Eating out is a challenge.

Anmri2Win

Hi, my boyfriend and I eat healthy home made meals during the week with the exception of a special occasion night maybe every other week or so (during the week). Over weekends we mostly eat out (lunches and dinners) as we are out on activities into the city or some other place not near home. Documenting lunch is OK as we usual eat at placed I can find on the list of foods here on MFP (Panera ext). It is dinners that I have trouble with. I can sometimes find something similar but most of the time not. Any suggestions what I should do in that case. So far I've been breaking it up into the individual ingredients if I can find it on the list. I'm new on MFP and I'm already feeling that I'm not documenting my meals properly since I can't find most restaurant meals. Any help and suggestions will be most helpful.
Thank you.
anmri2loose

EnjoyTheSpin

I always get a veggie salad (hold the cheese and nuts) with grilled chicken or grilled salmon with dressing on the side. I only go out to eat 1 or 2 nights per week, and this keeps me on track. You can eat the whole thing without worrying about cals.

Anmri2Win

That is a good idea, thanks for the tip.

racerchick48

I eat out a lot in my line of work, because I take clients out in the community. I've found that the easiest thing for me is to find something similar in the database to what I eat (for example, if I order a steak meal from a local restaurant, I'll put it in as an Applebee's meal). If there's absolutely nothing even close to what I have eaten, I will break down by ingredients, but I don't stress so much as long as I feel the calorie counts are pretty close. I also tend to try to play it safe by overestimating calorie counts, but always look for what seems the most reasonable (ie. avoid the lasagna that says it has only 200 calories in a cup!). One of my favorite places to eat serves broccoli on the side, but I know they add butter and stuff to it, so I add it to my diary as green giant broccoli with butter. It gets easier as you go, and a lot of these tricks I've learned with time, after a lot of frustration. Hope this helps, and good luck with your journey. Feel free to friend me if you'd like!

Anmri2Win

Cool, thanks. That sounds a lot easier than breaking it up all the time, it makes it look like I'm eating too many things per meal if I do....LOL Home made meals are much easier to break up since I try to keep it at 3 - 4 ingredient meals and not mixed up, each ingredient separate.

Pebble321

Don't stress about it, learning to make healthier choices when you aren't doing the cooking is a really important life skill - you can't assume you will know the exact calories of every meal every single day.
I just look for something similar in the database and check out the calorie count - if it seems way too low for what's on my plate I enter 1.5 or 2 servings or look for another entry. This is never going to be 100% accurate - but nothing is, a guesstimate is OK.

For home cooked meals, use the recipe function - that way you can add a many ingredients as you like and you only have to do it once. You just enter all the ingredients, choose how many servings and enter it into your diary. If you're like me, you proabaly cook similar meals pretty often - so you can go back and make changes if needed (remove chicken, replace with pork for example) and its ready to use again.

Anmri2Win

That is very true, I do make similar meals every week. Thanks for the tips.

grnice

The same thing happened to me today. I'm trying to eat at home as much as possible but I went out to lunch today to a restaurant which had no nutritional information. I tried to make good choices and I compared it as close as I could to a chain restaurant. It's a best guess but I could be way off over or under. The way I look at it is that it is one meal in a week of perfectly counted meals so hopefully it won't do too much damage!

JulieDerda

http://www.calorieking.com/ << you can go there sometimes they have nutritional info.. or do a search on the google/yahoo search engine. Some restraunts have nutritional info on their site. Or there are other sites like livestrong.com. and others out there..

becoming_a_new_me

I usually order meals ala-carte. Most restaurants are cool about this, and sometimes it is less expensive as a meal. My go tos are Chicken or Salmon with rice and a vegetable. I always order with no sauce and no butter.

mill1295

I usually try to eat a baked fish or salad or something I know can't be too bad.. stay away from the cream sauce! haha tomato sauce is generally pretty safe unless it's just a giant plate of pasta.. or just save half for lunch the next day.. the other thing I do now that I'm closer to my goals is a cheat day where I don't log

tistal

Before you even eat, make sure you ask them if they have a nutritional guide for their food. Most places have them now. I have a stack of them from some of our favorite places to eat. If your options are on the not so good side, consider getting just 1 meal and splitting it and having a salad with it. Eating out IS a challenge. I dont think it will ever get easier either!

kaseyAnne425

I went out with my whole family last night for Chinese and had sesame chicken, steamed rice, wonton soup, and a few crab rangoons. You said you eat healthy all week, treat yourself every now and then on the weekends, as long as you know it wont steer you off course. I say, eat what you want sometimes..

Anmri2Win

Thanks so much for all these tips, it is much appreciated. I feel less stressed about it. :happy:

john41958

Just had a great experience that I wanted to share so all of us go in and keep this attention to healthy eaters on the menu! My wife and I had lunch at Ruby Tuesday yesterday and were having the usual struggle with finding something to eat on their menu when I notice that they have added spaghetti squash marinara to their menu. It was really good (not the best sauce I ever had but definitely good) and 257 calories! We each got one and we also got a side order of grilled chicken breast that we cut up and put in it for some protein. Go there...order this...it is so rare that a big chain like this actually takes the interests of healthy people into account and this should be rewarded in sales, the only real language they speak.

sunkisses

I find eating out to be quite pleasurable.

Kateraptor

I normally go for fish or chicken veggies when I eat out now. At chain places they usually have a few low calorie options listed. I don't eat everything on my plate and if there's a bread basket, I'll treat myself to one piece with butter. If it's a special occasion, I'll treat myself, but watch what I eat the rest of the day and try and get thirty minutes of cardio in so it's not so bad.