What to do, don't know the calorie content of a meal?

Snail313
Snail313 Posts: 214 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I occasionally eat lunch at work and it is cafeteria style food. I don't know how many calories or fat were in my meal. It is really bothering me and makes me never want to eat there. I took a guess and now I am almost out of calories for the day and I am hungry. What if I over compensated and now I am not gonna get enough calories for the day. What if I guessed low and I eat now and I am way over and I don't lose this week! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! lol, ok I'm done.

Replies

  • Omsy828
    Omsy828 Posts: 24 Member
    usually lunch is provided by a bigger company. find it out. when you figure it out just type it in google and type nutrition after it, they will 100% have the nutrition info. I know because I had the same probably with cafeteria food!
  • warmachinejt
    warmachinejt Posts: 2,162 Member
    haha take it easy. First, 1 day messing up won't stall your progress. 2nd, i suggest you start making your own food/snacks and take them to work. And 3rd, eating fat doesn't make you fat. Eating more calories than your maintenance does.
  • katiekrusher
    katiekrusher Posts: 143
    Try bringing your own lunch! It will make counting AND losing weight easier. :)
  • vjrose
    vjrose Posts: 809 Member
    In the week long picture one meal is likely not too big a deal. The gentleman that posted above me had the right idea, for instance our food at the U is provided by Aramark and they do have the data. Call the cafeteria and ask them what parent company is.
  • kmm7309
    kmm7309 Posts: 802 Member
    I usually try to find a sit-down restaurant version that is comparable to what I'm eating.

    If I eat a 1/4lb burger with cheese somewhere, and somewhere else (like Denny's, for example) has it listed on their website, I'll log that instead. It should be pretty close.
  • krazyforyou
    krazyforyou Posts: 1,428 Member
    I always brown bag, because everything in the cafereria sucks except the cookies and I sure love me some cookies.
  • Snail313
    Snail313 Posts: 214 Member
    I usually bring my own breakfast and snacks and just eat when I get off but every once in a while I eat breakfast or lunch there. You are right, 1 meal isn't that big of a deal but it just bothers me, lol. I just used a generic version of what I ate. Oh well, I think I will eat some cereal and forget about it.
  • rcthale
    rcthale Posts: 141
    Sometimes I piece together the nutrition facts the best that I can using the USDA's database:
    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

    It's better than nothing, and I can save it as a meal in MyFitnessPal if I eat at the same place frequently.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    usually lunch is provided by a bigger company. find it out. when you figure it out just type it in google and type nutrition after it, they will 100% have the nutrition info. I know because I had the same probably with cafeteria food!
    No honey, not 100%. Sorry to burst your bubble but not everyone publishes nutrition info.

    OP, find something similar in the database and estimate. It's not rocket science. If you only eat there occasionally what's the big deal anyway?
  • weeblex
    weeblex Posts: 412 Member
    Eat what you need to stop yourself being hungry rather than over eat, and you could bring cookies in for the kitchen staff and ask them to sneak you an ingredients list?

    If all else fails, guesstimate heavy on the calories. Over exercising 50 or over eating 50 calories isn't going to hurt.

    The kicker is the sodium tho :(
  • TheVimFuego
    TheVimFuego Posts: 2,412 Member
    I'd just ignore the calories and pick something that wasn't wrapped in bread or had a huge serving of rice/pasta/potato, etc.

    Tuna salad anyone?
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    I look at what I ate and then find similar on MFP. I break it down to the ingredients and list it that way.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
    usually lunch is provided by a bigger company. find it out. when you figure it out just type it in google and type nutrition after it, they will 100% have the nutrition info. I know because I had the same probably with cafeteria food!
    No honey, not 100%. Sorry to burst your bubble but not everyone publishes nutrition info.

    OP, find something similar in the database and estimate. It's not rocket science. If you only eat there occasionally what's the big deal anyway?


    I can't think of ANYONE other than fast food chains who publish nutritional info. My uni cafe certainly doesn't. I just don't eat there.
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 Member
    The cafeteria themselves may not "post" the info but if it's a restaurant supplied by... lets say Sysco which I know is a huge supplier of restaurants in the area as I see the trucks all the time there's 40 food items from A-C in the database and I don't feel like counting the rest which is a much longer list than what I scrolled through to get to 40.

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