Eating out?

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4GorgeousKiddos
4GorgeousKiddos Posts: 14
in Food and Nutrition
How do you calculate calories when you eat from a small local restaurant? Case in point, tonight my husband and I had a date at a local Mexican restaurant and I had a shredded chicken taco salad sans sour cream, tomatoes and guacamole. I tried to build it individually but it seems those things could really vary.

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  • Babymomakell
    Babymomakell Posts: 257 Member
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    If the restaurant doesn't have a nutrition chart... I guesstimate... sometimes Google helps... try to find something close-ish... there really is no way to tell sadly.

    My advice - Don't worry so much about it, just do better tomorrow =)
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    you do the best you can. a couple hundred off won't matter if it's a rare occasion.
  • genevievewest
    genevievewest Posts: 1
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    Try to deconstruct the meal and add individually. For example; 1 cup chicken breast, 1 medium tomato, etc. Then, for the dressing I would substitute with olive oil, as that would cover most ingredients. Sometimes, if I'm not certain of exact amounts, I would add extra olive oil to cover any under estimations. The same goes for guessing the amount of oil used during the cooking, check how much grease is left on the plate (or fingers) and estimate from there. I hope this helps :)
  • 4GorgeousKiddos
    4GorgeousKiddos Posts: 14
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    Try to deconstruct the meal and add individually. For example; 1 cup chicken breast, 1 medium tomato, etc. Then, for the dressing I would substitute with olive oil, as that would cover most ingredients. Sometimes, if I'm not certain of exact amounts, I would add extra olive oil to cover any under estimations. The same goes for guessing the amount of oil used during the cooking, check how much grease is left on the plate (or fingers) and estimate from there. I hope this helps :)

    That's exactly what I did :D I still have nearly 400 calories left for the day so I'm going to have a light snack before bed and call it a day.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    I just look in the database for something that sounds similar. If there are lots of entries, I usually pick one that is somewhere in the middle range.
    Don't sweat it, all the numbers we are working with are estimates and if you are off by a few hundred or so every now and again, it's not going to affect your progress.
  • HorseWithNoName27
    HorseWithNoName27 Posts: 188 Member
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    I usually just overestimate what it has and plan my day around it. For example, last week I went to a Mexican place and had two chicken tacos, some rice and beans and threw that at 1200. Probably way over but alloting that much kept me at my goal. you could try deconstructing it as much as you could...taco shell, chicken, tomatoes, etc. and maybe top it with some quick added calories to account for oil in cooking. It's hard though, good question!

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