How do you count calories when you have no idea how much is in a meal?

[Nocturnal]

Say for instance you go to a mom and pop restaurant for lunch and you honestly have no reference point to go and look up how much calories you just consumed. Any idea how to guesstimate?

 

[presidentender]

Have to take the ingredients and guess, then check online to see what's in a given amount of the ingredients. If you don't know the ingredients, again, have to guess.

 

[NGC_604]

..

 

[IceBergSLiM]

stop eating out if you are calorie counting. /thread

 

[KoolDrew]

How do you count calories when you have no idea how much is in a meal?

I don't. If I eat out I consider that a cheat meal and just forget about it.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
stop eating out if you are calorie counting. /thread

Truth. Or like KoolDrew said - count it as a cheat meal and be done with it.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

How do you count calories when you have no idea how much is in a meal?

I don't. If I eat out I consider that a cheat meal and just forget about it.

 

[MattCo]

To answer your question:
If I want to guesstimate a meal that I have had at a place with no nutritional facts, I go to diet facts and look up a similar meal at a known place. It will never be exact, but counting calories never are. It will at least give you a rough estimate.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

How do you count calories when you have no idea how much is in a meal?

I don't. If I eat out I consider that a cheat meal and just forget about it.

Same here. I might try to ballpark it by assuming worst case for most ingredients, but ultimately I know my estimate is probably off by a few hundred cals.

On a related note: I thought all restaurants were required to provide customers with accurate nutrition information? The reality seems to be they don't have to provide you with that information if they don't feel like paying for the lab tests necessary to obtain the nutrition information.