Eating out becomes scary

Threat the outing as your "cheat day" or "cheat meal".

Don't skip out on the Fam just because of a few calories.

Threat the outing as your "cheat day" or "cheat meal".

Don't skip out on the Fam just because of a few calories.

Agree! Agree! Agree!

Simple: You can ask them how much it weighs because generally, steakhouses offer standardized portions. (4, 6, 8, etc. oz.)

For anything else? You can take your best guess and overestimate by a little. And not let calories absolutely control and consume your life. It is VERY hard but it is definitely something to work on.

BTW-I went to an Oktoberfest event at the end of last year when I was losing weight rather than maintaining. I just called it a day and just did a quick add of 4,000 calories.

Just ask the server how many ounces the steak weighs. It won't be a big deal. I used to work in a steakhouse, and servers are trained to know everything under the sun about the steaks. Customers ask that question often, and it is usually listed on the menu.

Look at the opportunity that has been placed before you to learn and grow! Don't be skeeeerd, Just roll with it and trust your instincts!

Whatever worries you after your outing are areas that you have more opportunity to research and learn.

Remember that you don't have to eat the entire steak either. You can eat half and take the rest home and you'll have something great to warm up for the next day. I second eating light during the day--this does not mean not eating, or starving yourself. Then you'll have more calories in the evening and can relax and enjoy this family time. Another thing- try to exercise during the day, even if it's just a walk since this also will give you more calories to enjoy--the key word here is enjoy. As others have mentioned, this situation comes up often and you have to be in control and able to handle it. Good luck to you.

Also, there are the standards you can take with you. 4oz of meat is the size of a deck of cards, and a cup of vegetables is the size of your fist.

From there you cut what you can have and push the rest to the side, cover with a napkin or ask the waiter to give you a saucer to place the excess so he / she can take it away.

That way you can enjoy your remaining meal without pressure of the extra food in your face and you aren't fussing with your meal while trying to engage with your family during dinner.

Enjoy your dinner out.

Over time you get pretty good at estimating size. I've even been at the grocery store and looked at the various size cuts and noted their weights, trying to commit them to memory (what little I have). Like another poster mentioned, understand what a 4 oz peice looks like and try to figure how many of those you have on your plate. Always round up in your estimate.

Eating out hasn't become scary. You have become obsessive.

Steak places almost always list the weight of the steak. 7oz. 9oz.
Just ask how they make it. Lots of places can do it with just salt and pepper.

I normally feel pretty safe with the serving ounces listed in the menu...restaurants aren't going to give you a massive cut that's a lot bigger than the ounces listed. Meat is too expensive for them to do that. If you order an 8 oz. steak, log an 8 ounce steak. If you want some leeway, log it as 9 oz to be safe. I eat out at least once a week. It's only as scary as you make it.

I have to disagree with those suggesting you take a cheat day or cheat meal. Only because for me, it has all to often led to me falling off my plan completely. I changed my life when I learned how to always be on plan, and in such a way as to still eat out fairly often, and enjoy, truly enjoy, my food, cooking etc.

I will research ahead of time, any restaurant we are going to - many, if you google the name of the restaurant with "nutrition menu" or "nutrition information", will have their menu items with the calories counts available. If they don't, I look at the entrees and choose ahead of time, one that looks easily workable for my plan.

I've found that ranch salad dressing, served on the side is usually 2 tablespoons, and I end up having half. The richest salad dressing I use at home is Litehouse brand where 2 tab. is 150 calories, so that is my guide. If I think I have the calories for dessert (and have decided to forgo sharing an appetizer, having a bun with my burger etc.) I may bring my own fav in the car - like a Bumblebee chai tea bar or a Kind dark chocolate nuts & sea salt bar - both under 250 calories.

I've had marvelous luck at Mexican restaurants who are wonderful about serving me an entrée without the beans or rice and instead giving me salad on the plate or grilled veggies.

Chicken is always a good bet when out, you can have a huge chicken breast (raw weight) for under 300 calories, and most menus do list the weight of the entrée (6 oz. steak, 8 oz. chicken breast etc.). Salmon is another good bet.

It can be scary, frustrating at first, but if you *want* to make figure out how to eat out, you can! It's all about finding out how to make it work, versus why it can't.

I've lost as of this morning over 154 lbs. doing this over the past almost 3 years (over 66 since coming to use mfp), and wanted to share what has been working for me.

It sounds like you are trading in the misery of being overweight and unfit for the misery of fanatically adhering to your food logging routine. If you can’t let it go altogether or just ballpark it for a meal (ask he waiter how much the steak weighs, enter the data, move on), you may be a little too obsessive about it.