How can I count calories when I go out to eat or eat something that is unpackaged without nutritional info?!
The same situation with unpackaged food items or items that do not include the nutritional information on the package.
Answers: For instance, we went out to eat Chinese Food last night. I had some of those cold cooked peel and eat shrimp, sauteed shrimp with broccoli, green beans and I also had spinach with melted shredded cheese on top. How in the world can I estimate what the calories are since I don't know what they use to cook or season the food with?
The same situation with unpackaged food items or items that do not include the nutritional information on the package.
go to www.calorieking.com - type the food you had into the search section and it will pop up with all the choices. That site has zillions of different foods, including ethnic foods and chain-restaurant foods. It's really helpful!
You can generally find a website that contains calories of foods (sometimes the website of the restaurant where you went), and there are books you can purchase which will tell you the nutritional information as well.
It's going to be an estimate because, you're right, you don't know if they used lard or cooking spray, but it's better than no estimation at all.
Consider the raw materials used. For instance, if something is accompanied with carbohydrate sides like potatoes and bread, then you know its probably high in calories. But consider something like a salad and you know that its probably low in calories (without creamy dressing, of course) knowing how many veggies are in it. Also, how it is cooked matters- steamed is always better than fried. Lean meat dishes are considerably lower in cals than their high fat counterparts.
A breakdown like this may help you decide between high and low calorie foods without carrying around a book. But this will in no way give you a number of calories you are consuming.