Eating out
 

What do you do about calorie counting when you go out to eat and the cals arent listed? I know try to eat light or go to the light portion of the menu? but how to log it? Know any calorie counter friendly restaurants?

I'm like you -- I choose healthy items and do not get an appetizer or dessert.

I'm not sure how you're tracking your calories, but I use FitDay. So I will enter each item that I ate.

For example, I went out to lunch today and had a big salad with grilled chicken on it. When I got home, I entered all the individual items and amounts -- lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken, dressing -- into FitDay. I had to kind of fudge it on the salad dressing (it was a balsamic vinaigrette and FitDay didn't have that in its database).

There is some guesswork to it, but I tend to err on the side of extra calories.

Good luck!

I find its usually better to round up & guestimate high on resturant foods- they sneak fats & sugars into everything they can, even the the healthy stuff. Plus the serving sizes are rediculous- there is no way a healthy adult could eat the amount of food they serve at most places. Another trick for calculating calories later is to find a similar type of resturant that does have nutritional info available- its going to more accurate most of the time then anything else. And don't be afraid to ask for things the way you want them- dressing on the side, 2 vegies instead of a roll & vegie, etc....but don't get so carried away that you don't enjoy the meal either- occasionally eating out is okay, everything is okay in moderation.

I've been trying to go to chain resturaunts. Most have the calories listed on their webpages. I feel more comfortable knowing what i'm eating and not trying to guess.

Nothing. I just make sensible choices and then put it behind me. No way am I going to come home and sit in front of my computer (in fitday) trying to figure out every little amount I ate and how many calories it was.

Totally agree. This is how I'll have to eat for the rest of my life if I don't want to gain the weight back so I have to be realistic and know that there will be plenty of times I won't know the exact amount of calories that I'm eating. Moderation and enjoying it are totally key to successful weightloss.

calorieking.com has a database of restaurants and the nutrition for parts of their menus. but i agree with what others are saying- it is best to round up.

I think that for ME, eating out once in a while isn't too tough. I like going to Applebees and I normally get that Tango Chicken Sandwich off the Weight Watchers menu. The whole plate of food is 370 calories.

Now, what I do find difficult is eating out while traveling. We just went to Minneapolis on Thursday and returned on Saturday night. My aunt passed away last Saturday (she was having an angiogram and they nicked her aorta and she bleed to death). Anyhow, her memorial service was on Friday.

• Thursday supper: Applebees - chicken and broccoli fettucine - I didn't make a good choice, but I knew that going into the meal
• Friday breakfast: Perkins - ham & cheese omelet (egg beaters), pancakes, fresh fruit (no hashbrowns)
• Friday lunch: church - I was good in the sense that I didn't fill up my plate with every sort of casserole available. I did have a piece of cake.
• Friday supper: Olive Garden - I ordered the linguine marinara - VERY GOOD, but the breadsticks were calling my name.
• Saturday breakfast: hotel - A blueberry bagel
• Saturday lunch: D.MichaelB.'s - grilled chicken sandwich with the mayo on the side and raw veggies with fat free ranch dressing as a dip. Excellent meal!
• Saturday supper: home!

All in all, I think I did fairly okay with the food I ate. I know it could have been better. We had only planned on staying one night and coming home on Friday. Then my DH said that as long as we were there, we should stay another night to go shopping, etc. The only "down" side of this was that I hadn't planned on doing any shopping so I wasn't sure where I wanted to go. We did end up at the HUGE outlet mall in Albertville. AND... we bought a new bed! We've been sleeping on John's queen size bed that is some sort of Sealy back care or something like that. It's way to hard for me. The new bed is a king size and has more of a plush top, but still firm underneath. I guess a plush top with memory foam and cashmere. It won't be delivered until March 9.

Back to the eating out thing. We will be going on our honeymoon this summer. Once we figure out where we are going, I can do a little research as to what is available. I think the last we talked about it, we were going to drive to Glacier National Park. I'm hoping they have food similar as to what is available in Yellowstone - I worked there two summers ('89 and '90). I feel more in control if I know what I am "going into." Even if the restaurants aren't much more than fast food joints, I still order better when I plan it out. Like ordering a kid's meal instead of the double or triple whatever. (Well, skip the fries and just get a hamburger and a pop.)

Kimberly

Eating at ethnic restaurants is harder, but I do it! Like the others, I try to guesstimate when I return (and eat reasonably there). I'm not trying to get it perfect, but see how I can fit it in my life! Make good choices and hopefully good guesses and move on. I'd worry more if I weren't losing.

I've been impressed by the number of chains in nutridiary's extended database!

I usually get the exact information off the internet and make it a custom food on my Fitday. Or, like Jill, enter something as a bigger serving that is close to the calorie counts I found online. Fitday will tell me a large hamburger is something like 600-800 calories, when actually most restaurants will tell you online that they are about 1,000 so I will enter a generic food on Fitday but mess with the servings so it matches the calorie count I get online. It is very important to me to religiously count everything and underestimate nothing. I tend to eat out at least twice a week and while I'm sure it's not good for me, it's not something I see myself stopping anytime soon purely for health reasons. I fit it into my calories when I can (Chili's has some healthier options) because I know soon the $$ will get tight and I'll have more impetus to stop eating out as much.

I eat out *alot* on the weekends and I haven't had too much trouble counting calories. My restaurant staples are things like clear broth soups (pho, miso, hot & sour) sushi, steamed spring rolls, fahitas, grilled meats etc. For breakfasts I tend towards multigrain pancakes, oatmeal and poached eggs. When you stay away from sauces and fried things calorie estimating is pretty easy.

I definitely like the way I feel when I've selected the right foods eating out - both mentally and physically. Even today, I had lunch with my DH at Subway and ordered a ham sub on Italian with spinach leaves -- and fat free Ranch dressing. (And baked chips.) No cheese. I didn't even MISS the cheese. I did see a little girl eating a chocolate macadamia nut cookie and I wanted to take it from her, but I restrained myself. ;)

Kimberly

Tani -- I love a lot of the same foods you do -- if you use fitday, when you eat pho, what values do you enter?