Do you have to eat at home to lose weight?

You can get the nutritional value from most major chain's website, or other sites such as this: http://www.nutritionix.com/restaurants If you're in a hurry.

I do feel that It helps if you plan your meals in advance so that you get a rough idea of how much your intake value is going to be, as well as helping prevent straying from your diet if you absolutely MUST go out to eat.

HOWEVER,

These values are usually calculated with exact portion measuring in a lab under strict guidelines - it's a different environment entirely.

With that being said, you never know when a cook will add a dash more of "this or that," when a server will give a more generous portion of whatever condiment or sauce, thus effectively throwing off nutritional information given on the website. Additionally, you can't be so sure that the person prepping the food in the morning is doing it right either - you could be getting more than what you should as outlined by the parent corporation.

There are TONS of variables that could make the nutritional value counts that you see on their websites completely off.

Personally, I refrain from eating out for this very reason.. Additionally, when places offer "healthy" alternatives, it is usually lie (usually due to added toppings or condiments.)

Another thing, is that with most restaurant chains, a lot of the food usually has tons of additives and preservatives in it. The huge advantage of cooking your own food is that you know exactly what goes in it (seeing as though you have the option of buying foods that are minimally processed, or what some would consider "green/organic,") as well as knowing how much (if you have a kitchen scale) you're eating.

*Edited to make sense.

I agree that it's definitely easier to prepare your own food and log it. I prefer eating at home and preparing my own food for that reason and because it's cheaper. However, there are times when it's nice to go out to dinner with a friend or in your situation where it's work related. If I were you, I'd have a nice sized snack before the catered meal. That way you're not really hungry and can just have a few bites. Then log it as best as you can. Now, if it's a nice dinner with a friend to a restaurant you like, I'd just eat light that day and plan a workout so I could enjoy myself at the restaurant. But yeah, I get most annoyed in work situations where you have don't get to pick the food or restaurant and really don't want to waste calories on food you don't even want to eat.

Eating your own food isn't the "ONLY" way to lose weight but I find it is the best way for me.

The "only" way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn.

Eating at home is a big plus. When I do go out, I look up the menu before I go so I can find the healthier choices.

Yes, I very seldome go out and eat. For one, it is expensive, secondly we dont live close to anything, and lastely I dont even want to know how many calories are in most foods when you go out and eat. I will treat myself every now and again but mostly it is too expensive. I would rather have my hubby make a good meal at home and help him cook it. We got a lot of new cooking utensils from our wedding so we are having fun with it all

I dine out often and still can lose weight (hypothetically, since I've been stuck for a good year).

I feel the same way, the only way I can lose weight is to not dine outside of my kitchen. I try to limit my dining out to twice a week

I loved that barcode on the mouth comment! I joke that I wish that FitBit deal worked that way-instead of calories burned it would calculate calories eaten!!

I'm almost convinced the only way to lose weight is to eat at home and prepare everything yourself. Unless the restaurant has nutritional information, it's virtually impossible to calculate a meal correctly. You don't know how the food is prepared, the portion size, etc.. It's all a random guess. I've got several business lunches and dinners this week where I have to eat what is catered. I think I'm undereating a lot because I'm scared to go over my calories. How great would it be to have a bar code in your mouth that would scan everything you ate and tell you how many calories it is! Someone get started on that app!

I totally agree with you and you can go out to eat with the best intentions and then be tempted by something on the menu...it takes willpower, and I have lost it a couple of times.

Good luck to you and making healthy choices x

Estimating a certain percentage of your food intake is fine, how much freedom you have depends on how good your estimates are.

It's not like you know *exactly* how many calories you burn on a particular day anyway.