Does eating out equal not eating the rest of the day?

MoonIite

My family and I are going to a chinese buffet after an event. The last time I've been to one was when I was 7 years old.
I know I should just enjoy myself and not care about counting calories, but I don't want to forsake accountability.

I usually have a 500 calorie breakfast, but today I'm thinking of just having oatmeal with water instead of milk and a medium-sized banana to give it flavor.

MandaLee8908

You don't want to starve your body the rest of the day just because you are eating out. That won't help. You just need to ration your calories carefully. For instance, if I know I'm going to have a big dinner, I simply pick low-cal yet filling foods for breakfast and lunch. Usually I have cereal for breakfast (yay Cheerios!) and then maybe alight sandwich or something small for lunch. Just enough to tide you over and keep your body from screaming "FEED ME!"

99clmsntgr

You're already doing the smart thing by planning ahead and dedicating calories to what you know will be a big meal. Chinese buffet is hard because I can't think of much on it that isn't either fried or carb loaded.

Aside from that, you can go out to eat and not completely kill your calories for the day. Panera has a bunch of choices that fit in a low calorie lifestyle. My wife and I like to go to Smokey Bones (hand pulled pork + broccoli + broccoli = 450 calorie meal! WOOT!) and a couple other places where there's options. If it's a national chain, chances are their nutritional information is online. Just plan ahead if you know where you want to go and you should be OK.

barbarajean3

Drink plenty of water today because Chinese buffet =high sodium. Try to eat foods not covered in sauce. Good luck:drinker:

grmpy1

Chinese Buffets can be the worse. We all have days we go over, and we just have to deal with it at the moment and move on. Don't deprive yourself of food all day for one meal. That will make it worse. Cut back on breakfast, but make sure you also have lunch and dinner. But be mindful of what you eat on the buffet and the portion size and enjoy yourself. And drink lots of water. Chinese food has a lot of sodium in it.

MoonIite

Thanks for the advice everyone! I decided that I'll eat my maintenance calories, which is around 1800 (give or take). Not eating the rest of the day would make me a grumpy person. :laugh:

MoonIite

I plugged what I ate into CalorieCounter and it estimated a total of 1,000 calories for the whole meal. Not bad at all.