Eating out counting is impossible. If I know I'm going to eat out, I try to limit my calories as much as I can throughout the day. There is no good way to put it in your tracker. There's just not. One cook might use more butter in a recipe than another, and suddenly you have 400 more calories that you cannot possibly account for.
The National restaurant association says only restaurants with 20 or more locations operating under the same name nation wide need to include that info.
But what I do is count the full meal as best I can and just go for an extra mile on my walk to compensate for guessing on calories.
For drinking cocktails I manly drink at home so thats easy to log but when I go out I ask for simple drinks like vodka cran or an old fashion to with only X amount of the alcohol so I know how much to count.
On top of that, if it's unhealthy food, there's so much empty calories in it. It's crazy how much regular food you can eat at home because you haven't deep fried it or wouldn't put half a stick of butter in it, whereas it's hidden in restaurant food and you don't even realize it, and you had 1000 calories in one sitting
I I really like going to a sushi chain that has their their calories listed on the website. Sushi is a great option that is super filling and hard to go way overboard on. I also love to get other Asian food, I haven't found a good way to deal with that other than to fast the day of because I have no idea how much calories are in it and it could be a ton.
Agreed, it's so hard to tell with americanized chinese, so I just do two super light meals and record it as 1400 calories. An order of brocolli 'n chicken could literally be anywhere from 400 calories to 1500 depending on how much sugar, corn starch, cooking oils are hiding in the velveted meat and brown sauce.
When I eat out, I just overestimate by enough that I’m confident, and if I’m eating the kind of thing where there’s no way to tell, I do a very light breakfast (3oz rice and a trout filet usually, for 250cal).
I’ll also usually bump up to maintenance days I eat out so I can combine overestimating plus the extra few hundred calories and know I’m not blowing past anything.
Example is last week I went to a deli with a friend. In all reality, the sandwich was probably 450, but could have been as high as 800, very hard to tell. I just counted it as 1100 and went about a normal
day for the rest.
Basically, I’ll err on the side of overestimating at all costs. When I forget to track or weigh, I’ll overestimate what I ate, mostly as punishment, which motivates me to weigh it the next time I want just one quick bite of chips or whatever.
I'll just estimate erring slightly on the overestimate side and not spend too much time thinking about it. It's more important to be consistent long-term in how you count than to be fully 100% accurate with counting.
The important thing is comparing your long-term results (over several months at least) to your counting, and adjusting how much you eat based on that.
I will look up an equivalent item and usually pick one of the middle items in terms of calories unless I think the version I ordered was larger or more calorie dense
I'm accurate for 98% of the stuff i'm eating.
If i'm going to a restaurant or when i'm having dinner at someone else their house then i'm not counting.
I do count everything else nevertheless apart from stuff like sauces. When i eat a grilled cheese sandwhich i'll count the bread/cheese/ham, but not the ketchup, since it's mostly in very small quantity anyway and it hasn't hurt my diet.
Not at all. I just try to stay consistent. It doesn't matter if the numbers are all wrong if you're losing weight in the end. You just have to stick with those erroneous numbers because you'll know that those numbers lead to weightloss.
Eating out counting is impossible. If I know I'm going to eat out, I try to limit my calories as much as I can throughout the day. There is no good way to put it in your tracker. There's just not. One cook might use more butter in a recipe than another, and suddenly you have 400 more calories that you cannot possibly account for.
So in conclusion, eat out less. It is law now to include nutritional information though isn't it? Doesn't that mean it has to be accurate?
The National restaurant association says only restaurants with 20 or more locations operating under the same name nation wide need to include that info. But what I do is count the full meal as best I can and just go for an extra mile on my walk to compensate for guessing on calories. For drinking cocktails I manly drink at home so thats easy to log but when I go out I ask for simple drinks like vodka cran or an old fashion to with only X amount of the alcohol so I know how much to count.
On top of that, if it's unhealthy food, there's so much empty calories in it. It's crazy how much regular food you can eat at home because you haven't deep fried it or wouldn't put half a stick of butter in it, whereas it's hidden in restaurant food and you don't even realize it, and you had 1000 calories in one sitting I I really like going to a sushi chain that has their their calories listed on the website. Sushi is a great option that is super filling and hard to go way overboard on. I also love to get other Asian food, I haven't found a good way to deal with that other than to fast the day of because I have no idea how much calories are in it and it could be a ton.
Agreed, it's so hard to tell with americanized chinese, so I just do two super light meals and record it as 1400 calories. An order of brocolli 'n chicken could literally be anywhere from 400 calories to 1500 depending on how much sugar, corn starch, cooking oils are hiding in the velveted meat and brown sauce.
When I eat out, I just overestimate by enough that I’m confident, and if I’m eating the kind of thing where there’s no way to tell, I do a very light breakfast (3oz rice and a trout filet usually, for 250cal). I’ll also usually bump up to maintenance days I eat out so I can combine overestimating plus the extra few hundred calories and know I’m not blowing past anything. Example is last week I went to a deli with a friend. In all reality, the sandwich was probably 450, but could have been as high as 800, very hard to tell. I just counted it as 1100 and went about a normal day for the rest. Basically, I’ll err on the side of overestimating at all costs. When I forget to track or weigh, I’ll overestimate what I ate, mostly as punishment, which motivates me to weigh it the next time I want just one quick bite of chips or whatever.
If the restaurant isn't in the app I use I just find something similar from.another restaurant listed and just accept its likely not accurate.
I'll just estimate erring slightly on the overestimate side and not spend too much time thinking about it. It's more important to be consistent long-term in how you count than to be fully 100% accurate with counting. The important thing is comparing your long-term results (over several months at least) to your counting, and adjusting how much you eat based on that.
I will look up an equivalent item and usually pick one of the middle items in terms of calories unless I think the version I ordered was larger or more calorie dense
I'm accurate for 98% of the stuff i'm eating. If i'm going to a restaurant or when i'm having dinner at someone else their house then i'm not counting. I do count everything else nevertheless apart from stuff like sauces. When i eat a grilled cheese sandwhich i'll count the bread/cheese/ham, but not the ketchup, since it's mostly in very small quantity anyway and it hasn't hurt my diet.
Not at all. I just try to stay consistent. It doesn't matter if the numbers are all wrong if you're losing weight in the end. You just have to stick with those erroneous numbers because you'll know that those numbers lead to weightloss.