Counting that MASSIVE meal out (1,914 calorie dinner)

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Hypsibius
Hypsibius Posts: 207 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So best friends are in from out of town, we decide (it's restaurant week) that we're going to go to our favorite Indian Restaurant. Of course eating out on a weekday goes against rules I've set in 2017 -- but it's a special occasion so what the hell.

For the day so far, I've had a cucumber/chicken salad and 20 grams of protein (about 546 cals).

For the dinner? My god. As you can expect it's all the favorites:
  1. Chicken Tikka Masala Entree
  2. Chicken Pakora appetizer
  3. Garlic naan
  4. 22oz beer
  5. Two samosas

The restaurant doesn't have nutrition information on the menu, so I go to this site this morning to find super rough equivalents and try to keep my logging for the week semi-accurate (I've been weighing food and tracking macros):

https://delishably.com/dining-out/How-Many-Calories-In-Indian-Food-Items-With-ChartList

Since I'm giving IIFYM a shot (a rather flexible / carb-cycling version of it) I plug those rough numbers into my sheet and:

Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%209.52.38%20AM.png?dl=0

My back-of-the-napkin calculations come to a 1,914 meal that runs straight over my target and barrels over my TDEE (Wow).

Then I remember most of these are rough averages anyway, including the TDEE and target.

Part of my goal with this entire operation is to develop some sense of control over dieting -- relinquish some of that obsessive "clean eating" mindset I get into for normalcy and, with all my progress (235lbs+ to 187lbs [height 6'1] in 6 months) avoid going out and then devolving into the old f**% it attitude that I know could get me back where I started in no time.

To make a long story short -- when things like this come up, do you try and track them using whatever method you can? Do you ignore it and just chalk it up to a "night off?" Do you over-compensate in the gym? Do you worry? I find I'm obsessing probably more than I should -- curious how other folks here manage it.
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Replies

  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    Options
    I've gone both ways, I've not bothered to account, and I've tried to guess. Trying to guess is a much better option. You can use it in a weekly average and know that it really won't do much harm in the long run.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I always go through the "I may as well not log it" thought process but in the end I do. We can have a surprisingly short memory, especially after a few days of being disciplined, and I check out my week view frequently to keep me in a broader understanding of how I'm doing.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    Hypsibius wrote: »
    To make a long story short -- when things like this come up, do you try and track them using whatever method you can? Do you ignore it and just chalk it up to a "night off?" Do you over-compensate in the gym? Do you worry? I find I'm obsessing probably more than I should -- curious how other folks here manage it.

    I sometimes track these sorts of events but really more out of interest than anything else. Like you, I enjoy a curry, so on the relatively rare occasions that we go out for a curry meal (all home made curries are tracked - and significantly lower fat than those bought as take-aways or at a restaurant), I'm most likely to say "*kitten* it, it's a night off" and throw a quick add of 2000 - 2500 cals into my diary as a marker only.

    On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Italian restaurants, so in that instance I would probably search the menu for something that was the least worst, log it as best as I could and attempt to manage my calories using the day before an day after to mitigate.

    Do I worry about it? - I try not to, but to be honest it depends on where I am with my body composition. If I'm attempting to lose fat because I have a holiday coming up I'm likely to be a little more concerned about it (probably not to the extent of worry) than if it's in the middle of a maintenance phase in the autumn.

    For what it's worth, I think logging, in your instance is a good idea and a learning point, but that yes, you probably are obsessing/stressing too much. Even on weight loss diet, a day over TDEE every now and then isn't going to cause much damage.

  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,572 Member
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    I track it to the best of my ability. Some meals I really eyeball everything down to the gram, add a tablespoon or two of oil and butter, etc. I like having data and usually a weekly average. I always have a high maintenance or surplus day even while losing weight anyway.

    Do I worry? Yes. Should we? Not too much, if you're generally on track, you'll maintain or still even lose a bit of weight that week.

    I do NOT make up for it with cardio in the gym. I use the food, as fuel, to enjoy a heaving lifting workout-sure. (Lifting in a surplus and maintenance is way more fun). I already don't like cardio, I don't want to punish myself further with it for one heavy meal. (A week of heavy eating, I'll hop on a bike or take a class, sure).

  • SafioraLinnea
    SafioraLinnea Posts: 628 Member
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    I track it the best I can and try to do better next time by having a general idea of how much each item is calorically before it enters my mouth.
  • InkAndApples
    InkAndApples Posts: 201 Member
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    I always always log, because why use the tool if you're not going to use it properly? That's probably the scientist in me. I just log and move on. Tbh I've not had many days like that that can't be fit into my weekly allowance.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    Go to dinner, enjoy the food and time spent with good company. Wake up tomorrow and go about your day without any thoughts to the calories in last night's meal. Continue on the good path that you were on before dinner.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    Hypsibius wrote: »
    So best friends are in from out of town, we decide (it's restaurant week) that we're going to go to our favorite Indian Restaurant. Of course eating out on a weekday goes against rules I've set in 2017 -- but it's a special occasion so what the hell.

    For the day so far, I've had a cucumber/chicken salad and 20 grams of protein (about 546 cals).

    For the dinner? My god. As you can expect it's all the favorites:
    1. Chicken Tikka Masala Entree
    2. Chicken Pakora appetizer
    3. Garlic naan
    4. 22oz beer
    5. Two samosas

    The restaurant doesn't have nutrition information on the menu, so I go to this site this morning to find super rough equivalents and try to keep my logging for the week semi-accurate (I've been weighing food and tracking macros):

    https://delishably.com/dining-out/How-Many-Calories-In-Indian-Food-Items-With-ChartList

    Since I'm giving IIFYM a shot (a rather flexible / carb-cycling version of it) I plug those rough numbers into my sheet and:

    Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%209.52.38%20AM.png?dl=0

    My back-of-the-napkin calculations come to a 1,914 meal that runs straight over my target and barrels over my TDEE (Wow).

    Then I remember most of these are rough averages anyway, including the TDEE and target.

    Part of my goal with this entire operation is to develop some sense of control over dieting -- relinquish some of that obsessive "clean eating" mindset I get into for normalcy and, with all my progress (235lbs+ to 187lbs [height 6'1] in 6 months) avoid going out and then devolving into the old f**% it attitude that I know could get me back where I started in no time.

    To make a long story short -- when things like this come up, do you try and track them using whatever method you can? Do you ignore it and just chalk it up to a "night off?" Do you over-compensate in the gym? Do you worry? I find I'm obsessing probably more than I should -- curious how other folks here manage it.
    This really just depends on how often you aren't being strict with counting and how extreme your goals are. If your goal is a bodybuilding competition with a specific date and you eat out 3 times a week, you need to overestimate calories consumed and if you go over your goal you need to "make up" for it by eating less then next couple of days (and probably shouldn't be eating out that often in the first place). If your goal is to simply "be healthy" or "get fit" or "obtain a proper weight for height) and you have no time limit and you eat out once a month, I'm very much in favor of just enjoying yourself, not counting at all, and getting right back on track the next day. I would venture a guess that most people have goals that fall somewhere in between my examples. You may eat out more than once a month and you might have more specific goals and some kind of a timeframe you want them completed in.

    So how you handle it really depends completely on your goals and frequency of consuming food you can't log accurately. If the restaurant has nutritional information and I "trust" it's accuracy I don't count that as "eating out" because I can account for it pretty accurately. What do I mean by trust? Chipotle and subway both have nutritional information for their food. A Chipotle burrito can be much larger or smaller depending on who makes it, by a long shot, and that can really alter the nutritional content a heavy hand on the steak or sour cream and add 100's of calories. Subway on the other hand is extremely consistent. No matter what city I'm in and who makes my sub they literally count the same number of the exact same size meats, cheeses, and put it on the exact same bread. The only part that every changes is the vegetables and those calories are nominal. It's a shame but calorically speaking, McDonald's is probably more trustworthy than somewhere like Olive Garden. A big mac is a big mac all around the country but a chef who's a bit heavy on the olive oil or gives you a bit more pasta than usual can alter the calories quite a bit.

    I personally handle this by just not eating at out at places that I cannot trust the accuracy of all that often. At this point in life I've lost all the fat I need to in order to be healthy and my goals are vanity based. I never plan to compete so my goals essentially have no timeline other than arbitrary ones I create for myself. For these reasons I can be fairly laxed when I do decide to eat food I can't accurately count. Yesterday for an example, I ate at a local Mexican restaurant, had fajitas, and some number of chips with salsa. I could have found nutritional information from somewhere for roughly what I ate, added maybe 15% to the calories to be "safe" and logged it all but instead I just enjoyed myself knowing that I probably was a bit over maintenance calories. I won't do this again for a while and I know that I will have no trouble returning to my normal routine today (500 calorie deficit at the moment). Now if you are the type of person that as soon as you stop counting you tend to gorge (way above maintenance) and that spills over into the next day/week/month, you need to work on correcting that behavior first before you can become more lax with your counting. In that case I would try and log as close as possible and makeup for exceeding your limit by slightly reducing calories over the next several days. I do not personally recommend "paying back" 100% of those calories the very next day. This can lead to a binge/restrict style of eating that generally isn't a good thing. If you were over by only a small amount then how you proceed is up to you, there's really little harm in just chalking it up as a small loss and proceeding as normal providing you are able to do that mentally.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Options
    I track everything, even if I have to do a rough estimate. If it winds up being more than I planned, I will make an effort to balance it out for the week by eating a bit less each day.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    edited July 2017
    Options
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »
    Hypsibius wrote: »
    So best friends are in from out of town, we decide (it's restaurant week) that we're going to go to our favorite Indian Restaurant. Of course eating out on a weekday goes against rules I've set in 2017 -- but it's a special occasion so what the hell.

    For the day so far, I've had a cucumber/chicken salad and 20 grams of protein (about 546 cals).

    For the dinner? My god. As you can expect it's all the favorites:
    1. Chicken Tikka Masala Entree
    2. Chicken Pakora appetizer
    3. Garlic naan
    4. 22oz beer
    5. Two samosas

    The restaurant doesn't have nutrition information on the menu, so I go to this site this morning to find super rough equivalents and try to keep my logging for the week semi-accurate (I've been weighing food and tracking macros):

    https://delishably.com/dining-out/How-Many-Calories-In-Indian-Food-Items-With-ChartList

    Since I'm giving IIFYM a shot (a rather flexible / carb-cycling version of it) I plug those rough numbers into my sheet and:

    Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%209.52.38%20AM.png?dl=0

    My back-of-the-napkin calculations come to a 1,914 meal that runs straight over my target and barrels over my TDEE (Wow).

    Then I remember most of these are rough averages anyway, including the TDEE and target.

    Part of my goal with this entire operation is to develop some sense of control over dieting -- relinquish some of that obsessive "clean eating" mindset I get into for normalcy and, with all my progress (235lbs+ to 187lbs [height 6'1] in 6 months) avoid going out and then devolving into the old f**% it attitude that I know could get me back where I started in no time.

    To make a long story short -- when things like this come up, do you try and track them using whatever method you can? Do you ignore it and just chalk it up to a "night off?" Do you over-compensate in the gym? Do you worry? I find I'm obsessing probably more than I should -- curious how other folks here manage it.

    I don't do it. I don't eat that much in a DAY, much less one meal. If I were to foolishly eat too much, I would certainly track it. And yes I would try to get in more exercise that week, for sure.

    I think it is a bit rude to write "foolishly eat that much". Many of us enjoy a delicious dinner out once in awhile, WHILE losing weight, while staying fit too. Track it or not. Extra exercise or not.

    Perhaps rude to write it out loud, but I don't think it's any different from anyone else having an opinion on anything around here. And I can certainly understand the perspective.

    For me, the meal the OP is planning, in combination with what they've had already that day, is only ~200 calories sort of my TDEE from Sunday, when I ran a half marathon: AKA, when I had a heck of a huge calorie burner. I can't even fathom being able to eat a meal that large and not having some serious regret over it.

    I don't know that *I* would actually say "foolishly eat that much" out loud, but I'd certainly think it.
  • cs2thecox
    cs2thecox Posts: 533 Member
    Options
    Log it but don't feel guilty. Life's too short.

    But it is better to log it and be honest with yourself, than not log it and kid yourself that a half-logged day meant you were good!
    I find that honest logging helps me to make better choices if, for example, I'm faced with multiple meals out in the same week. If I went all out and had the burger at the pub last night (I did), then I'll choose the sea bass and veggies at my work lunch today (I also did that).
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    Options
    That sounds delicious. I take one night off a week and between alcohol and snacking could certainly hit that many calories in an evening. I've gotten into the habit of taking pictures of my food and then estimating as best I can the next day. That way I'm still keeping track, but I'm not sitting there estimating calories in the middle of game night.
  • Hypsibius
    Hypsibius Posts: 207 Member
    Options
    vismal wrote: »
    Hypsibius wrote: »
    So best friends are in from out of town, we decide (it's restaurant week) that we're going to go to our favorite Indian Restaurant. Of course eating out on a weekday goes against rules I've set in 2017 -- but it's a special occasion so what the hell.

    For the day so far, I've had a cucumber/chicken salad and 20 grams of protein (about 546 cals).

    For the dinner? My god. As you can expect it's all the favorites:
    1. Chicken Tikka Masala Entree
    2. Chicken Pakora appetizer
    3. Garlic naan
    4. 22oz beer
    5. Two samosas

    The restaurant doesn't have nutrition information on the menu, so I go to this site this morning to find super rough equivalents and try to keep my logging for the week semi-accurate (I've been weighing food and tracking macros):

    https://delishably.com/dining-out/How-Many-Calories-In-Indian-Food-Items-With-ChartList

    Since I'm giving IIFYM a shot (a rather flexible / carb-cycling version of it) I plug those rough numbers into my sheet and:

    Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%209.52.38%20AM.png?dl=0

    My back-of-the-napkin calculations come to a 1,914 meal that runs straight over my target and barrels over my TDEE (Wow).

    Then I remember most of these are rough averages anyway, including the TDEE and target.

    Part of my goal with this entire operation is to develop some sense of control over dieting -- relinquish some of that obsessive "clean eating" mindset I get into for normalcy and, with all my progress (235lbs+ to 187lbs [height 6'1] in 6 months) avoid going out and then devolving into the old f**% it attitude that I know could get me back where I started in no time.

    To make a long story short -- when things like this come up, do you try and track them using whatever method you can? Do you ignore it and just chalk it up to a "night off?" Do you over-compensate in the gym? Do you worry? I find I'm obsessing probably more than I should -- curious how other folks here manage it.
    This really just depends on how often you aren't being strict with counting and how extreme your goals are. If your goal is a bodybuilding competition with a specific date and you eat out 3 times a week, you need to overestimate calories consumed and if you go over your goal you need to "make up" for it by eating less then next couple of days (and probably shouldn't be eating out that often in the first place). If your goal is to simply "be healthy" or "get fit" or "obtain a proper weight for height) and you have no time limit and you eat out once a month, I'm very much in favor of just enjoying yourself, not counting at all, and getting right back on track the next day. I would venture a guess that most people have goals that fall somewhere in between my examples. You may eat out more than once a month and you might have more specific goals and some kind of a timeframe you want them completed in.

    So how you handle it really depends completely on your goals and frequency of consuming food you can't log accurately. If the restaurant has nutritional information and I "trust" it's accuracy I don't count that as "eating out" because I can account for it pretty accurately. What do I mean by trust? Chipotle and subway both have nutritional information for their food. A Chipotle burrito can be much larger or smaller depending on who makes it, by a long shot, and that can really alter the nutritional content a heavy hand on the steak or sour cream and add 100's of calories. Subway on the other hand is extremely consistent. No matter what city I'm in and who makes my sub they literally count the same number of the exact same size meats, cheeses, and put it on the exact same bread. The only part that every changes is the vegetables and those calories are nominal. It's a shame but calorically speaking, McDonald's is probably more trustworthy than somewhere like Olive Garden. A big mac is a big mac all around the country but a chef who's a bit heavy on the olive oil or gives you a bit more pasta than usual can alter the calories quite a bit.

    I personally handle this by just not eating at out at places that I cannot trust the accuracy of all that often. At this point in life I've lost all the fat I need to in order to be healthy and my goals are vanity based. I never plan to compete so my goals essentially have no timeline other than arbitrary ones I create for myself. For these reasons I can be fairly laxed when I do decide to eat food I can't accurately count. Yesterday for an example, I ate at a local Mexican restaurant, had fajitas, and some number of chips with salsa. I could have found nutritional information from somewhere for roughly what I ate, added maybe 15% to the calories to be "safe" and logged it all but instead I just enjoyed myself knowing that I probably was a bit over maintenance calories. I won't do this again for a while and I know that I will have no trouble returning to my normal routine today (500 calorie deficit at the moment). Now if you are the type of person that as soon as you stop counting you tend to gorge (way above maintenance) and that spills over into the next day/week/month, you need to work on correcting that behavior first before you can become more lax with your counting. In that case I would try and log as close as possible and makeup for exceeding your limit by slightly reducing calories over the next several days. I do not personally recommend "paying back" 100% of those calories the very next day. This can lead to a binge/restrict style of eating that generally isn't a good thing. If you were over by only a small amount then how you proceed is up to you, there's really little harm in just chalking it up as a small loss and proceeding as normal providing you are able to do that mentally.

    Thanks, I see your posts on MFP a lot and they're very thoughtful/helpful.

    The truth is that I have no idea what my goals are at the moment. I'll never be a competition person. I actually hit my first major goal (target weight = healthy BMI) and now I'm just shifting the goal post to be more fit, do more pullups, etc.. but it's kind of a general "be healthy" thing.

    Thinking of starting a Crossfit program.

    But other than that, I think I need to recalibrate and think through goals carefully.

  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    Options
    Hypsibius wrote: »
    collectingblues wrote: »

    Perhaps rude to write it out loud, but I don't think it's any different from anyone else having an opinion on anything around here. And I can certainly understand the perspective.

    For me, the meal the OP is planning, in combination with what they've had already that day, is only ~200 calories sort of my TDEE from Sunday, when I ran a half marathon: AKA, when I had a heck of a huge calorie burner. I can't even fathom being able to eat a meal that large and not having some serious regret over it.

    I don't know that *I* would actually say "foolishly eat that much" out loud, but I'd certainly think it.

    I wasn't offended :). A 6'1 male doing Insanity and weight training has a different TDEE than someone else might.

    Very true. And I did just catch who the commenter was on "foolishly eating that much." Let's just say that... yeah. They have a different way with words and perception than I do.

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