Eating out

Logging restaurant meals is a guessing game. I try to make balanced choices in menu while still enjoying myself. Assume that if you log, you'll be over for the day. Keep a mental record of approximately how much of each buffet item you eat (ie: 1/2 C of fried rice) and try to log that from the MFP database later. Although it won't fit into your day, it will give you a ballpark idea of how quickly a restaurant meal can add up. Over time, you can learn to adjust your week to help accommodate a night out (ie: "save" 100 calories per day for a few days to give yourself some extra calories on the night out).
In the end, this is all about finding a sustainable balance. Life will always offer days out, parties and cake. We just need to find the way to keep the balance. You can do this.

I haven't figured this out yet either. I do whip out my phone at the table to look stuff up so that I have a rough idea of what I have left to "spend" and how much the new meal will cost. It's so hard when there aren't calories on the menu. I know it's rude to have my phone out but I've decided that I need to put myself first in weight loss.

If it's a chain restaurant, such as Applebees, I'll google the nutrition. If I can find it, then I don't log it.

I would have my phone in my purse and would send myself a quick e-mail or text with the items on my plate. Later, I'll have a pretty good idea of about how much I had of each item. I'd look it up, log it and be absolutely okay with the fact that it is not as accurate as I'd like.

I eat out a lot, but yeah buffets are tricky. If possible stick to mostly the salad stuff (with light dressing if available), and then go easy on the soups and other sides. Also realize though, that this isn't an every day occurrence so don't get too stressed out about it and enjoy your meal

Logging food when eating out is a hard thing to do. I don't log food when eating out. Just try eat as clean as possible and rent start logging again next day. Some places tell you the amount of kals in the food. So if I can I just add them on and dint worry about the macros.

Take a good look at a cup measure before you go and get a feel for that volume. Also try weighing a piece of meat and get a grasp of what 2 oz. and 4 oz. looks like. Shoot for serving sizes in that range, with not too many different dishes. You can do a lot of logging on your smart phone, or take pictures of your plate for later examination, but the big thing is: serve yourself about 1/2 of what you normally would, to cut down on unpleasant surprises later when you look it all up. If you stay away from sauces and gravies and cheese and bread and dessert, and you serve yourself once on a small plate and forgo seconds, you'll do fine! Sooner or later we all have to learn to serve ourselves the right amount from a basically unlimited supply of food, so this is good practice.

very hard, but give yourself a cheat day and maybe save most of your calories for the buffet.