How to log farmer's market food with no labels?

petithamu
petithamu Posts: 582 Member
edited September 25 in Food and Nutrition
I've asked this question before but didn't really get any response. I would like to know how do I log food that didn't come with labels? There is this bakery that I go to that serves up amazing homemade wholemeal bread. When you buy it, they just put it in a paper bag and off you go. I have no idea how to log this. Same thing with their homemade hummus. I've been doing estimates but I'm worried I could be way off.

Anyone else has this problem?? What do you do?

Replies

  • JulieBoBoo
    JulieBoBoo Posts: 642
    Hope for the best, accept that you can't control every single calorie that goes into your mouth without giving up some amazing and wonderful foods, give yourself some extra calorie room those days if you can.

    We buy bulk meat from local farmers and often eat food where I'm unsure about the calorie content. Some days I nail it.. others not so much. Overall though I know it's good clean healthy food and that makes it ok.
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
    If it were me, I would just continue estimating. Find a recipe or an entry that sounds similar, and use that. It can't be so far off that it's going to throw off your entire day, unless you're eating like half a loaf at a time. Most of the time our calorie entries aren't 100% accurate anyway, just because measurements can be slightly off. Just do the best you can, and don't stress about it.
  • sapiers
    sapiers Posts: 14
    exactely what aj said, there are a bunch of different whole meal breads in the database and they all seem to be about 65 calories per slice, an estimate is always better than nothing :)
  • MrsSWW
    MrsSWW Posts: 1,585 Member
    An estimate is better than nothing!

    Buy yourself a good calorie counter book which will give you the 'average' calories for all fruit n veg, as well as meats, breads etc. which aren't brand names. Then you can key your favourite ones in as a 'my food' and use them whenever you need to - and buy a set of digital kitchen scales so you can weigh everything, that is the hardest part of 'guestimating', lol! My portion size has decreased dramatically on some food and increased for others in the 6 weeks I've been using MFP....

    Hope this helps X
  • kent4j
    kent4j Posts: 391 Member
    That's a big reason why I don't eat ALL of my exercise calories. Gives me that cushion in case I miscalculated. Like the others it's great to know you're eating healthy local food.
  • forestdancers
    forestdancers Posts: 146 Member
    I just tend to pick things with about the same size and then just log things as what ever that said plus a bit. Like a 1.25 serving for a tart of about the same size as the same kind at the store.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    I just tend to pick the nearest on the database. I struggle when it is things like sausages, but I pick something mid-way in the calories of the varieties on the database.

    Like others, I tend to not eat all my exercise calories in order to have a buffer for estimating, especially as almost all my foods are non-processed without calorie labels.

    I just figure that stuff from farmers markets will almost certainly be without the c*** commercially produced stuff has, and must therefore be better for me.
  • bizco
    bizco Posts: 1,949 Member
    I often use other websites (databases) to get nutritional information for foods that do not have labels. Try http://nutritiondata.self.com/ or www.calorieking.com.

    Then you can add it to My Foods on MFP for future use.
  • kevanos
    kevanos Posts: 304 Member
    well for your homemade hummus you can figure out exactly it`s nutritional value by adding up all the values of what you put in it.

    1 can chick peas: x cals
    1 lemon: x cals
    olive oil: x cals
    garlic; x cals
    tahini: x cals

    you add up all you cals and you know how much you recipe contains. Same for your protein/fat and carbs.

    As for bread, you can probably estimate it pretty accurately.
  • petithamu
    petithamu Posts: 582 Member
    Thanks guys! I was stressing out a bit because I shop often at traditional markets or farmer's markets so it's always hard for me to log my food! I'll just keep 'guestimating' (liking that word, stealing it!) and see how that goes.

    Thanks again!
  • sarahanne40
    sarahanne40 Posts: 69 Member
    I hear you on this one - I tend to go with a reasonable estimate - either by finding one online then inputting it into MFP - or using the average of the ones already on MFP. This is obviously not exact - but short of asking for a direct breakdown of the exact recipe per batch of bread etc - its probably a good guess. If you feel that you are underestimating or overestimating the serving size (as stated on MFP) then adjust as required. Thats the best I can offer - to be fair the nutritional data given on all produce are not item specific - they are based on the average item produced - i.e. sometimes a slice of bread maybe smaller or bigger than average due to the amount of fill have been used in the bread tin.

    For calories its the measurement of the energy contained within a standard weight of produce - calorific value is gained by measuring the energy produced by burning off the energy contained within the item - i.e. fat burns longer than water (obviously) as fat has a higher calorific value then water. To be fair everything we see on packages are kilo calories, as actua; calories are such low measures of energy the numbers would confuse consumers - see the link below - its the first one on google - but shows the general prinicple of the science behind how calories are calculated.

    http://www.wisegeek.com/how-are-dietary-calories-calculated.htm
  • wildsun
    wildsun Posts: 24
    I try to research whatever kinds of food I am going to be eating that won't be strictly labeled and try to estimate the best I can. I probably overestimate to make myself feel better honestly. I wonder this a lot about Chinese takeout (one of my faves) but I refuse to touch it since I have no idea what kind of caloric impact it would carry.
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