Planning a Night Out

hwkengr

My wife and I have plans to go out with some friends on Saturday night. Looking for some advice on how to plan for dinner at a restaurant and a few drinks. I'll definitely limit calories that day and try to exercise as well, but didn't know if there are tricks to having an enjoyable night out without going way over my calorie goal.

kgirlhart

If you can look up the menu online and decide ahead of time what you will order. And decide how many drinks you will have. We eat out pretty regularly and it is possible to eat out and stay in your calorie goal. I also try to make sure I get in some exercise that day and if you want to cut a couple of hundred calories on Thursday and Friday then if you go over a little on Saturday you still are in your deficit for the week. I think the best thing is to pick what you will have and log it ahead of time. And if I go to a restaurant that doesn't have nutrition info available then I pick menu items from a similar chain restaurant and use that information. It is guessing but so far I'm still losing as expected, so it does work.

hhazzouri

Grilled chicken and a side of veggies never failed me before

hwkengr

That all makes sense. I was thinking about "banking" some calories or trying to make up for them after the fact, but since MFP doesn't have such a feature, I didn't know if that was recommended.

laur357

Look at a menu, plan and pre-log. Look for comparable chain restaurant meals if you're going to a local place without nutrition information.

I save some of my weekly exercise calories to eat on the weekends or special occasions.

I_amnr

if I can find similar components of the dish in the database I add them in.. I always try and pick the version with the highest amount of calories so I don't under estimate

if its a food that is hard to estimate I just log 800 to 1000 calories.. when I eat out I generally don't hold out since the occasions are few and far between