Custom food without nutritional info
 

Hi BellaSarah - I had the same problem with the deli items I bought last night for dinner. All I did was guess. I had asked the staff for the nutritional values of the food they prepared but they didnt have one. They told me the ingredients and I had to go with that and a tour of the food aisle to figure an approximate idea. Perhaps the next time you are in getting your drink - just ask them what is in it & the quantities. It might be enough for you to get an idea for your custom food values. Good luck, Carren

All right, thanks. I think I have an idea as to what they put in the drink before blending, though, but I'll try to remember that for other items. :)

Googling a chain restaurant that offers something similar is a good option. For example, Starbucks might have a drink that is very much like what you ordered. The very important part is getting a close match AND noting carefully the amount. It should be even easier to find out how much is in a drink than what is on a plate.

For what's on a plate, there are lots of tricks (WW gives you some techniques, for example) to estimate how many ounces are in the piece of fish you're eating. Or a piece of meat. You can figure them out at home, too. Does the piece of meat fit in the palm of your hand? It's easy to visualize. Then, try it at home and weigh a similar piece of meat.

Measuring and counting - accuracy comes with practice.

Oh I know it's not at Starbucks - I've asked them. But I do see your point.

I've never been good at judging sizes, ounces, etc. Every time I have, I've been off.

Two tools I use are CalorieKing - Diet & Weight Loss Information - Calorie Counter and Nutritional Information and Calorie Count Recipe Analysis. The first one is a food database that gives you nutritonal information for a LOT of foods, and if you can't find an exact match, you can usually find a similar brand or something that's close. The second one is a recipe nutrition calculator, you enter what's in a given recipe and it gives you nutritional information. I also measure out everything I eat at home, especially things like rice, pasta, mashed potatoes. The more I measure at home, the easier it is to "eyeball" portions when I'm out.

The CalorieKing website is great for creating a custom food - I was even able to find the beverage I was looking for. I had asked for the ingredients but one is a mix that I couldn't find nutritional info for, so this website was helpful. The only problem is that the calcium isn't given in %DV, which is the one thing given that is based on %DV. Anyone know a conversion site that will convert mg's to calories? I have one bookmarked (Online Conversions) that I use constantly but I couldn't find a way to do it. When making a custom food, I would rather not leave the calcium field blank if there's an amount given.

I couldn't find a converter either, but I did find a list of recommended daily allowances. Percent Daily Value: What does it mean? - MayoClinic.com