Eating at non chain restaurants

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aimeemanninghunter
aimeemanninghunter Posts: 85 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What do you do when you go to restaurants that aren't large chains? I'm wanting to go to this Italian place tonight and I've seen a few postings in MFP for calories but not sure if those things are even still on the menu. How do you figure out your calories for times like this?

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  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    Pick something that's close in the database.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    Pick something that's close in the database.

    That. As far as Italian, I consider Olive Garden to be (calorie-wise) to be the worst case scenario. So I'd pick whatever's closest on OG's menu, and go with that, because chances are, it's NOT going to be higher in calories.
  • aimeemanninghunter
    aimeemanninghunter Posts: 85 Member
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    Unless I had fettucinni alfredo or spaghetti there isn't much on this menu that is close to olive garden food and I really don't want that. They have a lot of pasta dishes with fresh veggies......they aren't cheese cheese cheese like olive garden lol
  • danasings
    danasings Posts: 8,218 Member
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    Unless I had fettucinni alfredo or spaghetti there isn't much on this menu that is close to olive garden food and I really don't want that. They have a lot of pasta dishes with fresh veggies......they aren't cheese cheese cheese like olive garden lol

    Well, it's better to overestimate your calories than underestimate, so...go with something similar from the Olive Garden choices in the database.
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
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    I just guesstimate whatever is closest to what I'm eating then choose one of the higher calorie options to give myself some buffer. We have an awesome pizza place that is like that so I have a generic item for my favorites and it doesn't seem to be a problem yet.
  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    Pick something that's close in the database.

    ^^^This.
  • Skrib69
    Skrib69 Posts: 687 Member
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    Unless you make it yourself, weigh and log everything you will never know exactly. It's the same if you go to friends for dinner. Ke a best guess and log that. I tend to aim for a worst case - at least then you stand more chance of getting a good surprise!!
  • Skrib69
    Skrib69 Posts: 687 Member
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    I nearly forgot - enjoy the meal! That's the most important bit!
  • aimeemanninghunter
    aimeemanninghunter Posts: 85 Member
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    I've kind of been eating light today...so I should be okay. I just get gung ho about things and I want it to be as close to accurate as possible.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
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    I've kind of been eating light today...so I should be okay. I just get gung ho about things and I want it to be as close to accurate as possible.

    That used to get me all the time... I'm kind of "left-brained" and I like numbers to be accurate. Then it dawned on me that my exercise calories were estimates, and this whole thing is just an estimating game. As long as I was in the ballpark, I was fine.

    As others have said, I generally go with the higher similar options in the database to make sure I don't inadvertently go over in calories when I go out to non-chain restaurants.
  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
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    Eating light is a good choice prior to eating out. Smart thing to do.
  • javajunco
    javajunco Posts: 81
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    Last night I went to the NBA draft. I ate nachos! They were amazing. To log them, I went to the food database, and clicked through all of the nachos to get a ballpark idea for calories. They ranged from 300-1500~. I ate about half, considered the ingredients, felt how full I was compared to normal and then....guessed. I used "add quick calories" to enter the amount I thought they probably were.

    The thing is, it's all estimating. No two peanuts have the same number of calories. Hopefully, the more we track our food/calories, the better we get at estimating.
  • Junie2013
    Junie2013 Posts: 53
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    Picking items from chain restaurant menus is a good idea. If I can't find something that resembles it at all, I write it in the 'notes' area of the food diary and use the quick add calorie feature to put in a wild guess.
  • LyndaTay
    LyndaTay Posts: 48 Member
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    Can you "pick apart" the entree to estimate the calories? A pasta dish with vegetables and chicken with light cream sauce. Search "pasta", "chicken", "broccoli" and "light cream sauce". Then add together and do an estimated guess. Just enjoy it and know that 1 day off of logging won't hurt you.
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
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    I've kind of been eating light today...so I should be okay. I just get gung ho about things and I want it to be as close to accurate as possible.

    its all an estimate anyway, plus, none of us put on weight by eating too many calories at one dinner, so unless you are going out and eating things that are hard to calculate regularly, don't sweat it.
  • Lithium119
    Lithium119 Posts: 10 Member
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    I was just about to say what Lynda said :) If I can't find the closest thing in the database, I just add up the ingredients of the meal I had. For example, I've just had the weirdest hot beverage ever and since there is no way to find anything like that in the database, I picked it apart and calculated the sum of ingredients to give me a ballpark value. So far it's been working fine for me.

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