keeping track of calories when eating out or someone else cooking

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wabisabigio
wabisabigio Posts: 15 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello there. I'm new at this, so maybe this is an easier thing to do for you all. How do you keep track of calories and of what you are eating when eating out or when someone else is cooking? Do you put in an estimate amount? I mean, if you're at a friend's house you can't exactly ask: 'how many carbs are in this meal that you made?'

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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,961 Member
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    Yeah, just take a guess. I still log it.


    One really good thing about using my digital food scale at home every day is that I can pretty much deconstruct portions of food no matter where I go...and get close enough.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    1. One reason I log as accurately as I do the majority of the time is so that I don't have to worry about the rarer occasions when I have to estimate.
    2. The longer you log, the better you get at estimating portion size.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited September 2020
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    wabisabigio wrote: »
    Hello there. I'm new at this, so maybe this is an easier thing to do for you all. How do you keep track of calories and of what you are eating when eating out or when someone else is cooking? Do you put in an estimate amount? I mean, if you're at a friend's house you can't exactly ask: 'how many carbs are in this meal that you made?'

    You could ask for the recipe.

    However, like @cmriverside I have gotten fairly good at coming up with a reasonably close guess just from weighing and logging so much food.

    When I first started I used a high but not highest approach to logging food I was unsure about. I still use it now if it is something that is unusual enough to me that I don't feel comfortable guessing.

    So let's say your friend served you a chicken stir fry. You do a quick search for chicken stir fry and for the quantity you believe you consumed you get a lot of choices with varying calorie amounts. You get 750, 575, 550, 475, 300, 275, and 250 to keep the list short. I would see the 750 as a possibility but then wonder why it was so far above the rest. Did they serve it over fried rice? Unless my dinner seemed unusual I would pick the 575 because it was the highest in what appears to be a high range.

  • jessiemeckle
    jessiemeckle Posts: 118 Member
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    I add each individual food item and usually add butter, oil, or any condiments that may be in the sauce or used to cook with. If someone served spaghetti, salad and garlic bread, I would enter 1 cup pasta, 1/4 cup pasta sauce, garlic bread, 2 cup mixed greens, 3 tsp ranch dressing, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp oil, etc. My entry gets pretty long but it's the best way to get accurate information.
  • 1poundatax
    1poundatax Posts: 230 Member
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    I estimate as best I can and typically go on the high side, I would rather over estimate than under estimate.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    jessiemeckle wrote: »
    I add each individual food item and usually add butter, oil, or any condiments that may be in the sauce or used to cook with. If someone served spaghetti, salad and garlic bread, I would enter 1 cup pasta, 1/4 cup pasta sauce, garlic bread, 2 cup mixed greens, 3 tsp ranch dressing, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp oil, etc. My entry gets pretty long but it's the best way to get accurate information.

    It is an idea and it is your log so you need to do it the way you feel most comfortable. There is still going to be a potentially high margin of error so I don't usually go this route. Also, I am lazy and I seldom eat food that is not my own more than once a week.
  • dsc84
    dsc84 Posts: 208 Member
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    Eating at a friends place is tough. And I think the advice above is right on. When you are out to eat, depending on whether it's a local mom and pop, or a chain can make a difference. I can't think of a chain that doesn't have it's nutritional information posted either in restaurant or online. Though Chains aren't perfect in their portioning every single time, they do their best to be as accurate as possible so as to best manage cost of goods, so you can have a very good idea. Mom and pop's can be a bit of a crap shoot. I'd say do your best to estimate, and make sure all other logging is accurate so even if you are off for that one meal, the big picture really isn't changed.
  • wabisabigio
    wabisabigio Posts: 15 Member
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    Thanks for the answers, I hope I'll acquire your guessing skills at some point!!! :) I for sure had no idea how many calories I was eating before I started counting them!

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