Food Scale in Restaurant?

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  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    seska422 wrote: »
    Jruzer wrote: »
    No. You don't have enough control over everything else: amount of oil or butter or sugar used, kinds of ingredients, etc. Estimate calories and move on.
    This.

    Weighing food only works when you know what you are weighing.

    QFT.
  • MsJulesRenee
    MsJulesRenee Posts: 1,180 Member
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    From experience of working in a restaurant I have to agree with the above. Some cooks use a huge slab of butter to fry your omelette, some only use a little. Your grilled chicken is being cooked on the same stove top they use to grill hamburgers. The calories can be any number!
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,651 Member
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    I wouldn't take one to a more upscale restaurant but I totally would to a fast food joint if I still took the time to sit down and eat at one. I was such a regular at Burger King that they would often give me extra helpings of grilled chicken instead of the normal serving.

    Otherwise, I just trust the nutritional information from said restaurants and, if you *really* feel the need to weigh, eat half your meal and take the rest home. Plus, even if you don't know exactly what goes into a recipe, they'll usually tell you any kind of sauces used so that would help.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    If you feel anxiety about just guessing and estimating for the occasional meal out, you have a kind of orthorexia.
  • cortesd
    cortesd Posts: 58 Member
    edited November 2015
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    senecarr wrote: »
    If you feel anxiety about just guessing and estimating for the occasional meal out, you have a kind of orthorexia.

    Nothing as serious as that. I was just wondering if anyone has actually done it. I'm fine with guestimating and planning ahead the best I can without losing sleep or adding more gray hairs!
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
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    I have a very small one (a jeweler's scale, I think) that I keep with me mostly to use at work, but, in VERY specific circumstances, I have busted it out in a restaurant a couple times. I would never do it while dining with anyone didn't know VERY well, and as others have said, it's not worth it for most foods, but despite the fact that I can estimate a chicken breast +/- 3 grams I am downright TERRIBLE at estimating bread, so if I can do it extremely discreetly I might weigh out my portion of the bread basket. But I don't get worked up over it.
  • Muzzoozal
    Muzzoozal Posts: 33 Member
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    I automatically ask for a doggie bag and1/2my meal from the start - you can take the other1/2home and weigh it or some restaurants give a calorie count and you can decide beforehand. If you're good at eyeing portions that can help also. You can get a good estimate even if you don't know all the ingredients and taking a walk after dinning can help also.
  • kellyjellybellyjelly
    kellyjellybellyjelly Posts: 9,480 Member
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    Jruzer wrote: »
    No. You don't have enough control over everything else: amount of oil or butter or sugar used, kinds of ingredients, etc. Estimate calories and move on.

    This!
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    no, when I go out it is to enjoy a nice meal and not worry about weighing it out. Besides, even if you could weigh it out it would not be accurate as you have no idea what they are putting in the sauce, etc, that is included with the meal.

    Just go out and enjoy a nice dinner from time to time. Part of the new lifestyle is learning that you cannot be 100% accurate all the time.

    &

    This!
  • elite_nal
    elite_nal Posts: 127 Member
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    Just guesstimate :)
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    The prep cooks and cooks in restaurants actually use food scales ,usually weights in ounces, when they prepare the food portions. Weighing out food portions is an important part of controlling food costs and most cooks take it seriously. Recipes usually call for very specific weights and measurements for preparing a dish. You might be able to ask them to give you weights of the portions they use if you ask. You might not be given every ingredient due to their not wanting you to copy recipes but you won't need to know about herbs and spices anyway.

    If you are polite and treat your server right and are not there during a big rush they may be perfectly happy to accommodate your odd request.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    Restaurant cooks use food scales to prepare your meal. If you ask nicely ,and the place isn't totally weeded, you might be able to get the information you need from your server.
  • Strawblackcat
    Strawblackcat Posts: 944 Member
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    No. You don't know how much butter or oil went into the dish, so you could still be way off, even if you do weigh the food. 3 oz of chicken breast could have been fried in 2 tablespoons of oil that you weren't aware of, which would bring the chicken you're eating to 3X the amount of calories that you thought you were getting. I just guesstimate what's on my plate, leave 25% of my meal behind (restaurant portions are so huge that this isn't much of a problem anyway -- I still leave full) an call it even. I don't eat out much, so one nice meal can't do but so much damage in the first place.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    Learn to eyeball things. What does 4 or 6 or 8 oz of chicken look like once it's cooked, against your hand? Pay attention to this when you're weighing stuff at home.

    Assume anything with a sauce is calorific. Probably most potatoes, pasta etc too (unless you go for e.g. al olio pasta). Find some existing high-balling entries in the DB and log that.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    Oh do I do that, no way. I have deconstructed 2-3 meals I often have and built them up piece by piece for an MFP meal, though. It's stuff I get fairly often, like burritos from a particular nearby place, so it's worth the effort to me. Otherwise no chance, much easier to find something comparable and guess on the high end.
  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
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    Once you've been weighing long enough you'll get good at estimating what you've eaten. I just try to estimate high.
  • patrikc333
    patrikc333 Posts: 436 Member
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    no but I wish I could

    or better, I wish there were nutritional info everywhere, I think it should be fair
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
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    No, maybe if I was prepping for a show or something and it was close to the date though.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
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    LolBroScience wrote: »
    No, maybe if I was prepping for a show or something and it was close to the date though.

    When I worked at a steakhouse I used to occasionally get bodybuilder competitors in for a preshow meal and they were super specific about what they wanted - usually a steak of a specific size with no oil or butter, a precise portion of carb, and a small (3-4 oz) pour of red wine (I guess it's "drying"?) We'd weigh it all before sending it out and it was never a problem as they were nice enough to come before or after the dinner rush.

    I've never seen anyone bring a scale into a restaurant, even those guys, and I agree with the majority that it's pretty pointless as you can never know exact quantities of ingredients and/or how things were cooked.

    I choose restaurants with nutritional information available when I can, and when I can't I find something similar in the database and add a couple hundred extra calories of cushion.

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