how do i know if the calories are right

kellicarter11
kellicarter11 Posts: 178 Member
edited September 26 in Health and Weight Loss
FOR example I had red skinned mashed potatoes today for lunch with gravy, about one cup. The first thing I clicked on said that it was like 700 calories and 41g of fat...the second time i looked them up individually and it came to a bit over three hundred, but I can't always eat something that comes with a nutrition guide so how do I know what meal is the right one to click on?

Replies

  • caesarslaw
    caesarslaw Posts: 45
    I noticed that there are different foods with a few differences between them in the database. So what I do is I look everything up individually, if possible I then look at the actual packaging to get an idea about how much it is per serving, and search for something similar - erring on the side of caution by overestimating if necessary. So for example, for a generic potato salad there are different entries and vary a lot in calories - I look at my packaging and then estimate how much I ate (or measure) and try to get closer to it - if potatoes are peeled, non peeled, if cucumbers are raw, chopped, eggs boiled, scrambled etc. and just save that and you can reuse it.

    Basically, I do a bit of a research in the database to make sure I find the closest thing - doing it individually per item and then save them in the foods to be re-used.
  • ekicinsk
    ekicinsk Posts: 92 Member
    Some of the entries on here are a bit off...sometimes way more than a bit. When I think something is wrong (like 30000mgs of sodium in an oz of steak, no joke, found that once) I look it up on another website and either change that one, keep looking for another one, or make my own.

    I like this site best:
    http://caloriecount.about.com/
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