Counting calories when eating out?

If you want to count calories, choose a grilled chicken breast or fish with no sauces and steamed veggies.

Or enjoy your birthday by ordering what sounds good and get right back at it tomorrow.

For restaurants, I usually give myself a serving size of 1.25-1.5 depending on how "off" I feel the calories are. If I go somewhere and they say a dish is 500 calories and then bring out a full, 10" plate, I log 1.5 servings. I also prefer to err on the side of guessing too high than too low.

Workout before you go!

Eat a side salad vs fries, drink water with lemon, get a chicken sandwich and make it open faced. Get soup! I don't think eating out is that difficult. You just have to be smart.

In Canada restaurants have to provide the calories right on the menu. If they don't have that it's usually on their website. If not, I ask how I can track it down and they are usually very helpful.

DapperDassie wrote: »

gamerbabe14 wrote: »

Eat a side salad vs fries, drink water with lemon, get a chicken sandwich and make it open faced. Get soup! I don't think eating out is that difficult. You just have to be smart.

like I said I'm not trying to eat a low calorie meal. The thing I love about calorie counting is being able to have big "unhealthy" meals once in awhile because I worked it into my calories for the day. I just want to know how to count it accurately

This strikes me as a healthy attitude! It's also OK to not fit into your daily calorie goal here and there and certainly on special occasions, but I especially support the idea of putting "have a nice meal out with friends / family" over "must eat low calorie option" in terms of relative importance.

I enjoy eating out, and usually do so at "non-chain" restaurants that don't provide calorie / nutrition info. I think all you can do is estimate to the best of your ability -- trying to do well with the rough weight of various items, and then adding oil / fat (and sodium if you track that) is about all I can suggest.

After some time and effort I am decent at estimating the size / weight of various meats / seafoods, and veggies, but I'm sure I can still be wildly off (not a huge pasta fan and would be wildly inaccurate in estimating pasta dishes). I know I seem to have a problem estimating nice warm bread, too. And what I've never been able to estimate (nor I think can most of us when dining out) are things like EVOO or butter or other fats and flavor enhancers. I usually generously estimate a fair bit of fats and oils for any given meal. My steamed asparagus is likely going to be lower cal than a restaurant's steamed asparagus ('cause the restaurant's usually has some melted butter or oil on it even if not visible).

Good luck and enjoy dinner out with dad.

Do your best at guessing the weight of whatever meat and vegetables you choose, then add at least 30g of butter because that's how professional chefs get their food to taste great. When it comes to dessert, take your best guess and double it. Restaurant food is mega high in calories - there's a reason their food tastes amazing. Enjoy!!

Cortelli wrote: »

GirlPanda03 wrote: »

DapperDassie wrote: »

I'm going out for my birthday tonight and not sure how to calculate the calories. I've looked at the menu and tried entering some options in myfitnesspal but they all look way too low and not accurate

Since working on losing weight I've really limited how often I go out for food, especially as I find it really difficult to estimate the calories in it. If I was going out for my birthday though, I wouldn't worry about counting calories that day. Just enjoy your meal and get back on track the next day.

You should do what works for you - not disputing that at all (as should all lurkers). But I found it helpful to work at getting better and more confident at estimating calories on meals I didn't prepare myself, including restaurant meals.

One of the challenging concepts I struggled with early on when I got serious about tracking calories was eating foods in primarily social situations -- potlucks, dinner at a friend's place, dining out at a new restaurant in town, food truck delectables, etc. Over time I came to conclude that the positive effects of dining out outweighed the negative effects of calorie uncertainty necessarily associated with it.

Dining / snacking with friends and family is a huge positive in life (IMHO), which is not even remotely outweighed by the calorie uncertainty. I found that forcing myself to remember that enjoying a social meal is more important than ensuring an accurate-as-possible calorie diary helped with my own weightloss efforts.

Agreed, you have to do things in life that matter, especially spending time with people. My family don't get together for meals or anything so I just go out occasionally for for a meal with my best friend. For me, trying to figure out calories when I'm out adds a kind of pressure, and it starts to make me obsessive; the result is that I don't enjoy the meal! So I just try not to overdo it, and I cut back the day after to make up for it. On those weeks I don't tend to lose weight but sometimes it's worth it.