Finding the right calorie amount

debraah66 · April 2019

What do you guys do if your trying to find the right calorie amount and the list is so varied on the calories for the same food? I went out to eat and had a Ruben sandwich. It varies from 150 up to 900 calories. It is a restaurant that does not list its calories and is local to our area.

TeaBea · April 2019

Have you tried the recipe builder function? This allows you to plug in ingredients and save your results. You can even pull in recipes from popular sites and tweak those. This is why you see a huge range. People have listed their recipe as an entry, but without knowing what's in it, it's of no use to you.

Otherwise look for a chain restaurant entry (and make a best guess) when eating out. Unless you opted for no cheese, no condiments, etc. a restaurant entry might be your best bet.

https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/calories-reuben-sandwich-3493.html

puffbrat · April 2019

Sometimes I just look to see what the most common amount is and go for that. For instance if many of the entries say 400 then I will just pick one of those unless I believe the one I had was larger than usual. Another trick is to choose an entry from a large restaurant where you have eaten or at least seen that same meal and believe it appears relatively similar in terms of ingredients and portion sizes.

kimny72 · April 2019

As @teabea said, I'd look for an entry from a similar type of restaurant. If there's still a large range, all you can do is use your experience so far. Try to estimate how much meat, how much cheese, what type of bread, and pick the number that makes the most sense.

As you get more and more logging under your belt, you get better at estimating when you aren't in control. I test myself at home - I try to eyeball a serving of a food, then I put it on the scale and check myself. Over time, it's really helped!

debraah66 · April 2019

Okay, thats basically what I've been doing is making my best guess. My friend took me out today and I was pretty hungry. I only ate half a sandwich and a cup of soup but the calories still added up. I am going to get a food scale soon for here. Where do you get one of those?

PAV8888 · April 2019

Take pictures. Deconstruct ingredients. Guess at quantities based on previous experience.

Scales are everywhere. From Walmart to local drug stores to Amazon.

A perfect (for you) scale may take an attempt or two!

Finding the right calorie amount

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