Restaurants

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bevsha
bevsha Posts: 4 Member
in Getting Started
Hello. How do you track your food when you eat at a restaurant?

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  • 100_PROOF_
    100_PROOF_ Posts: 1,168 Member
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    Some places have calories posted on their website.
    Most do not and even the ones that do, it's still just a guess. Every chef will prepare each meal differently, most are not weighing and measuring each ingredient.
    So what I do is try my best to guess the calories and log it as best as possible. I don't worry too much about it and it's never halted my progress anyway.
  • MzCara148
    MzCara148 Posts: 205 Member
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    I pretty much only go to restaurants that have nutrition information available. The places I go to the most are Panera Bread, Subway or for a nice dinner I go to Longhorn Steakhouse or maybe Outback. If you order "naked" food it can be easier to calculate. For example you can log a baked potato with more certainty than mashed potato because you have no idea how much milk/cream/butter whatever the cook used. A naked steak is easier to calculate than chicken or pasta in a sauce. Mostly I try to avoid restaurants - I think a lot of us do.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    If going to a restaurant is a rare treat, and you don't find the restaurant here in the database, just pick the same dish at a different restaurant. Most of the chain restaurants are in here. It's not going to be exact but that's no big deal if it doesn't happen often.

    If you eat out alot, you need to try a little harder and to be blunt, it can make consistent weight loss more difficult. I try to deconstruct the dish in my head, eyeball the portions, and log each individually. I also always log an tablespoon of oil or butter, as that's often what makes restaurant dishes extra special. This method can be dodgy when you first start out. But if you pay attention while weighing out your portions at home, over time it makes you better at eyeballing portions when you're away from home.

    Also make sure you don't forget the side stuff when logging a restaurant meal. That piece of bread. The one piece of someone else's app. The salad dressing, etc. :drinker:
  • Cheesy567
    Cheesy567 Posts: 1,186 Member
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    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.
  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 1,049 Member
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    If it's not already in the database, I'll just use a similar restaurant. Ruby Tuesday, Applebees, Chili's, TGI Friday are all pretty similar. Friendly's and Perkins. Or the food and 'deli'.
  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,268 Member
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    If they don't have calories posted on their menu I search what I can find to be the next best guess. Usually overestimate.
  • AlleriaEating
    AlleriaEating Posts: 6 Member
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    I usually look for a similar meal from a similar restaurant (veggie omelette, 800 calories? seems legit,) overestimate the count a bit and try to log with precision the rest of the day. Seems to work okay.
  • leroyal100
    leroyal100 Posts: 3 Member
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    I usually do and where they don't have calories listed, I try to google and overestimate what I find.
  • amlelas68
    amlelas68 Posts: 69 Member
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    I always track when i eat out. Most places i can put in the search of MFP and will bring up. If not i google it and try to find the best fit. What i find if i dont log when i eat out that it allows me to cheat .
  • animated341
    animated341 Posts: 5 Member
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    If you want to lose weight, you shouldn't be going out to eat on a regular basis unless that's your one big meal of the day. Restaurants put a lot of fat and stuff into their food because it's the easiest way to make it taste good. It should be a rare treat, in which case don't binge, but don't bother logging it. Be in the moment during special occasions and put your phone down, don't obsess over the calories for a night.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,025 Member
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    I lost all of my weight eating out on a regular basis. You can find the nutrition information for most chain restaurants online and many have them listed on the menu. For non-chain restaurants I just use the information for a similar dish from a similar chain.
  • vmlabute
    vmlabute Posts: 311 Member
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    I consider restaurants my "rest day" dinner :)
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,072 Member
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    vmlabute wrote: »
    I consider restaurants my "rest day" dinner :)

    That can easily wipe out a deficit for some of us sadly.
  • vmlabute
    vmlabute Posts: 311 Member
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    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    vmlabute wrote: »
    I consider restaurants my "rest day" dinner :)

    That can easily wipe out a deficit for some of us sadly.

    True...sorry about that. You'll hear this again and again on MFP. Everyone's fitness, weightloss/gain journey is different
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,072 Member
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    vmlabute wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    vmlabute wrote: »
    I consider restaurants my "rest day" dinner :)

    That can easily wipe out a deficit for some of us sadly.

    True...sorry about that. You'll hear this again and again on MFP. Everyone's fitness, weightloss/gain journey is different

    No apology needed, I still eat out, I just have to plan it into my week and having a rest day from logging is just not happening unless I am on a diet break (usually same as @WinoGelato mentions above)

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