Tracking calories or macros can be a great strategy for reaching your fitness goals. When eating at home, keeping track is relatively simple. Measuring cups and food scales make it relatively easy to keep track of portions. Apps like MyFitnessPal do the math for you.
The biggest hiccup in tracking your food? Meals out. It’s difficult to know what ingredients are in your dish, how much oil was used to prepare it, and eyeballing portion size can be challenging. Keeping track of your calories or macros will always be more challenging when dining out, but it’s not impossible! And tracking what you can will always be better than tracking nothing.
Keep reading for my top tips for tracking your food when eating out!
Look at the Menu Ahead of Time
Finding a restaurant’s menu ahead of time has gotten easier and easier, especially in these COV*D times. Looking at the menu ahead of time can be really helpful. Getting an idea of what you might eat ahead of time can help you plan for the rest of the day. If you know that you’re going to eat a more calorie dense meal at the restaurant, you can plan accordingly and give yourself a bit more buffer room with your other meals. This also gives you the opportunity to figure out how you are going to track your meal ahead of time.
See if the Nutrition Facts are Listed on the Restaurant Website or MyFitnessPal
If you will be eating at a chain restaurant, there is a good chance that the nutrition facts will be listed on the restaurant’s website, MyFitnessPal, or both. This makes tracking easy! If the restaurant you are going to is a local restaurant, you can track a similar item you might get at a chain restaurant. For example, if you’re eating at a local burger restaurant, you might track a burger from Shake Shack or McDonald’s if you know that the portions are similar. This won’t be perfect, but tracking something is better than nothing!
Plan B: Track Individual Ingredients
If the meal you will be eating is more unique or has a lot of ingredients, it might be best to track the individual ingredients instead of trying to find something similar on MyFitnessPal. For example, you likely won’t be able to find a crepe filled with egg, garlic aioli, cheddar, and kale on MyFitnessPal. You can track each of these items individually and do your best to estimate portion size. Estimating portion size for each item is also a lot easier than accurately estimating portion size for the whole dish.
Assume the Restaurant Used Extra Oil & Fat
It’s safe to assume that the restaurant cooked your meal with more oil, butter, and fat than you would have. Use generous numbers when estimating. A 500 calorie meal you would cook at home can easily become a 1,000 calorie meal with extra oil, sauces, and a slightly larger portion. This can really add up when you’re trying to lose body fat. Side note – don’t be afraid to ask the restaurant to use cooking spray instead of oil if the extra oil is not in line with your goals.
Don’t Go Crazy
Tracking your food when eating out can be tricky. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t figure out how to track a meal, or if you accidentally go over your calories or macros. It’s just one meal. If you only eat out once in a while, it’s not worth stressing over. Eating out once or twice per week is not enough to derail your progress if you are hitting your goals with all of your other meals. If you do eat out more frequently, this is a skill worth developing and it will get easier over time!
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