Local restaurant dishes/calculations

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rynelyse
rynelyse Posts: 3 Member
edited June 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been a member for a while but haven't actively used the site until fairly recently so any help with this is appreciated! Please excuse me if this is a silly question. I went out to lunch with some colleagues to a local burger restaurant (not a chain) and ordered a black bean burger to try eat as healthfully as possible. I just logged on to enter my food and realized that I have no idea how many calories were in the dish. Nutrition information is not listed on this restaurants website and there are a ton of different black bean burgers in the database. For a situation like this, should I use the highest calorie information I can find? Should I enter an average of the burgers in the database? And/or-- Would it be creepy to call the restaurant to ask for nutrition info?

I will certainly try to be more mindful in the future.

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  • CrabNebula
    CrabNebula Posts: 1,119 Member
    edited June 2016
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    Well you probably are never going to know for sure, but you can deconstruct it a little.

    Was the burger itself big or small?
    Was the bun big or little? Was it buttered?
    Was there mayo/aioli on it?
    Was there cheese on it?

    Because of things like the above, you can't assume that just because something is vegetarian, it is the better or best option. Often they are drowning in fats in the form of mayo and cheese as much as their meat counterparts.

  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,120 Member
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    Guesstimate based off similar chain entries, and if that fails choose an entry that seems reasonable on MFP. I tend to use an average restaurant entry whenever I have to WAG the carb counts for a local restaurant, or I try to break down the meal itself into associated ingredients (This salmon looks like the same size as the one Ruby Tuesdays serves, the green beans look to be about 150g because I constantly weigh green beans at home and am super familiar with portion sizes and their weights, there's a little bit of Parmesan cheese so I'll log about 10g, oh and lemme also add 1-2Tbsp of butter to cover any hidden fat, etc.).

    I take insulin based off how many carbs in a meal I consume, so choosing the highest entry could be super dangerous for me if that then causes me to take too much insulin. By choosing the more average entry (or trying to break down the meal myself), I'm less likely to experience huge swings from taking too much/little insulin (I still need to closely monitor my blood sugar over the next few hours to then assess whether the meal might have had more/fewer carbs than what I guesstimated).

    Remember that if a restaurant has fewer than 20 locations in the US, then they're not legally required to have nutrition info (and even then, some restaurants found ways to get around this law *cough cough* Waffle House *cough cough*).
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    Log each item on the burger separately, and use a black bean morningstar patty or something like that. Log the bun separate. Log the veggies and condiments separate. Then NEXT time, you can always take a picture and deconstruct it later, or pick something on the menu that's easier to log.
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
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    I try to match food from a non-chain to a chain restaurant with a similar meal. Maybe Chili's for the black bean burger if you can find a toppings match. I don't necessarily choose the highest, but one that seems to have most of the same components. If my pizza looks more like a Papa John's pizza than a Pizza Hut, for example, I'll choose the Papa John's nutrition. This has been working well for me.

    Other options are to calculate the ingredients then add about 15-20% to that number, since restaurants often add additional fat or serve larger portions than you'd make yourself.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    SWAG method - Scientific Wild *kitten* Guessing. :lol: Find the best match and go with it. It's one meal, won't derail your progress. I do that at least once a week and have no problems in losing and/or maintaining my progress.
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
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    I usually find something similar at a chain and log 1.3 servings - assuming the chain entry is stating the minimum calories and your local one could be a bit more indulgent.
  • jimshine
    jimshine Posts: 199 Member
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    Look for the closest in the database then pick one that is in the higher calorie bracket to be safe.

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