Eating out and tracking macros? Not a problem anymore!
Finally, you have learned the macros counting technique. You feel like a chef at your kitchen, weighing ingredients and cooking super-healthy foods. But Friday evening is something you haven’t been warned by your fitness coach. So you are staring at a restaurant menu, your knees are shaking, all your thoughts instantly transforms into kilograms…
Calm down! Tracking your macros when eating out at restaurants is easier than it seems to be. Trust me.
At first, most of the restaurants publish nutrition data on-line. Thus, the restaurant website should be the first place to look. You can easily find nutrition information about pasta, pizza or whatever you want to eat perfectly stored on the internet.
But what if the data isn’t 100% correct?
Surely, this information is not as perfect as your kitchen measurements, but you are not trying to find accurate calculations. Your goal is to be as close as possible to the real data. So, in case you can find the restaurant’s nutrition data on-line — use it unless you are sure it’s 100% wrong.
But there is a lot of situations when the data cannot be found by several clicks.
Don’t panic! Just let me help you to count the macros.
Close your FitnessPal app at first — it will bring your nothing besides irritation because there are tons of foods named “chicken salad” or “pasta arrabiata” ranging from 300 to 1000 calories per serving and you will never know what is yours.
You need to find the nutrition information about all the ingredients of your meal. Yes, google all 5–6–10 ingredients. Sounds nerdy, but it will take only several minutes.
For instance, Greek salad:
Cucumber
Red bell pepper
Cherry tomatoes
Red onion
Feta cheese
Olives
Olive oil
Then you need to estimate the serving size of each ingredient. Remember, you don’t need to be perfect in your calculations!
For example, I’ve estimated the following:
Cucumber 1
Red bell pepper 0.5
Cherry tomatoes 3
Red onion 0.25
Feta cheese 50g
Olives 3
Olive oil 5g
But what is the price for a mistake?
Not as huge as you thought. Let’s assume that 1 day a week you are eating at a restaurant. The meal is 50% of your daily calorage and your mistake is 25%. Using “complicated math formulas”, I’ve found that eating 1 day per week at a restaurant, I’ll lose 23 pounds in 4 months while eating home-made food will make me 24 pounds leaner in 4 months. So, 1 pound is not a good reason for panic.
Few ideas what to order to ease your calculations (but of course you can order whatever you want):
Salad with Grilled Chicken/Shrimp
Salad with Game Meat
Egg White Omelette
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Fish Entree
Grilled Chicken Entree
Pork Loin
Crab
Meat Burger
Honestly, for me, all those calculations are a bit stressful. Thus, I’m a Nutritionista app user.
What is it?
It is a mobile application, which automatically counts calories at restaurants.
3 easy steps:
- Find a place to eat based on your nutrition goals.
2. Track what you are eating.
3. Keep up with your daily nutrition goal.
That’s it. Try this app, Nutritionista will be your best friend, I promise.
By the way, sometimes you deserve a night off. Thus, sometimes you don’t need to count calories and just enjoy your meal!
