.25 cups of noodles, .5 of mixed veggies, and .25 cups of red sauce. Add 1000 mg of salt and 4 teaspoons of olive oil. And that would be darn close.
  • kathleennf
    kathleennf Posts: 606 Member
    Thanks everybody! Lain I think you are absolutely right about adding the fat and salt content. Today I had some kind of a Mexican-type thing where I put in the tortilla, the chicken, the cheese and the tomato sauce- but I think it had something else that made it taste "rich" and probably your system would cover it. I've also been trying to incorporate the the other suggestions- including of course the "treat meal" approach. LOL.
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