Estimating calories

jennydelgado09 · December 2017

When going out to eat that doesn't list your calories what do you estimate?

I'm going to a Mexican restraunt tomorrow and the calories aren't listed. I was going to give myself 1000 calories.

Or should i use a bigger restraunt and use their calorie info for something similar?

nic_27_grassisgreener · December 2017

Both of those strategies could work. I went out to a place yesterday that doesn't list calories, and found what I hope to be a comparable entry from a different restaurant. I try to overestimate in this situation.

AnnPT77 · December 2017

The other option is to try to deconstruct the dish and log the separate ingredients. If you do that, be sure to include a realistically generous amount of fats/oils. This is easy for some things, harder for others.

Regardless, don't obsess about it, especially if it's an infrequent thing. Just pick a non-lowball estimate, and go on with life.

For restaurants I go to regularly, and order the same thing, I put a little more effort into making a realistic estimate, then saving the result in MFP as a meal so I can reuse it. For one-offs, I just try not to underestimate.

I lost weight just fine, and have stayed at a healthy weight for almost 2 years since.

fitoverfortymom · December 2017

I usually find a similar restaurant and log that.

strangethingsdone · December 2017

Yeah, I generally just look for a similar dish/recipe that's already on MFP and guesstimate portion size, etc, then log that. I usually round up, too, to allow for any discrepancy.

Alatariel75 · December 2017

I too find a similar dish at a place that does have calories listed and log that. It seems to be the best way to get as close as possible.

Machka9 · December 2017

Sometimes I go to recipe sites and see if they've got something similar and list the calories.

leggup · December 2017

If it were me I would put in 1,000 and not worry too much about it. One meal won't make or break me.

jjpptt2 · December 2017

jennydelgado09 wrote: »

When going out to eat that doesn't list your calories what do you estimate?

I'm going to a Mexican restraunt tomorrow and the calories aren't listed. I was going to give myself 1000 calories.

Or should i use a bigger restraunt and use their calorie info for something similar?

That's what I typically do.

Estimating calories

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