How many calories are in that meal? =o

EDIT: Wow my question must've been too confusing for people to understand xD

Ok I'll put it simply:

How do you guys know how many calories are in a meal that doesn't have the calories that come with it?

e.g. home-cooked food by your parents or going out to a restaurant.

Its hard for me to know because I don't know how the foods prepared, so I just estimate every dinner meal to be 800cals unless its obviously not. But sometimes when I do that, I end up overestimating, and I have to stuff myself after dinner to make sure I reach my cal goal for the day...

you really dont know. cause if they prepare it with oil or butter it adds a lot of calories and fat.. lots of little things you dont notice :]

for things like that, I usually just look at the meal and estimate the smaller parts of it, then add them all up. Like if there is meat, I would estimate how many ounces on my plate. Any veggies, same thing, guess at how many ounces there are. Do that for the whole dish or dinner and then add them all up. It won't be totally accurate but gives a good idea, and probably better than just assigning a calorie number to the whole dinner or meal. I also just leave the oil or butter calories off my list... seeing as how we're all trying to gain anyways, leaving oil off only helps to make us eat a bit more :)

I wish I knew the rough estimate of the weight of something. But I don't xD I wouldn't know how many grams a piece of steak weighed, or definitely how much rice on my plate would weigh. I know assigning a number is not good, but then the calorie value of that meal would always be an unknown mystery...

this is what i learned in my courses....

A closed fist is about the size of 1 cup. Therefore, a fist-size portion of pasta or potato would be equal to 2 carbs (1/2 cup of cooked pasta or potato equals 1 carbohydrate choice), one fist-size portion of cooked rice would be equal to 3 carbs (1/3 cup cooked rice equals 1 carbohydrate choice). A fist-size portion of strawberries would be equal to 1 carb (1 cup of strawberries equals 1 carbohydrate choice), and so forth. A fist size portion of salad greens would be 1 cup or 1 serving (vegetable).

Your thumb is about one ounce of cheese or one tablespoon of salad dressing or peanut butter. Your thumb tip is about one teaspoon--use this for determining the size of fats, such as butter, margarine, mayonnaise, or oil.

You can also use inanimate objects to estimate serving portions. A serving of cereal is not whatever fits in your cereal bowl-1 ounce of cereal (1 serving) is the size of a tennis ball. A computer mouse is the size of a medium 5-ounce (150 g) potato that's equivalent to 2 carbs and a small bar of soap is the size of a 3 to 4 (90 to 120 g) ounce serving of chicken, fish, or meat. If your meal plan calls for 1 ounce of cheese, that's the size of four dice. If you're eating spaghetti, 1 serving (1/2 cup or 1 carb) portion would be about 32 strands. A hockey puck is about the size of a 3-ounce (90 g) bagel (1 serving or 1 carbohydrate).

Wow thanks dana, you must be an expert in portion sizes xD I'll try and remember that. The only bad thing is that my hands are tiny so I think it'll distort everything. (especially the thumb sizes lol)

But I wouldn't be able to estimate how much cereal is the size of a tennis ball, because the cereal doesn't exactly look like a ball? lol. But I weigh my cereal anyway so I don't have to estimate for that. I still haven't overcome my fear of pasta yet, but when I do, I hope I won't be counting strands haha.

Thanks so much Dana! It was very helpful ^^

thanks... ill thank college loans:)