Question of the day...How is it possible not to overestimate?

If I have a dish in front of me, I try to pick everything in the dish apart to figure out the points. For example if I am eating out and will have steamed vegetables and tofu in garlic sauce, the first thing I'll do is look at my portion size. Don't forget, when eating out, portion distortion is a huge issue. You can immediately slash away a ton of points by first having the correct portion. So, I know I am having steamed veggies, and steamed veggies are 0 WW pts. Next, I'll look at the tofu, at most, a 1/3c of regular, firm tofu has 2 WW pts. I'll add another 2 if this has been fried. Next, the garlic sauce, some restaurants completely drench their foods in sauce. One trick that I have for this is, order your food, but also order a small portion of steamed chicken and veggies, or just steamed chicken. Then take you portion of food, cut it in half, and add half of the steamed chicken or veggies, and mix to get the sauce coated on the steamed veggies. This way you get all the flavor and half the calories. So, a chinese take out with garlic sauce is 11 points. I would say give the garlic sauce a 5.5 WW pts value because, number one, you've taken your portion into consideration and two, you will not be overstimating by much, but rather be in a good ball park. All in all, I would say this meal would be around 7.5 WW pts. 9.5 if the tofu has been fried, but remember this is not including rice! So remember, just dissect your meal to figure out points, sometimes it can be tricky, but usually be in the ball park area.