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

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hendelk
hendelk Posts: 22 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
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! :)

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  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    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
    agoofynut Posts: 101 Member
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    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
    seif0068 Posts: 193 Member
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    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
    dnish53 Posts: 162 Member
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    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
    Em7b5 Posts: 31 Member
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    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.

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