Eating Out

For most chain restaurants, they'll post the nutrition information for their dishes online so you can see how much they are. For other places, you can only estimate.

Most have nutritional information posted. When they don't you can find something pretty close.

Not quite what you asked, but I minimize the number of times that I eat at restaurants.

Lots of helpful tips here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10213155/a-guide-to-going-out-to-eat/p1

Personally I plan ahead, try to research what I might want to eat ahead of time (I like doing this anyway, especially at a nicer restaurant), and then get an estimate of what I think the meal is going to "cost" me calorie wise. Then I can decide if I want to do some extra exercise, bank a few calories in the days leading up to it, etc.

when i was logging i just found something similar and logged that...i rarely go to chain type restaurants so it's pretty rare for me to have actual posted nutritional information available to me.

beyond that, i made it a point to just be smarter about what I was ordering. also keep in mind that, while restaurants are getting better about having "lite" options, typical restaurant portions are about double or sometimes even triple meals.

having lost the weight i wanted to lose and now having maintained for over 2.5 years without logging, i have found it immensely helpful to just eat out less. i eat out now maybe 3-4 times per month, and that's about it unless we're on a trip or something.

If you can, look up the restaurant before you go and look at their menu. Even if they don't list nutrition info, you can make reasonable guesstimates based on other entries and plan what you're going to order. That way, you know what you're getting and you won't be as tempted by looking at the full menu. You can also see about getting kid's portions of food. Having less food on your plate makes it easier to stay where you need to be, and if you're like most of us and were raised to finish what's on your plate, well, you're less likely to feel guilty for leaving food behind! ^_^;

And if there's places you go to regularly, sit down with their menus and pick out things you like that will fit your calorie goal for that meal. Having several options that you know about makes it much easier to keep your calories where they should be.

I look up the menu beforehand and check the database to see if it has what I'm looking at (most of the time; Texas Roadhouse on Halloween was a spur-of-the-moment "We're not going to make the time we want at the movies, let's go have dinner at this place we've been wanting to try, then the later showing."). When we went to TR I just logged it as I ate it. I chose the smallest, leanest cut of meat and got veggies instead of potatoes. I did splurge on a roll, 4 fried pickle slices (*chokes* 41 calories per slice), and a margarita. I regretted nothing! When we went to TGIFriday for lunch last week I had them bring a to-go box with the food. I immediately put half the sandwich and half the sweet potato fries into the box and set it to the side. I never would have done that before! I was fully satisfied with just a half portion (and 2 glasses of water) and I ate the other half for dinner.