Tracking calories at restaurants

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  • orangegato
    orangegato Posts: 6,572 Member
    Look at this thread about CICO. This person ate mostly pizza and because of a calorie deficit he lost weight. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10348650/cico-still-skeptical-come-inside-for-a-meticulous-log-that-proves-it/p1

    And read the sticky threads in sections like Getting Started, Success Stories etc.

    You can do this! Good luck
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
    lethalxminx wrote: »
    But see, I’m still lost! Because on one hand you say that a calorie is a calorie, but then you say that I can’t outrun a bad diet because of the nutrients it’s made of.

    Yes. For weight loss, a calorie is a calorie. You will lose weight on the appropriate number of calories no matter what nutrients those calories are made of.

    For health, the nutrients are important. No matter how much exercise you do, you won’t get vitamin C from eating butter; and you won’t get essential fats from eating apples.

    To lose weight and be healthy, all you need to do is eat a balanced diet that comes in under your calories. I suppose that balanced diet could be made of diet food if you want, but it sounds rather as if you don’t want, so then don’t do it!

    Yes, you’ll have to get used to much smaller portions. So don’t waste them on things you don’t even like. Eat the food slowly and really appreciate it.
  • slossia
    slossia Posts: 138 Member
    What’s a “diet food” ?
  • jammerx37
    jammerx37 Posts: 30 Member
    When I eat out in a local restaurant, I go home and find a comparable meal on line from a national chain and estimate it. This seems to work. I also try not to eat the whole damn plate. LOL! Not the plate literally too! The best way is to have an idea of what your going to order and how many calories it is. Too many times I have eaten then gone home and said well *kitten*! I just screwed my whole week! Its a daily effort, and it is so easy to fall off the wagon. Good luck!
  • SabAteNine
    SabAteNine Posts: 1,867 Member
    lethalxminx wrote: »
    tehchix0r wrote: »
    When in doubt, go simple at restaurants. I'm not going to choose a very specific, 5 ingredients and over dish when eating out because I have no idea how to identify and estimate the correct amounts of base ingredients. Found out that any kind of meat + a veggie side works best. Further than that, you can always ask what's in the food, and you can also usually opt for small modifications of what you're asking. Most restaurants here have the amount in grams listed for every dish so my way of going is to estimate based on that, eg. 250g chicken gorgonzola = 200g chicken breast grilled + 40g gorgonzola + 40g cream (sauce loses water during cooking... But going over the grams is just me making sure that I don't log lower)

    Which I’ve done! But even that 14oz steak with a side of mash potatoes is so high in calories. How on god’s green earth do people survive on the 1200 calories that MFP assigns to them (based on goals)?? Even the healthiest of filling and nutrient food (with meat) is 300 calories at least.

    Had to convert 14 oz to get an idea - WOW! Usually our standard restaurant portions are 200g, at a MAXIMUM 250g. 200g is about 7 oz (or 200 cals worth of turkey breast, or 270 cals worth of pork roast). Add a generous two-cup side of steamed broccoli and you have yourself another 100 cals. I believe it's in the ballpark, and it shouldn't be a problem finding it or something similar in restaurant menus.

    Figuring the calorie headache out in the beginning is hard work, but eventually you'll know your best options. At first I used to do MFP simulations based on the online menus of the restaurants I knew I was going to, or right at the table (which was not nice of me).

    I don't freeze or meal prep, sometimes I take some leftover dinner (if I cook) to work, most of the times though I buy whatever I feel like having and whatever fits for lunch. Bag of spinach, an avocado, some feta cheese, etc, and I prep it fast at work.

    Also, what others said - you don't have to eat it all. Enjoy the lunch/night out and the company, eat slow, drink lots of water: all these are helping your stomach send the fullness signal to your brain before you eat the plate too. :smile:

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,098 Member
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    Estimate. The meaty part of your palm is about as big as a deck of cards. A piece of meat that size is 4 oz.
    A dessert is going to be about 50% fat and 50% carb. If it appears to be 4 oz in the bowl, that's 56 grams of fat and 56 grams of carb. The math is about 224 calories from carb and about 504 calories from fat. So that torte is about 778 calories if it is about 4 oz. The burger: 250 calories for the bun, then if it has avocado add another 100. The meat and other vegetables in there are maybe another 150 calories. Cheese is another 100.
    A pound of steamed broccoli is less than 100. A serving of steamed veggies, which you can usually find on a menu, is under 50.

    Pancakes are a big hunk of bread, so about 150 each. It's the syrup that jacks up the calories there.

    Just do a little bit of research before your road trip and have your battle plan ready.

    First of all, that torte is going to be about 25% water by weight, so a 4 oz. torte is only going to have about 3 oz. of macros contributing calories. So even if your macro split is right (although in my experience, carbs are a significantly larger share of baked desserts by weight than are fat, even if we're talking buttercream frosting), we would be looking at about 43 g fat and 43 g of carbs, or about 560 kcal for a 4 oz. slice of chocolate
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,318 Member
    edited March 2018
    Wendy's: small chilli = ~200 Cal (160 to 200 depending on fill level) zesta crackers x4 = 50. Plain Baked potato no margarine or sour creme or chives ~250 to 300 depending on size. Chilli on potato plus water = sub 500 Cal and sub $4 in Canada

    Chili on half Mediterranean power salad with no dressing since you use the chili as dressing = under 450 Cal and slughtly more money.

    14oz steak with mashed potato... well, there are very few contexts where that makes sense. 6 oz steak with fries would be better. And 6 oz steak with steamed no butter mixed vegetables even more so. Grill Chicken and fish are options too.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,098 Member
    lethalxminx wrote: »
    Hi all! First time poster. I’ve finally come to the end of myself and I’m desperate for help. I’m so lost on nutrition that I don’t even know where to begin. But most important thing first.... restaurants. How do you track your calories/macros at restaurants?? Sure, I know that some of the bigger chains will have their calorie counts (some of them will have nutrition facts), but I mean the smaller, local places. I have no idea how many calories are in that chocolate torte, or in a burger, or the pancakes. Some of them have hundreds of calories in difference if I try to go into MFP and select a food that’s similar.

    Additionally, I know that a trained eye can see what a cup of rice, or a cup of veggies on a plate looks like. But to an untrained eye, how do you measure your side dishes?


    Tracking at restaurants that don't provide nutritional information: There are two basic approaches I use:

    (1) Log the dish using another entry. Does it seem similar to an entry for a food at another restaurant that I'm familiar with (I don't usually just use a random entry with a dish of the same name)? Is it a fairly standard type of food offered at lots of restaurants, and if so, does the USDA nutrient database have an entry for an average restaurant serving of this food? How big was the serving? Do I need to adjust the USDA entry (which will list mass and/or volume serving sizes)? Is it similar to something I make myself for which I have a recipe created in MFP?

    (2) Deconstruct the recipe. How much of the various ingredients does there seem to be? The ingredients you can see are easier to estimate -- over time, with weighing your food at home, you'll get better at eyeballing how many ounces of chicken, steak, or fish you've been served, as well as how much of the starch and veggies there are. Things like fat and sweeteners are a little tougher. If you cook yourself, measuring and weighing as you go along, you'll get better at it. To start with, I'd assume a tablespoon of oil for any meal that has ingredients that fried/sauteed/stir-fried or that have any kind of sauce. (They may be using butter instead of oil, but if you're mainly focused on calories, it's just easier to assume oil and log it that way.)

    Cooking and weighing/measuring at home are the way I got confident estimating dishes at restaurants.

    And a third question, how did you guys find out what diet food works for you? Friends say that if I don’t look forward to my diet, I’m not going to eat it, but that’s the thing... I haven’t found anything! Everything is just “healthy” and none of it is what I look forward to. I’m always on the go, and the thought of 5-7 day old chicken from meal prep Sunday’s absolutely kill me.

    Please help :(


    I really didn't choose "diet food." In tracking, it was easy to notice which foods had a higher satiety level for me for the calories they "cost," and to try to make those a larger part of my diet, and which foods had a lower satiety level for me, and to try to limit those to times when I afford the calorie cost and still be able to eat enough of the higher satiety foods. Other than that, I focused on hitting my protein and fiber goals -- that is, getting at least my goals for protein and fiber -- with foods I like. I also kept an eye on hitting my fat goals, but that's never really bee a problem for me.
  • GOT_Obsessed
    GOT_Obsessed Posts: 817 Member
    spiriteagle99 wrote: »
    It really is about choice. You can choose to eat the same as you always have, and you will continue to have the same results: weight gain. Or you can choose to change the way you eat so that the result changes. Eating out all the time does lead to weight gain, unless you are very careful (i.e. 6 oz filet vs. 15 oz NY strip, broccoli without butter or cheese rather than loaded baked potato). Eating a lot of desserts will lead to weight gain, unless you eat less of other foods that are more healthy. If you continue to make excuses for why you can't change, then you'll continue to gain weight. If you decide to cook more meals at home, eat fewer desserts, exercise more so you can include more calories in your day - then the outcome will be different.

    I agree with this completely. How bad do you want to lose weight? You can't have your cake and eat it too. Pun intended.

    "If it does not challenge it won't change you."
  • Live_life_well
    Live_life_well Posts: 86 Member
    You won’t like hearing this but I went from eating out an average of twice a day to an average of ~3 times a month. I just couldn’t take weight loss seriously while going to restaurants that made it impossible for me to know how many calories I was ingesting. And whenever I did go out I ONlY went to chains that display calorie information.

    I have lost 17 pounds to date and not sure I could have done so eating out all of the time.
  • Cheesy567
    Cheesy567 Posts: 1,186 Member
    I tend to travel and eat out a lot at times.

    One thing that has really helped me is to separate a “special occasion meal” vs a “meal away from home.” A meal away from home should fit in my general meal plan; I try to order ala carte, such as a sirloin (no butter or sauce or spice) and steamed broccoli, or a grilled chicken breast (again, no sauce or marinade) and asparagus, etc. I’ll be clear that I do not want anything else on the plate, no sides or bread, etc. I have a short list of restaurants and meals, so that I can keep it relatively boring and mundane. If I can’t find a restaurant that works, I’ll stop at a gas station with good options, or even go to a grocery store and pick up a rotissere chicken and bag of veggies (still usually cheaper than drive-thru and far fewer calories). I have several “meals” built in MFP for specific restaurants that I go to often for meals away from home.

    For special occasions, I’ll see what nutritional info or menus they have online, and pre-plan what I’ll order. I enter that into MFP first and build my day around it.

    It’s pretty well studied that people underestimate the calories eaten at a restaurant, and that the meals are usually 25-50% more calories than what’s listed on the websites. So, if I’m eating out a lot, I add-in fake “restaurant overage” calories. I made food entries of that name in MFP, with my macro percentages. I’ll add-in an additional 20% overage if it’s something I’m easily able to count (eggs, for instance), and 33% overage if it’s something that I can’t measure well.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    lethalxminx wrote: »
    But see, I’m still lost! Because on one hand you say that a calorie is a calorie, but then you say that I can’t outrun a bad diet because of the nutrients it’s made of.

    As a long-term proposition, no, one cannot exercise enough to lose weight despite their careless excessive eating.
    That's what "can't outrun a bad diet" means.

    Now, somebody may have said something they really believe about nutrients and gotten you confused. Just remember, nutrients are confusing. You have to pay attention. The key thing for me is: TRANS-fat are the very bad worst. After that, I get flexible about a lot of things. Get some colorful vegetables and you'll be mostly fine with most everything. Get some protein, and fat, and you'll be mostly fine with everything else. You don't have to get nutrition perfect with every meal or every day.

    Log your food accurately. You can use the Reports button to investigate your intake of various nutrients. If you find something in that which concerns you, you can then research and find foods you might like which can improve that situation.

  • Angierae75
    Angierae75 Posts: 417 Member
    I’ve lost 45 pounds so far. I ate half a bag of M&M’s after dinner.

    I’m within my calories and I wanted chocolate. So I had some.
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