I am okay with counting calories at home. I don't know what to do about going out to eat. I had some friends call yesterday wanting to go out to eat. We went and I ordered from the smaller lunch menu and only ate until I was just full. I know I can look online, but I already know it is more calories than I would eat at home.

What does everyone do? Just not eat out? Save up the calories?

I try to look up the calories, but that's harder to do with non-chain restaurants...
If the info isn't online, I just try to make a non-ridiculous choice

I get the best choice from the options, that still appeals to me. If that's still too high calorie I'll ask for a box right away and put half of it away. If I know ahead of time and it's a place with the menu online I'll look ahead of time, and plan. If not I'll just eat light earlier in the day, and the next day (if I didn't know ahead of time that I was going out).

Plan, plan, plan. You can usually find something on the menu that is the same calories as what you would usually have for lunch or dinner--soup, especially veggie or chicken broth soups (not potato!), is usually very low calorie--350 or less. Grilled chicken breast w/o any sort of creamy sauce, double steamed veggies. A lean small steak. Some salads, especially with no dressing.

Anyway, plan on-line before you go and practice your order. When you get there, don't look at the menu--why tempt yourself when you've already decided? It's FOOD PORN, designed by honest-to-god geniuses to make food look ever better than it really is. The only way to win their game is not to play.

If I get surprised and must eat out, I go for one of the things I listed above. Or, more often, I just don't eat. You don't have to. Sip coffee or a drink and chat with your friends. I will do a lot for my friends and family, but I am not going to eat to make them feel better.

I try to make sensible choices when we go out and I plan the extra into my day. I have to admit I'm much pickier about where we go out to eat now - used to be I'd eat anything anywhere but now if I'm going to be eating higher calorie or off plan at all (or on plan but one meal taking a bigger chunk of my daily allotment) it had better be a really yummy meal that is worth the calories.

Thanks for all the great replies. I just started on here a couple of days ago and I really haven't gotten a "plan" yet. I am reading labels and was a smarter shopper at the grocery store today. However, I know I need something more solid. It is just that every time I have told myself that I have to eat this or exercise like that, I feel like such a failure when I don't do what was on the "plan". I can't tell you how many times I have sat down, written down my plan and then found the notebook or whatever weeks later since I stopped my "plan".

I would never havethought to not eat while out to lunch. But why not just have a tea or maybe a side salad and fruit. Good thoughts.

Finding this very hard. Went to a restaurant yesterday and didn't eat because I was so apalled by the number of calories

Oh, one of the most important things: when you look at the nutritional menu, you have to look at everything on the menu. Most of us have 3-4 go-to items that we eat when we eat out: for me, it was 1) burger 2) fajitas 3) south-westerny sort of salad. Pretty much any time I ate out, I ate one of those unless it was an ethnic place--and I have a list of the 2-3 things I look at at each type of ethnic place as well. I never even LOOKED at seafood, say, or really any kind of meat platter (like grilled chicken breast or steak). Nothing wrong with those things, they just weren't what I saw myself eating, so I didn't look at them.

A new lifestyle means looking at the whole menu and finding new choices, not just ruling things out because they aren't what you always do.

An analogy: my brother was in college and called my dad and said "I can't take Chem next semester. All the sections are conflict with my other classes". My dad got ahold of the schedule and was looking at it and saw that there was an 8:30 section and he knew my brother had no classes then. He asked him about it, and my brother was truly, truly startled: he really, honestly didn't even see that section because he ruled out classes before 10 without even thinking about it. A lot of people (myself included) look at menus that way. Try to be open minded!

Everytime I sit down at a restaurant with my family I ask the waitstaff for the calorie counts for their food menu items. Either 1) they have a notebook to give you with the information, or 2) they have the notebook in the manager's office and they can look up the items for you if they notebook can not leave the office. These are the only two things I have had to do so far. Oh, except for Chipotle, they only have their calories online but even then I just got what I knew I could add up in my head and because I carry my calorie counter book everywhere I go.

calorie counter book!!! so obvious but i did not think of it....i just found the sticky post for newbies...maybe that will help me figure all this out

forgive me, this is like my second day at this

There are also quite a few good books written on the topic of eating healthier in restaurants. I have several on my wish list.


I just went to amazon.com and typed these words into the search box

restaurant calorie


and it came back with 185 results (some may not apply, but the first few look promising).

Read the summaries, and the customer reviews, and the publication date. You can save a lot of money if you don't mind buying a previous edition, but you don't want it so old that most of the information is out of date.

Many of the books also provide other nutritional information in addition to calories. I count calories with an exchange plan, so instead of restaurant calorie, I typed in restaurant exchange.

I was a waitress for awhile...you can order alot of healthy food as side items. For example a grilled chicken breast, veggie, baked potato, grilled shrimp, applesauce, small salad, etc. It's not advertised on menus, but you ask and it's there. Much much healthier than ordering items off menu. Also, alot of places have pam you can have them use that instead of the butter they use on the grill. Most of the portions are comparable to the meals and cheaper. I actually will only eat like this at restaurants now.

i have buying a calorie counter book on my to-do list for tomorrow. I also spent some time tonight making a plan based on info I have learned from this site so far.

I plan to eat 3 meals at 400 calories and 4 snacks at 100 calories for a total of 1600 calories for a week. If I have lost between 1 and 3 pounds I know I am on track.

I also have decided to try to get 750 minutes of exercise a month.

My plan is to not plan the exercise cause that always stresses me out.

I do think I should plan my meals the night before.

I feel really good about what I am doing. I actually feel more in control than I have with any other attempt at weight loss.

Thanks to everyone on this site. I am so glad I made this discovery.

I don't eat out very often, but when I do I make sure I plan the rest of my day accordingly and leave myself lots of wiggle room. I've gotten pretty good at eying portions and guesstimating calories.

I rarely have a problem with it because I hate eating in front of other people- and it helps motivate me to go for the soup and salad instead of sitting in front of someone chowing down on a burger.

Arm yourself with knowledge ahead of time- skip the appetizers, have water, no dessert, and box half of whatever it is. And most importantly, savor and enjoy it!

If you have a smartphone you can get an app that lists the calories at major restaurants. And if you have internet on your phone you can pull up the website to look. Since getting my phone, I've been known to take a quick trip to the restroom to "wash my hands" before ordering if I'm not familiar with the menu.