Estimating Thai take out

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Raegold
Raegold Posts: 191 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Any tips with this? I'm thinking of ordering drunken noodles for my higher calorie day today, and I feel like the options when you search are all over the place. I'm thinking if I ordered something more simple like a Thai basil stir fry, I could estimate it better based on the protein and veggies. Any tips??? I love thai food but i suspect a lot of dishes have more calories than people think bc of either the coconut milk or noodles (like pad thai, curries, etc).

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  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,983 Member
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    The most difficult thing to estimate with Thai or anything stir-fried is how much oil they use in the pan. I'd imagine this varies a lot from restaurant to restaurant, and is the real calorie bomb.

    The best you can do is go with a middle-of-the-road estimate. If I'm trying to save a few calories, I'll get something that comes with rice instead of noodles, and just use a small portion of the rice.

    I love Thai food, too, especially noodle dishes, but I'd imagine those noodles absorb a lot of the oil. I still order them when I either have a lot of calories to spare, or just decide I'm going to have a treat that day. If it's every once in a while, I don't worry about it too much.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
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    We have no good Thai here near me in Tucson (sorry but true). I love Thai. I have made both of what you are talking about and you'd have to put the individual components together. When I first started using MFP, the one thing that struck me was the "optimism" of calorie estimates. Most were just SO low, IMHO.

    The amount of oil means everything. Usually, for curries, they are 50 percent or more of coconut milk, full fat.

    Thai basil stir fry isn't bad except the oil (well, and all the white rice). I found that nutrition online was usually more accurate than MFP listed choices.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    MikePfirrman wrote: »
    We have no good Thai here near me in Tucson (sorry but true). I love Thai. I have made both of what you are talking about and you'd have to put the individual components together. When I first started using MFP, the one thing that struck me was the "optimism" of calorie estimates. Most were just SO low, IMHO.

    The amount of oil means everything. Usually, for curries, they are 50 percent or more of coconut milk, full fat.

    Thai basil stir fry isn't bad except the oil (well, and all the white rice). I found that nutrition online was usually more accurate than MFP listed choices.

    That was one thing I didn't like about Tucson -- every Thai place we tried was so lackluster. Even Little Rock had better Thai food.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    Asian food is a complete crapshoot. At 9 calories per gram, a chef can put 500 calories in the fried rice and you won't even notice it. (1/4 cup) The noodles and the rice are easy. A cup of cooked rice is 200 calories, the noodles about the same. Soy is zero, shallots are zero, garlic is zero more or less. Its all about the oil.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
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    For those types of foods where small non-chain restaurants without any nutrition information dominate (e.g. Thai, Vietnamese, Indian), I usually build a recipe or log the individual ingredients. I will look to recipes that seem equivalent in preparation to what I had for guidance. Coconut milk and oil are very high calorie, so it's a bit of an educated guess and judgement in estimating proportions used, and those can have significant impacts on total calories.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited October 2020
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    MikePfirrman wrote: »
    We have no good Thai here near me in Tucson (sorry but true). I love Thai. I have made both of what you are talking about and you'd have to put the individual components together. When I first started using MFP, the one thing that struck me was the "optimism" of calorie estimates. Most were just SO low, IMHO.

    The amount of oil means everything. Usually, for curries, they are 50 percent or more of coconut milk, full fat.

    Thai basil stir fry isn't bad except the oil (well, and all the white rice). I found that nutrition online was usually more accurate than MFP listed choices.

    That was one thing I didn't like about Tucson -- every Thai place we tried was so lackluster. Even Little Rock had better Thai food.

    LOL, but there is Lee Lee's! Great oriental supermarket with everything necessary. They carry Thai, Korean, Chinese and even Cuban a few other ethnic specialties. Love the place. There's one decent Thai place but it's in Vail, other side of town from me. Not awesome but acceptable. Just no patio dining and right now we won't eat inside.
  • B_Plus_Effort
    B_Plus_Effort Posts: 311 Member
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    use the highest number you found
  • SeanD2407
    SeanD2407 Posts: 139 Member
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    Nah, just don't over think it. Log it as being over your deficit, enjoy yourself, then start fresh tomorrow. You probably dont want to know.
  • alexmose
    alexmose Posts: 792 Member
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    I had drunken noodles last night, called it 620 calories and moved on but did not change my diet at all otherwise.
  • Raegold
    Raegold Posts: 191 Member
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    Thanks everyone!! I ended up logging the ingredients (chicken, veggies, noodles, etc) I think it ended up being 800-900 calories. Probably best to not overthink it and move on!!

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