how to track when eating out

Let’s talk about all the different methods to track your food when you eat out.

I think a lot of us get super worried about the inaccuracies of tracking when eating out, and that’s super normal. But I think one thing that you have to realize is that you don’t need precise accuracy to lose weight. A good honest estimation is more than enough to keep yourself on track.

Here are some methods you could try out:

1) Google it. It’s getting quite popular for cafes/resturants to have some sort of calorie count with their dishes these days. Definitely a lot more mainstream than it ever was 10 years ago. I mean you can basically find some form of calorie count on all fast food joints like pizza hut, kfc, subway, Mcdonalds, etc online. Those numbers are more than enough for you keep track of how much you’re eating when you’re eating out.

2) Take a picture of your meal and work on the specifics at home. With the picture you can enjoy your meal first and calculate all the nitty gritty numbers when you’re done. Remember you don’t need exact numbers. If you consistently track at home, you’ll slowly be able to be more & more accurate with your estimates. You’ll start to know what 200g of white rice looks like, what a 200g vs 400g apple looks like, what a 80g banana looks like etc. In the beginning sure they’re more inaccuracies, but it’s not big deal as you’ll improve on it over time. Tracking and being accountable for the foods you’re eating is what matters the most.

3) Bring a food scale out. I know, sounds werid. I definitely thought a lot about it before I did it for the first time too, but nowadays I basically have a food scale in my everyday bag. My experience so far with brining a food scale out? No one’s actually ever asked me about it. I’ve brought it to fast food joints, steakhouses, sushi joints, and no one really bats an eye. More importantly it’s not that I measure food every single time I go out, usually it’s just when I try a new dish or place. Once I’ve measured it once, I have a good idea what their portions are so when I go back there again and I can just estimate based on my previous measurements.

4) Use a generic number. If you’re having trouble breaking down your meal, just search it online and use whatever number you find that makes sense. Yes this is probably the least accurate way of all the above, but something’s better than nothing. Say you’re having some special kind of fried rice, there’s no need to find the exact fried rice dish you’re having. Instead just track it as “fried rice” and use whatever figure your app/google gives you. It’ll still work.

5) Don’t track. If it’s some kind of outing that doesn’t happen often like a celebration or something opting to not track is also completely fine. It’s ok to take a day off, you don’t need to count every single calorie digit to lose weight. Having a meal off here or there is totally reasonable and realistic towards your weight goals. Just make sure you get back on track the next meal and all is well.

There you have it.

There’s basically always a way to get an idea of how much you ate out. The accuracy really isn’t as important as the consistency in tracking it and keeping yourself accountable for it. The more you do it, the more accurate and faster you’ll be in estimating your portions when you go out.

A lot of “outside food” isn’t as caloric dense as you think. Remember a big mac is 565kcal. 565kcal isn’t that much calories at all. Everyone, every size, every gender can easier fit one a day into their meals and still lose weight. Knowing that the big mac is 565kcal is what makes it a lot less scary. I remember before calorie counting I thought a big mac was like 1000+ kcal easily. Just like I thought watermelon was high in kcal cos it was sweet, when it’s actually one of the lowest calorie fruits out there.

The more you track, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better decisions you make for your diet and in the long run the more results you’ll reap.

Hope this helps, hope you’re well!

Till the next one~

—Po