Eating out

Conspiracy19

I went out shopping today with my parents and we went into a café. I had a small roast dinner with gravy, beef, cabbage, peas, roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding. I just have no idea how many calories that come to. I just added "homemade roast beef dinner" on using the app. According to that it was 700 calories but God knows what it really was What do you do when you eat out?

azucker88

I look at all the options they have, then I determine by how much I ate the accuracy, or I enter each part in separately so like chicken, salad, peas, beans, and I guess about how much was added. I guess higher, some places have a health and nutrition guide for their dishes

kami3006

If they have an online menu with nutrition values, then I preplan. If not, then I just estimate as closely as possible.

slucki01

I do my best to guestimate -- and try to guess on the high side. I also probably would not have had the gravy or the yorkshire pudding because I don't need to look them up to know how high the calories would be. Unless your dinner was tiny portions, I'd guess it was more than 700 calories

Francl27

Typically I just estimate everything separately - so meat, cabbage etc.

jay8anks

Just do your best guess. I lost 75 pounds and ate out at lunch almost five days a week (because we travel a lot at work). I know the best things to get at almost any fast food place. But the meals like you mentioned are the hardest to calculate. Not impossible, though. Just get as close as you can and don't sweat it.

FatFreeFrolicking

Conspiracy19 wrote: »

I went out shopping today with my parents and we went into a café. I had a small roast dinner with gravy, beef, cabbage, peas, roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding. I just have no idea how many calories that come to. I just added "homemade roast beef dinner" on using the app. According to that it was 700 calories but God knows what it really was What do you do when you eat out?

I definitely think the dinner was way more than 700 calories. Gravy can be high calorie, beef is high calorie, and potatoes are high calorie at restaurants because they add a lot of stuff to them.

Beef- Depending on the portion and percentage of fat, I'd say 250 calories
Gravy- 150 calories
Cabbage- 50 calories
Peas- 100 calories
Roast potatoes- 300 (restaurants drench these in oil and butter and who knows what else)
Yorkshire pudding- 200 calories

Total= 1050 calories

When I'm eating at a restaurant, I usually choose a lean meat like chicken or turkey. I avoid gravies, dressings like Ranch and Blue Cheese and anything with the word 'creamy' before it (I stick to vinaigrettes). I pick ONE source of carb (because I have hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels) which causes hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)). I fill up on non-starchy veggies like asparagus, green beans, broccoli, etc. Peas are a starchy vegetable, just so you know.

Francl27

The beef could easily be 500 calories too, depending on what size it was.

senecarr

I'd just accept it isn't going to be accurate. It is already eaten, the body is going to record the calories 100% accurately whether the MFP journal reflects that or not. The noise in your diet isn't going to matter so long as the regular signal is strong.

Conspiracy19

FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »

Conspiracy19 wrote: »

I went out shopping today with my parents and we went into a café. I had a small roast dinner with gravy, beef, cabbage, peas, roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding. I just have no idea how many calories that come to. I just added "homemade roast beef dinner" on using the app. According to that it was 700 calories but God knows what it really was What do you do when you eat out?

I definitely think the dinner was way more than 700 calories. Gravy can be high calorie, beef is high calorie, and potatoes are high calorie at restaurants because they add a lot of stuff to them.

Beef- Depending on the portion and percentage of fat, I'd say 250 calories
Gravy- 150 calories
Cabbage- 50 calories
Peas- 100 calories
Roast potatoes- 300 (restaurants drench these in oil and butter and who knows what else)
Yorkshire pudding- 200 calories

Total= 1050 calories

When I'm eating at a restaurant, I usually choose a lean meat like chicken or turkey. I avoid gravies, dressings like Ranch and Blue Cheese and anything with the word 'creamy' before it (I stick to vinaigrettes). I pick ONE source of carb (because I have hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels) which causes hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)). I fill up on non-starchy veggies like asparagus, green beans, broccoli, etc. Peas are a starchy vegetable, just so you know.

Ouch I suppose I did burn about 300+ calories walking around yesterday and I had 300 calories left on so it kind of evens itself out.