How do you track food when you eat out?

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wrensong27
wrensong27 Posts: 33 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I had lunch with friends today and I had a hard time tracking what I ate...I am not sure if it is at all accurate. I had a shredded taco salad minus the guacamole and cheese sause and I did not eat the bowl....

There was such a differences in the chicken taco salads in the date base that I finally just looked up each ingriedent and guestimated how much I ate....

Any ideas? I don't eat out often. My friend said just make it a "cheat day"; but I am only two days in and I really don't think I am ready to a "cheat day"

Replies

  • Meg_78
    Meg_78 Posts: 998 Member
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    If I can't find something I trust, or the actual restaurant guide for a meal, I just add individual ingredients and try to guesstimate the best I can, probably err on the side of adding a little too many cals than too few.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    If I can't find something I trust, or the actual restaurant guide for a meal, I just add individual ingredients and try to guesstimate the best I can, probably err on the side of adding a little too many cays than too few.

    Me too. Or sometimes I put in something similar. So the other day I ate what was essentially a chicken mcnugget on a stick and just entered it as a mcnugget.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
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    Yeah, I break it up into parts, and I keep in mind it was probably made in terribly unhealthy ways. So, if I eat out, I do not mind being a smidgen under my calorie goals.
  • fay_pigu
    fay_pigu Posts: 125 Member
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    I find closest food I can and add about 20% for cooking (very few places in uk give calories)
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    Either find something simillar (like listing a chai latte I get at the local corner cafe using Starbuck's numbers , or use a Mexican Chain Retaurants numbers for the local Mexican place here. )

    Or Use the individual ingredients.
  • AtteroIgnis
    AtteroIgnis Posts: 7
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    Personally i don't sweat it.
    I look it up, and use whats nearest, then add a few cals if you think its to low.

    Unless your underestimating massively then the net effect for just one meal is negligible.

    Don't make the mistake of getting overly worried about every entry, you will only end up getting stressed every time you want to go out and that's not a good way to be.
    If you end up hating the diet, it becomes all to easy to just give up... I know from experience!
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,024 Member
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    If I go to a restaurant that has no nutritional info, I guesstimate with MFP.
    If I order a taco, I'll search under tacos and pick 3 different tacos and go with the one in the middle.
    This seems to work pretty well for me.
    Or, you can completely break down your food and manually enter it:

    Say, chicken taco on corn tortilla:

    Chicken
    Corn tortilla
    Cheese
    Lettuce
    Onion
    Sour cream

    Although this method of breaking it all down takes forever.
  • taintedbutterfly18
    taintedbutterfly18 Posts: 189 Member
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    Personally i don't sweat it.
    I look it up, and use whats nearest, then add a few cals if you think its to low.

    Unless your underestimating massively then the net effect for just one meal is negligible.

    Don't make the mistake of getting overly worried about every entry, you will only end up getting stressed every time you want to go out and that's not a good way to be.
    If you end up hating the diet, it becomes all to easy to just give up... I know from experience!

    Ditto. Good advice that I also follow.
  • LORA0504
    LORA0504 Posts: 22
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    I do the same thing as far as individual ingredients and guesstimate. Any accountablility is better than nothing. I also have friends that take a picture of their meal to help them remember the ingredients and amount.
  • essjay76
    essjay76 Posts: 465 Member
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    I do the same as most - usually just look it up or look up something similar and round up. Or, if it's a dish that I'm pretty familiar with, I break down the ingredients.

    I cook a lot and read up about cooking/ingredients (Food Network/Cooking Channel, cookbooks, etc.) so I know a lot about what goes into the dishes I eat when I'm out.

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