How do you count restaurant calories?

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andreamontes30
andreamontes30 Posts: 16 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all....I'm just curious...when you go out to eat how do you track your calories. I know a lot of the bigger restaurants have theirs listed but what about the ones that don't? Like today, I went to a hole in the wall Thai restaurant. I ordered a lunch entree with red curry tofu, vegetables and white rice. I split each item in half and kinda guesstimated on MFP and went with the highest estimate. What does everyone else do?? Do you still go out to eat or do you avoid it while in the losing phase??

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  • Followingsea
    Followingsea Posts: 407 Member
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    I travel more or less constantly for work, so sometimes weeks go by where I will have to eat out for every meal. I do what you do - try to find the closest analog in MFP, pick the one reporting the highest calorie content, and avoid cleaning my plate.
  • PriceK01
    PriceK01 Posts: 834 Member
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    Ditto! If I can't find the published info, I guesstimate with something similar in the database.
  • SarahSmilesCA
    SarahSmilesCA Posts: 261 Member
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    I travel more or less constantly for work, so sometimes weeks go by where I will have to eat out for every meal. I do what you do - try to find the closest analog in MFP, pick the one reporting the highest calorie content, and avoid cleaning my plate.

    Yep this. But look for people who have been honest with their estimates on MFP. Some people are really off (or lazy) in their estimates. You can tell because they don't list the macros. There are 4 calories for every gram of protein or carbs in something and 9 calories per gram of fat. Keep yourself honest and go for the estimate that looks real.

    Here are some other tricks.

    1. Break down what you think is in the recipe and itemize the calories that way. For example if you are having red curry tofu estimate how many oz of tofu you ate, how many oz of coconut milk (the main ingredient in curry if it is Thai), a tablespoon of oil (restaurants are terrible about adding a lot of oil if you don't warn them), and then estimate how much rice you ate. This way you are close to the calories.
    2. ALWAYS ask restaurants to go light on cooking oil, even ask them to use water with a little oil for cooking. Many Asian places will do this if you ask .
    3. Since fat is where you get a lion share of your calories get all oily sauces on the side and count how many spoon fulls of "stuff" you add to your food. Estimate 120 calories PER Tablespoon because that is what is in a tablespoon of fat.
    4, Sweet sauces have calories too because that is sugar. I usually estimate about 50 calories for every 2 tablespoons of a sweet sauce like sweet in sour or eel or oyster sauce.

    Grab some measuring containers and practice eyeballing what 2 oz, a cup and a tablespoon look like. This will help you estimate accurately. You know those little sauce containers that you get in places, those are about 2 oz, use them to help you estimate amount of sauces high in fat and carbs. 3 oz of meat is about the palm of your hand, a 1/4 inch high. A cup of grain product like rice or pasta is the size of your fist ( a lot smaller than most realize).

    Once you get good at estimating it is pretty easy to figure out calories.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
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    If it's a corporate chain, it typically has nutrition facts on the website.
  • andreamontes30
    andreamontes30 Posts: 16 Member
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    I travel more or less constantly for work, so sometimes weeks go by where I will have to eat out for every meal. I do what you do - try to find the closest analog in MFP, pick the one reporting the highest calorie content, and avoid cleaning my plate.

    Yep this. But look for people who have been honest with their estimates on MFP. Some people are really off (or lazy) in their estimates. You can tell because they don't list the macros. There are 4 calories for every gram of protein or carbs in something and 9 calories per gram of fat. Keep yourself honest and go for the estimate that looks real.

    Here are some other tricks.

    1. Break down what you think is in the recipe and itemize the calories that way. For example if you are having red curry tofu estimate how many oz of tofu you ate, how many oz of coconut milk (the main ingredient in curry if it is Thai), a tablespoon of oil (restaurants are terrible about adding a lot of oil if you don't warn them), and then estimate how much rice you ate. This way you are close to the calories.
    2. ALWAYS ask restaurants to go light on cooking oil, even ask them to use water with a little oil for cooking. Many Asian places will do this if you ask .
    3. Since fat is where you get a lion share of your calories get all oily sauces on the side and count how many spoon fulls of "stuff" you add to your food. Estimate 120 calories PER Tablespoon because that is what is in a tablespoon of fat.
    4, Sweet sauces have calories too because that is sugar. I usually estimate about 50 calories for every 2 tablespoons of a sweet sauce like sweet in sour or eel or oyster sauce.

    Grab some measuring containers and practice eyeballing what 2 oz, a cup and a tablespoon look like. This will help you estimate accurately. You know those little sauce containers that you get in places, those are about 2 oz, use them to help you estimate amount of sauces high in fat and carbs. 3 oz of meat is about the palm of your hand, a 1/4 inch high. A cup of grain product like rice or pasta is the size of your fist ( a lot smaller than most realize).

    Once you get good at estimating it is pretty easy to figure out calories.

    Awesome advice! Thanks a bunch everyone!

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