Working out calories eating out i.e restaurants

petrinaradford

If you ate out, where the nutritional information wasn’t available, like eating at a restaurant/pub meal for example. Would you just roughly estimate the calories?

MikePTY

I try my best to match them to a chain restaurant item with a similar description. If not, I either estimate based off the items (if it is a simple enough plate of food, like grilled chicken with some rice and vegetables), adding a buffer for it being cooked in a restaurant. If not, I just do a rough quick add based off of my best guess from doing this for a year.

petrinaradford

Ok thanks for that

earlnabby

The more you weigh your food at home, the more accurately you can estimate when away from home.

I agree that you can get an idea for your dish by checking for something similar since so many chain restaurants (like Applebees and Panera) have nutritional information online. Also, don't be afraid to ask your server to check with the kitchen, especially if you are getting something like a burger, steak, or chicken breast. Most restaurants get their meat already portioned out by raw weight so you can find out if their burger is 1/2 lb. or 1/3 lb. or if the chicken breast is 8 oz or 6 oz. If you know the weight of the meat, you can often guesstimate the rest.

kimny72

petrinaradford wrote: »

If you ate out, where the nutritional information wasn’t available, like eating at a restaurant/pub meal for example. Would you just roughly estimate the calories?

There are two ways you can go:

1. Find another restaurant entry for the same dish and use that.
2. Deconstruct the meal in your head and try to log the individual items with estimated portion sizes. I like to do this sometimes as a challenge If you do this, always remember to log some extra oil or butter, because even if you don't specifically see it, that is almost always what makes restaurant food awesome. You might even actually eat slower and enjoy your food more as you're trying to accurately determine what's in there and how much!

As others said, the more experience you get, the easier this is. I am much better at eyeballing portions when I'm out after years of weighing out portions when I'm home.

Safari_Gal_

Hi @petrinaradford
Yes- I usually eat out 3-4 times a week- none of the restaurants I go to are chain restaurants. So I have to guesstimate a little. I also ask the server if it’s been cooked in butter or oil, etc so I add that too. I find that ordering simpler foods helps limit the ingredients. (i.e. Chicken breast instead of beef Wellington- but chefs are still sneaky! Lol)
I don’t have a scale while at a restaurant - so I overestimate a bit rather then underestimate the ounces. 🤷🏼‍♀️ it’s worked so far!

hmhill17

What I did last week at local Mexican place was eat half of it, because that was all I needed, weighed the other half, and guesstimated the amounts of chicken/beef/chorizo/cheese. I called it a close enough.
I also looked for a similar option in MFP and compared that to what I had come up with. Used the higher number.