Going out to eat at non-chain restaurants...

hendelk

Looking for suggestions on how to log meals if you go out to eat at a non-chain restaurant. We ate supper at a local restaurant and when I entered what I had on MFP the calories/fat/nutrients vary so wildly that I wasn't sure which choice to pick. Also very difficult to estimate the serving size. Any suggestions would be more than welcome!

AmyRhubarb

When that happens, I fall back on the SWAG method - Scientific Wild-*kitten* Guessing. :bigsmile: Basically I find what seems to be the closest match in the database and go with that. With non-chain restaurants, it's really the best we can do. Happens a lot for me - many of our favorite places are local shops with amazing food, but I have to guess at the calories.

agoofynut

What I do is try to compare what I ordered to chain restaurant offerings. For example, if I go to a local mexican place and get chicken fajitas, I look at the nutritional info for Chili's chicken fajitas. It might not be perfect, but at least it gives me an idea. When in doubt, I always tend to guess high.

seif0068

I usually try to find the same item from a chain, and log that. For example, went out tonight and ate chicken madeira at a local restaurant, and was lucky enough to find an entry for the Cheesecake Factory's chicken madeira, which had the same side. But it's all kind of a crapshoot!

dnish53

I always use my palm or fist to estimate a serving size. I also look at what is in the database and log on the higher size.

Em7b5

did you try google? sometimes you can find the nutritional information for your dish on a recipe website, then you can just quick add however many calories the site says. usually, i'll pick the same dish served at a different restaurant, but i make sure to pick the dish that uses the most calories - just to be safe.