I am going for chinese for dinner tonight. It is my cheat night so no big deal. I don't want to try and figure it out EXACTLY but want a rough estimate for my fit day.

I am doing the smorgaus (sp?) board, and will prob eat 1-1.5 plates with a little of everything. Usually a bit of rice, chow mein, couple deep fried chicken balls, TONS of shrimp, some sort of veggies and bit of won ton soup.

For an estimate of calories, so 1200 sound good? too high? too low?

I am so bad an estimating calories....

It sounds WAY too low.

You could try looking at colorieking.com...even though you will not get a full serving of everything, it could give you an idea. I am bad too about calories with eating out. There is a thai place i go and i have NO IDEA what the cals are in the meal i eat. Bums me out...like you, i just want to know an estimate.

I did look at some things, like a cup of rice is 230 and a cup of chow mein is 380, etc (I dont usually eat any more then a cup of anything, if anything I eat less). I think if I make my estimite 1500 it will be too high but at least I will be safe And I will try and stay away from anything deep fried... haha, thats pretty easy tho, except those tastey chicken balls, I LOVE THEM!

When I read this post I remembered an article I had recently read and tracked it down. It discusses Chinese food and the calories and fat in different types of Chinese food. Hopefully it will help you next time you go to the buffet.
http://www.ediets.com/news/article.c..._2364003/cid_1

ah yes.... westernized chinese food..... tasty, but evil! i think about 1500 calories is probably about right, but DH and I do not eat out for chinese much (actually we eat a lot of Chinese, but mostly cook it ourselves) and as such I am really haven't looked at what take out chinese is like for calories. I think noodles and anything with sweet and sour sauce in restaurants tend to be worst.

but, there's nothing like sweet and sour chicken balls for me....

except wonton soup, but i like mine better than any i have found in a restarant so far

here is a listing i found of the "nutritional" information for common chinese restaurant foods...

http://www.healthyweightforum.org/en..._chinese_food/