Restaurant logging

alkues

I was hoping some folks could share any tips/tricks for how they log meals when they eat out. How do you get it the most accurate? How do you enjoy a meal out while staying within your calorie range?

COGypsy

You're never going to be entirely accurate if you're eating food someone else made. However, there are a few options. Some places have nutrition info online, and some of those also have the ability to customize the nutrition to your actual order (think Starbucks and Chipotle-type places). Since a great many chain restaurants have entries in MFP, your best bet is to look up a similar dish from a chain and use that entry.

As far as enjoying a meal out...I do that several times a week. I don't cook, so restaurant meals are a huge part of my diet. I distilled eating out to a few rules that I stick to and find it pretty easy to maintain my weight that way. I've been maintaining for a while now, but I'm sure it would be easy to tweak for weight loss.

My first rule is that dinner out is just dinner. By that I mean not every meal out is a 4-course celebration with drinks and apps and dessert. I stick to an entree and maybe one drink and skip the rest. I do take a bite or two if apps are ordered for the table, but never order one for myself alone.

My second rule is eat half. Virtually every meal out, I only eat a half or sometimes a third, depending on how "healthy" the portions are. Some people box up half when the meal begins, but I'm so used to it now I just eat what I plan to and leave the rest until after the meal.

My third rule is make the best choices you can. Things like skip the fries and get the steamed vegetables or fajitas instead of a fried burrito or a leaner protein...that kind of thing.

Following these has made the biggest difference in balancing out the caloric effects of restaurant food. It's not a perfect system, but it's proven pretty workable for me!

AnnPT77

It can help to review the menu (if it's online) before I get to the restaurant, and plan ahead for what I want. Making a calm decision at home with plenty of time often leads to better choices than impulses when rushed at the restaurant.

Many people don't realize that a lot of restaurants (including fast-food places) will modify things that are on the menu. Some of the fast-food places may even have options that don't appear on the menu board, but that are on their online site. At a sit-down table-service restaurant, sometimes you can order a dish without the sauce (or on the side), or with different than the default add-ons (it makes a difference whether it's something they make up in advance or not). In some places, they'll make a plate of the veggie sides to eat as an entree, if that appeals to you. Ask politely, and tip generously if your server is extra helpful (and only if you're in a country where servers are tipped, of course).

As far as estimating, your options are to
* log it as a similar dish from a chain restaurant,
* log it as a (what looks like) home-made thing in the MFP database that has calories on the high side (since a lot of homemade entries in the database are way lower than how a restaurant would usually make a dish),
* break down the food into components and log those (i.e., instead of ham sandwich log 2 slices thick-cut whole-grain bread, 2 ounces of swiss cheese, 2 tablespoons mayo, etc., based on your best guesses.

As you get more practice logging at home, you'll get better at estimating quantities.

Often with estimating restaurant meals, I'll log an extra tablespoon or two of oil or butter, because they often use a lot. Use your judgement.

Sometimes, if and only if it would be polite, I'll take a quick phone photo of my plate (no flash!) with something standard-sized like a table fork in the photo for scale. (Can use a polite excuse like "it looks so good I want a photo" or something. I don't like to discuss my weight loss efforts with anyone because it starts unwanted conversations IME.)

Overall, give yourself some grace, and don't obsess about this. Do try to remember what you had if you can't log politely at the time of the meal, and do estimate/log the food eventually, but just make your best effort in a reasonable amount of time, and then move on with life. You'll get better at it with practice, and it would be a Bad Thing to let precision with this get you to a point where you don't want to go out with friends and such, y'know?

If you don't eat out often, being imprecise on the rare meal is no big deal (drop in the ocean); and if you eat out often, your skill at this will improve pretty quickly, so there's no need to feel stress over it either way.

Rockmama1111

I watch what I eat but eat what I want and do a good-faith estimate as soon as I can log it. I have cut down on dining out for sure, but it’s too fun to give up!

nossmf

A few things beyond the above...

First, I only drink water when I dine out at a sit-down place. This is in part to save calories, part to save money, and part simply because restaurants do their own mixing of ingredients, and it's often not done all that well IMHO, especially sodas where the ratio of syrup to sparkling water is off. Let me just drink water. (Exceptions for a single glass of wine at my wife's favorite Italian place, and the sweet tea served at my preferred steak house.)

Second, the highest calories IME come when food is fried or when there's a heavy sauce, especially cheese-based or most salad dressings. Almost invariably there's an option for baked/grilled instead of fried, you can ask for "light" helpings of sauce or dressing, or put into a dipping cup on the side instead of smothered across. Personally, I've come to prefer my salads without any dressing at all; I can actually taste the various ingredients, and saves a ton of calories.

If I know I'm eating out ahead of time (say date night with my wife), I'll plan ahead and eat low-calorie options during the rest of the day, saving calories for that night. I may eat lighter during the week leading up, as well.

If I'm out with my wife, we'll split a single dessert, if we have dessert at all. At the end of date night, it's romantic for us to be huddling close over the same dish, each of us taking turns spooning up a portion for the other to enjoy. (We sometimes ask the waiter to split a dessert into two separate plates/cups if we want to instead sit back and enjoy.)

Many sit-down restaurants serve different sized portions whether it's lunch or dinner. Usually you can ask for the lunch portion at dinner, which can be anywhere from 10%-50% smaller. (Alas, I cannot ask for the larger dinner portion at lunchtime.)

penguinmama87

For me, eating at a restaurant is a rare enough occurrence that I enjoy myself and don't stick to low(er) calorie foods and options. I will bank calories ahead so I have them to "spend," but also don't panic if I happen to go over. I find similar items in the database and have go-tos for various cuisines (favorite date night spots, heh.)

If I have absolutely no idea or find the idea of logging every single thing just too tedious, I just quick-add 1200 calories. I wouldn't if I was going out to eat all the time, but it has worked well enough for my purposes in the past.

SafariGalNYC

I eat out 3-4 times a week at least and none of the restaurants I go to in NYC have calories posted. (Not sure I’ve ever seen calories posted at a restaurant honestly..)

I guesstimate as well as I can. I also ask the food server questions if needed.. ie was this cooked in oil? that helps.

Also - many of the logging tips @AnnPT77 had were great!

TeresaWJ

A good on-line tool to reference values for restaurant foods is
https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/foods/c/calories-in-fast-foods-fair-foods-eating-out-restaurants/O3wZwU8oQt2Mv66PkrT0MQ
Not all restaurants are included but it's a start.
I have always found servers to be very helpful in selecting alternative foods.
"Dietary restrictions for health reasons" works like a charm.

alkues

Thank you all for giving such in depth advice! Everything I've read in this thread has been incredibly helpful. Eating out is feeling a little less daunting! I meal plan for the week but many times weekends end up being food on the fly (kids are in so many activities!!). Plus, I've been wanting to get a sitter and check out a new restaurant and I don't want to be obsessed with calories.

mrsmeteor

Most of the big chains have their nutritional info online so you can plan before you even get there. With independent restaurants you could try deconstructing your meal into it's individual parts and logging each one separately, or looking for a similar entry in the database; it's never going to be exactly right.

As far as staying within your calories, lots of places have "light" menus (means different things to different restaurants, so YMMV). Also: you can ask for modifications like butter/dressing on the side, hold the cheese, skip the bread, etc. I guess I don't really worry about it much. We went to Cracker Barrel and I got the Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, sweet tea, and biscuits and it was an outrageous amount of calories but I didn't care because it was totally worth it and I won't do it again for a while.