Logging food, no info

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_wild_phoenix_
_wild_phoenix_ Posts: 31 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I went out last night to little hole in the wall restaurant. So there's nothing in the mfp database. I went to check website and they don't have any nutrional info there... So how should log it?

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  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    Pick something from database that seems close to what you had or enter the ingredients individually as best as you can. It’s not a perfect solution but it is better than nothing.
  • sheermomentum
    sheermomentum Posts: 827 Member
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    Skip it. Forget about it. Pick up today where you left off.
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
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    I second the vote to find something similar so you at least have an idea. You know it wasn’t zero... or break it down into ingredient estimates if it had obvious pieces to the meal (nor logical for something like a salad with toppings but not a casserole).
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    Find something in a chain restaurant that looks similar and log that. It'll be close enough. Unless you're eating out frequently, any margin of error will be minimized through consistency on other days.
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
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    I find something similar and guesstimate, usually picking either an institutional food company (Sodexo/Aramark/etc) or a chain restaurant. If there are multiple very different entries I usually err on the side of overestimating, and I use my hands to approximate portion size. 3oz of most meats is about the size of your palm (or a deck of cards, if you've got really big/small hands), extrapolate up or down from there . "A cup" of something is about what fits in two cupped hands. 2 oz of butter/cheese/similar is about the size of your thumb, that's about 1.5-2 tbsp.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    find something similar from a large chain restaurant that would be listed. so if it was a little Italian place, find something from olive garden or similar.

    its not perfect but it will be close and is infinitely better than not logging it at all.
  • _wild_phoenix_
    _wild_phoenix_ Posts: 31 Member
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    @sheermomentum this is what I considered but I know I went way over my calories (maybe not as bad as I think since I was under everyday this week).

    @L1zardQueen @moonangel12 @goal06082021 @callsitlikeiseeit this what I was thinking just wasnt sure how much of a solution that would be.

    @RelCanonical I only eat out once a week most weeks rarely is it more, with the exception of running around in the city (downfall of living away from grocery stores among other things)
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
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    Another helpful tip is to take a quick photo of the menu and the plate of food to help you estimate later. That's what I regularly did when eating in restaurants was still a thing.

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