Eating out?

aimladuke
aimladuke Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Last night was my aunts birthday so we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I ate really good all day (saved up 950 calories for dinner). The restaurant we went to doesn't have a website with nutritional information. I ordered a Chimichanga with chicken and cheese and a side of rice and black beans. I only ate half my meal and had only a few chips with salsa, so I am pretty sure I was within my calories. How on earth do you begin to even ball park the number of calories in something like that. Some would argue that it was a special occasion so who cares if I went over a little. But especially lately I have a LOT of "special occasions", so I really want to try and stay in my calories, but I also don't want to grossly over estimate and end up needlessly depriving myself either. How do you MFP pro's handle these kinds of situations?

Replies

  • jec285
    jec285 Posts: 145 Member
    Google the calories everything you can recall was in/on it, approximate portions, guess wildly and don't worry about it too much.
  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,120 Member
    I am also in a similar situation. I am a diabetic and need to know how many carbs I will be eating in order to see how much insulin I need to take for my meal. Typically, I will use a popular restaurant's nutrition information, such as On the Border or Don Pablo's for your situation, and make note of what my blood glucose is after eating.
  • jdb3388
    jdb3388 Posts: 239 Member
    I usually look for something similar on MFP. It doesn't have to be exact, just as close as reasonably possible.
  • aimladuke
    aimladuke Posts: 60 Member
    I really wish it was socially acceptable to bring a food scale and measuring cups to dinner! And to harrass the cooking staff for their methods of cooking. " Hey there... great food..... so how much oil did you put in my rice? " LOL I feel like even though I can ball park that I about about 2/3 of a cup of rice. I could still be off on the calories by 100- 200 calories depending on how they cooked it.
  • nikkineidigh
    nikkineidigh Posts: 29 Member
    Last night, I went to Indian Bistro. I had the Fish Masala with rice, I had the toasted bread with four flatbreads. Then, my mom's boyfriend gave me a little bit of goat meat. I guess I ate almost seven hundred calories. But I am still going to eat less, though.
  • aimladuke
    aimladuke Posts: 60 Member
    I usually look for something similar on MFP. It doesn't have to be exact, just as close as reasonably possible.

    That is what I ended up doing, and I can see how for somethings like a piece of chicken or a salad.... how you could get pretty close. But with something like this where there are a ton of ingredients all blended together, I feel like I am just pulling the nutritional value out of the dark. THere were entries in MFP for a Chimichanga between like 150 calories and like 1000. I tried to just pick one somewhere in the middle. I hate being so inaccurate. it makes me feel like I am cheating.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    You just find something similar in the database and do the best you can. As for myself, eating out was a rarity when I was losing weight and still is so I just never really worried about it and I make reasonably good decisions and only eat until I'm satiated, not full.

    I know people do eat out quite a bit and still lose weight, but in my experience it was rather difficult to do so...I substantially cut back on eating out when I was losing weight...I honestly never thought I ate out that much until I cut back on it. I used to eat out a good 4x weekly...now I eat out maybe twice per month.
  • GiGiBeans
    GiGiBeans Posts: 1,062 Member
    I eat at restaurants frequently. The easiest way to track is to get broiled meat with a double side of steamed veggies (or sauteed for me, I'm usually lchf). Nothing wrong with splurges for a special occasion but if you find yourself going out to eat a lot, a simple meal is the way to go.
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 604 Member
    I'm going out for lunch today, I'm going to have steak fajitas. I will eyeball the oz of steak, cheese, sour cream. Count the tortillas, and the veggies won't add up to much. Then figure it out when I get home. I've allotted 1000 calories for it in case it ends up being that much. Eat, log, forget about it.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    Most chimichangas are pretty high as they are deep fried. Id estimate 1000 for everything you ate. A better bet may be fajitas or grilled meat.
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  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    I would try to find a similar product. If there's no way you can accurately find out the nutritional information, either guestimate each of the ingredients, or find a similar product and input that information.

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