entering mealsite menus

barefootdaze
barefootdaze Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started

hi there. i'm just getting back to MFP and trying to find how to enter my lunches which come from a senior meal site in the midwest. it provides half my calories/nutrients for the day so i'd really like to be accurate.

if anyone has ideas that w/ be great!😁

#seniormealsite #logging #help

Replies

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,236 Member

    Can you ask the people who run the program if they have nutritional information? Then you could create database entries to match. Alternatively, if they're using a large provider (like Aramark), you might find entries already in the database.

    If the meals seem similar to those you might get at a chain restaurant, you might be able to use those entries.

    If all that fails, you're probably left with mentally deconstructing the meals into whole foods (e.g., 4 oz. chicken, white meat; 1/2 cup green beans; 85 grams white potatoes; 1 Tbs butter; 1 Tbs oil; etc.) and entering them. If you cook your other meals at home and use a food scale, that should improve your ability to estimate weights and volumes of foods you eat away from home, which is something most people are not very good at.

    What I do not recommend is using other people's entries for homemade foods, as you have no idea what actually went into their foods and probably no serving information other than "1 serving."

  • durden
    durden Posts: 4,577 MFP Staff

    Not speaking as a staff member or anyone who knows anything (other than being a long-time user);

    I think it depends on what your goals are. If you want to be 100% factually accurate, you'll need to get the nutrition info from whomever is making/supplying the food and then input them as food items, or quick log them. That's going to be a lot of work, but especially if you're macro focused you gotta do it. If you tend to eat the same few dishes repeatedly, this goes from being sort of a pain at first to being effortless once you have that data in MFP and can just add it in 5 seconds.

    I like the idea above of confirming if the food is coming from a large provider, as there's a decent chance of it being in the MFP database already, and if not, the info you need is almost certainly online and therefore will be easier to input.

    If your goals are less stringent- like you're completely calorie focused or are trying to work on portion control, etc, it might be worth it to invest in a food scale, find something that's close enough to what you're eating in the MFP database (with full macros that seems reasonable- almost always the kind of 'middle' option between the least calories and the most, with full nutrition facts) and then using that as a basis to plan your day around. You'll never be 100% accurate doing this, but you'll keep yourself accountable and will be better off than not doing it at all, IMO.

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