estimating calories/macros when eating out

June 26, 2023 12:45 AM

I typically cook my own food, but on one or two weeknights nights I grab takeout and on weekends I will go to a restaurant once or twice with friends. These are not chain places with nutrition info online (or on a fitness app), so how can I estimate calories and macros?

Knowing an estimate will help me stay on track with my meals, rather than thinking self-defeating things to myself like "the whole day is a wash since I ate pad thai, might as well eat more junk and not track it" AND overly rigid things like "I can never eat out with friends since it's impossible to know the nutritional values of the food I get, or if I go out I can only order a salad." In other words, for me this information can help keep a sustainable "moderation" approach to my diet. Because some weeks I have up to 4 meals out, I think it's pretty key to know rather than waving off as 4 "cheat" meals.

I know the calories in most basic food items, the main problem is estimating how much oil or sugar is used by the cook, since recipes vary so much. I often ask for sauces/dressings on the side but this isn't applicable for all meals. Ideas from nutrition minded people and/or those who have been restaurant chefs?

Some of my go-to dishes I love (and have no intention of stopping ordering, but would like to know rough estimates for average non-chain American restaurant portions - if higher than expected, I can eat 1/2 the portion size) are listed below. Any resources welcome!

Typical Thai dishes: chicken satay app, small cup coconut soup, various flavor curries with tofu, rice & veggies
Sushi order: garlic/spicy edamame app & 1 california roll
Sandwich: grilled chicken or turkey with cheese (no mayo/aoli, sometimes olive oil) on wheat or sourdough, side greens or fruit
Mediterranean: Falafel or chicken kabab skewers with either rice or 1 pita, typically dipped in white garlic sauce
Breakfast: scrambled eggs or omelet with veggies & cheese, side greens or fruit
Seafood: grilled or blackened salmon or mussels in garlic sauce

posted by CancerSucks to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

Best answer: I would ballpark the curries at 900-1000 calories or even more. Better to go for grilled meat and have just a cup/handful of rice on the side with minimal fish sauce, that will be closer to 500-600. Satay, skip that.

Sandwich: entirely depends on the amounts of bread and cheese. Going to go for 600-800 unless the bread is quite thin & there’s not much cheese.

Sushi: the edamame will put you over depending on how much there is and how oily it is. Stick to a handful and will estimate 600-700 altogether

Mediterranean: if you’re easy on the sauce and rice, 500-700.

Breakfast: as described maybe 600-800 depending on the cheese. With toast and butter easily 800-1000

Seafood: 600-800 depending on how much sauce you’re having

Basically - assume it’s going to be around 900, unless you stick to grilled meat and fish + salad and dressing or sauce on the side which will likely be around 500-700 depending on portions. Obv any alcohol will be more.

You can also check your calorie counting app and see what other people have put for those meals, at a franchise or not, and err on the side of caution (pick the higher number, because restaurants want to max flavour so they increase fat, and they’ll short you on protein & give you much cheaper carbs)
posted by cotton dress sock at 1:24 AM on June 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

I usually search in my app (LoseIt) for something that sounds similar enough and use that. I usually go for something on the high end as I'd rather overestimate than underestimate.

My mindset is that precision accuracy matters much less for any one meal than continued awareness and tracking over the long term. If I get it close enough while being reasonably accurate for the other 90% of the time it's good enough for me.
posted by synecdoche at 3:50 AM on June 26, 2023 [11 favorites]

Restaurant omelets are a bit of a wild card because they don’t have a consistent number of eggs (regardless of how the menu describes them) and may have cream added for fluffiness, and a generous amount of cheese. For portion control purposes you’d probably be better off with scrambled or even fried if you like them that way.
posted by staggernation at 5:59 AM on June 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

> rather than thinking self-defeating things to myself like "the whole day is a wash since I ate pad thai, might as well eat more junk and not track it"

Oh don’t go there! If you ate pad thai, good, pad thai is great. Just get back on the horse at the next meal. I ate two McDonald’s meals a week and still lost a significant amount of weight. Exercise gives you a bit of a buffer too.

> My mindset is that precision accuracy matters much less for any one meal

This is so true!
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:17 AM on June 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I am a ridiculous data geek who loves tracking this stuff just because I love the numbers, and I've done two things:

* Look for a national chain that has a similar item; better yet, two or three chains. They'll often have nutrition charts you can download. I've had a hard time finding Thai, but there are definitely places with sandwiches and Mediterranean. You can get some sushi data from Bento Sushi, Sushi Maki. Lazeez Shawarma doesn't give you details, but you at least get total calories; Pita Pit breaks everything down by item. If you can get two or three restaurants with similar items, you can either average their calories or take the highest number, whichever suits your tracking style.

* Most of my meals out are take-out, so I weigh my first or second order of a particular item to get a sense of the portion size. Then I look up similar items in a food app (I mostly use Cronometer) and enter "x grams" of a standard take-out burger or pasta dish or whatever. It's definitely not perfect, but it's better than a wild guess.

Also, the Toronto Star does some cool take-out calorie breakdowns, like sushi burritos.

My take-out meals can add up to a really large percentage of my weekly calories - but I find that having those numbers and knowing HOW much makes them all fit in neatly to my otherwise vegetable-heavy meals.

Hope that helps!
posted by kristi at 10:49 PM on June 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

I also tend to search my app for similar items, best if from a restaurant or food service. My Fitness Pal isn't perfect, but enough users have eaten similar items that I'm almost always able to err on the side of caution without getting down to estimating the ingredients (it is a free app, and some judgement is involved for most foods, but you get a pretty good sense pretty quickly).
posted by ldthomps at 6:29 PM on June 27, 2023 [1 favorite]