Eating out

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KaysKidz
KaysKidz Posts: 208 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How do you figure calories when you eat out? Restaurant does not have nutritional info posted. On a side note, it was the first night I have gone out to dinner since I have started making life changes 3 weeks ago and I feel like crap. Hubby and I even shared a meal, so it is not from eating too much. The way I feel right now, I may never eat out again. My body is not happy with me. :sick:

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  • ashleyisgreat
    ashleyisgreat Posts: 586 Member
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    I've gotten decently good at eyeballing portion sizes, so I can make a guess later when I'm home. You could always take a picture of your food and try to guess that way. And you can make some assumptions based on the description/how it's prepared when you're entering in the food (like fried vs grilled, etc). It won't ever be 100%, but with some good eyeballing you might get close.
  • edisonsbulb
    edisonsbulb Posts: 93 Member
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    Assume everything was cooked in grease or butter. I go on MFP's database and look up something similar and choose the one with the highest calories.
  • mxmkenney
    mxmkenney Posts: 486 Member
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    Most restaurants do have nutritional information available, but you will probably have to ask for it. All fast food places have nutrition facts on their websites, and a lot of the chain restaurants ( like Denny's, Cheesecake Factory, Chile's, Olive Garden, etc) do as well. Best bet is to stay away from cream sauces, fried foods and splitting a meal with someone to cut down on outrageous portion sizes and excess calories.
  • KaysKidz
    KaysKidz Posts: 208 Member
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    It was steak, red bell pepper and onion fajitas. I made 2 small soft tacos with salsa fresca and sour cream. 2 bites of refried beans. A few bites of my daughters nachos. And of course chips & salsa, plus a few dipped in white queso. Had an unsweet tea with one pink "sugar" packet.
  • Ilikelamps
    Ilikelamps Posts: 482 Member
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    Bring a food scale...who cares what ppl think...also newsfeed
  • DucklingtoSwan
    DucklingtoSwan Posts: 169 Member
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    When we do go out, which isn't much these days, right now I'm trying to stick to chains, easier since a lot of the stuff is available online, not to mention on MFP. Though once in a while I have to wing it. Went to a local place just yesterday and did my best to log it and while it may or may not have been accurate, I figured at least I tried. I did get sick a couple of hours later. I'm assuming it was because while it was not the richest thing on the menu, it wasn't exactly a salad either and was the biggest meal I'd sat down to (calorie-wise) in a while and after several days of spreading my calories into several smaller meals a day I'm sure my body was like, WHOA!
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    In cases like that, I resort to the SWAG method for logging (scientific wild-*kitten* guessing!). I either find what seems to be the closest match in the database, or sometimes I just quick add whatever cals I have left and call it a day.

    It's one evening, one meal, so guessing won't ruin anything. :smile:
  • GertrudeHorse
    GertrudeHorse Posts: 646 Member
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    *giggles at thread title*
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
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    hihi
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    I stick to restaurants that offer nutritional data, or else don't eat out at all. Saves us a bunch of money. Plus my husband is a chef, he can make anything a restaurant better and cheaper, and I know exactly what goes in it, as an added bonus.
  • dtimedwards
    dtimedwards Posts: 319 Member
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    If you looked at my diary you might think I go to Panera, Olive Garden, Voodoo Donuts, Bob Evans, IHOP etc. Truth is, there are no chains where I live, and the restaurants don't provide nutrition info. What I do is use a similar item from a chain and try to estimate the portion size.

    "Un"fortunately, the place I eat at the most does lots of one-off stuff with odd ingredients so I have to get super creative. Wednesday night was a house-made pastrami made out of a pig's head and then deep fried. I think I ended up using some type of random Asian deep fried pork ball.

    Another thing I sometimes do is try to deconstruct the item in my mind, and add it item by item. I did that with a burrito a couple weeks ago, and when I was all done, I realized I came in +/-50 calories from the average restaurant burritos, so I assume my estimation is correct, and I also realized it is probably easier to just take a pre-made calorie count.

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