Hey guys,

I am finding it very hard to guestimate calories of items that don't come in tins or packages such as dinner and lunchs. I am eating as healthy as possible but can't determine if I am within a good range for my calorie intake. I feel fairly full most days which I take as a good sign and for my calculations (which you can see in my journal) I tend to over estimate things but I think if I am over estimating too much then I may be having too few calories in a day and hence starving my body a but so it wont let go of the fat.

I thought this thread could be a good place for people to guestimate the calories of a certain meal so feel free to post and those who know such things can try and help out.

My first one is a lunch favorite at the moment cause of the simple, cheap, healthy nature :

1 large chinese container of grilled chicken breast + lettuce + avocado

Thoughts?

I don't guestimate, I use an online calorie counter so I know exactly how much I'm eating. Not only for calories but for protein, fat and carbs.

I have no clue about how many calories are in your chicken breast, lettuce has almost no calories and avocado is very calorie dense. Hopefully someone else will come along with a better answer!!

using a calorie counter will help but if your eating something constantly it would be a good idea to know. What I do is a try to cook and recreate the same thing at home and see what I used, hope that at least helps a little

Just start learning the calorie contents of common food items, for eaxample I think a large Chicken breast has about 200-250 Kcals when grilled. I don't know about Avocado but I'd guess 150kcals for a whole large one

Alot of things you can search on google to find out the nutritional value of the food

1 medium avocado has 276 calories.

what helped me the most was getting a $5 food scale and using it to weigh most basic meats at first, after awhile you just know by looking at a piece (or portion) how big it is and the nutritional value of it.

Thanks for the replies, since I buy most of my food at work from the Cafe this is harder but I will see what i can do. Hopefully when I move out soon I can control what is in the cupboard more and as such what I am eating and take meals with me to work as opposed to buying. I didn't realise Avacado was so calorie dense, I knew it had soem natural fat content which is ok but higher calories than expected.