Advice on tracking meals made by other people?

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Altatude
Altatude Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
It actually makes me anxious eating food other people make. Today the problem is soup. The person cooking it doesn't even measure how much salt they put in, they just throw ingredients at the pot and hope for the best.
They're the kind of person that tells me to just cut cheese in thin slices and not bother weighing it.
I'm not used to this. I like to weigh everything so I actually know. I hate guessing.
But does anyone have advice on what to do when it comes to food made by someone else who doesn't give a rats backside about people who are on a diet? :(

Replies

  • rainwater467
    rainwater467 Posts: 12 Member
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    Offer to do the cooking.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    Guess or take a sample to a lab.
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I'd probably look at some restaurant websites and see what the calories were for something similar. For non-soup meals I'd over-guesstimate the calories in the components. I wouldn't find it ideal, but I wouldn't stress too much about it. After all, I'm in this for life now so at some point I hope someone will cook a meal for me ;-)
  • NikiChicken
    NikiChicken Posts: 576 Member
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    You do the very best you can. Life is full of unexpected hurdles and events, so you have to learn to roll with the punches. I do a couple of things when faced with this situation. I look through the food database to see if I can find something very similar and use that entry. It won't be exact, but it will at least give a reasonable approximation. Or, I will do my best to recreate the recipe in the recipe builder. I have no problem asking what ingredients, and approximate measurements of those ingredients, that go into a recipe and then I just rebuild it myself - especially if I think I might ever be eating that recipe made by that person again in the future. Even people that don't measure when they cook have a reasonable idea of how much of something they put in a recipe (That's how I learned to cook and I only started measuring when I began losing weight with MFP. Even when I didn't measure, I could still give an idea of how much of an ingredient I used in a recipe). No, it isn't exact, but it's still better than 1) never eating something that somebody else made ever again or 2) throwing your hands in the air and not tracking.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,429 Member
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    I usually just estimate high, snd try to keep my portion reasonable. ("This is delicious! If only I hadn't had such a big lunch!")

    This is the one case where I'll use generic prepared-food entries in the database, or even restaurant entries for home-cooked food - if it's, say, mac & cheese, I find one of the higher-calorie-per-unit entries, estimate my portion, and use that.

    Another option, more tedious, is to estimate the ingredients, focusing most on the high-cal ones. So, mac & cheese, around 1 C mac, can't be more than 2 oz cheddar at this cheesyness, add 1/2 tsp butter to be sure.

    If necessary, express interest in the recipe: "So rich and rasty, do you use butter or olive oil? Is that gruyere cheese I taste?"

    I figure if I err on the side of overestimating, and this happens only occasionally, I can handle it graciously, enjoy the richer food, and it won't derail me over the long haul.
  • cnbbnc
    cnbbnc Posts: 1,267 Member
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    When im faced with it I don't get crazy over needing to track it properly. Things like this are going to pop up occasionally and I don't think it's necessarily healthy thinking to get freaked out over having an unusual meal once in a while.

    I'm not going to make family/friends feel uncomfortable over would be suitable to offer me when I'm a guest in their home, and I'm certainly not going to grill them over what exactly they put in it/cooked it with.

    What I've chosen to do is accept a reasonable portion and make the best tracking estimates I can. If I know foods that are richer are normally what is served then I will just eat very lightly before and after to accommodate it. Then I move on.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    You have to guess. With the soup, I'd just log it as Campbell's and be done with it...unless they made chicken soup, in which case I'd add some chicken to the diary. Nobody puts as little chicken in soup as Campbell's does, lol.
  • alt5057
    alt5057 Posts: 62 Member
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    Look up some similar foods and estimate. I never pick the lowest of the foods...usually try to stick with mid-high range because I would rather overestimate than underestimate calories.

    Realize that it is only one meal and it won't completely ruin your weight loss. Even if it is an extra 1000 calories (trying to be dramatic) and you are only set at 0.5 lbs per week, you'll still be in a deficit for the week! You may retain a little extra water for a couple days if the salt was really high, but that will go away. Enjoy the time with friends and offer to do the cooking next time! Or offer to bring a big salad to share that you know what is in it and eat mostly that with a little of what they are cooking.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    I would search a restaurants' equivalent in the data-base and add that instead :]
    It won't be exact but it's definitely better to log than not log at all.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i dont eat food other people cook (very often, anyways) for the simple reason that most people CANT cook and it tastes like crap and/or makes me sick.

    but when i do, just find something in the database that comes close, or deconstruct it and do your best guess estimation (this is where weighing and logging your own food regularly comes in as a BIG help). as long as its a broth soup and not a cream one, they are usually reasonable in calories....

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