I have a harder time finding out nutrition facts for certain restaurants since the pages they give are specific and will not factor in side substitutions, and when I look at other sites they have slightly different nutrition facts making it hard to track macros accurately. Any tips?
EDIT: Thanks for the help. I realize yes caloric deficits are for weight loss but my original plan was that I would be losing weight while maintaining muscle hence the macros I set up. Combined with exercise I think the overall plan is to eat home cooked meals 90% of the time.
Registered nutritionist here!
There are apps and websites that can give a best estimate of specific dishes. For example, you can search “black bean beef” or “Hawaiian pizza” and a lot will have either a generalised nutrient profile or a brand name that you can substitute with what you’ve actually eaten. This is the BEST ESTIMATE you can really get.
There are a few things to note on this issue, though:
In my practice (which is mostly for athletes but also caters for weight loss and general health), I don’t discourage people from using apps and counters, but I do advise that they’re great for learning the rough content of your common foods, and finding out general trends and habits in your eating, but not for tracking everything.
For the portion of my practice that isn’t performance gain based- I very much encourage people to research the government guidelines for dietary intake in your own country/region. In almost every country these are VERY heavily evidence based and VERY generalisable to the public.
Actually giving your appropriate guidelines a cursory look through allows most people to get a better insight into dietary intake, as well as a “bullshit detector” when it comes to information (or mis/disinformation) found online through social media, etc.
Wish you all the best in your nutrition endeavours, whatever your goals!
I know I am on the fringe here but I have a spreadsheet of nutrition information from some places I like to visit. Usually the restaurants have a PDF version at least of the full nutrition values. Usually export that as a spreadsheet from adobe and then I can do stuff like add mayo, make your own substitutions etc. It can be time consuming to set-up but as someone who likes parsing data is no biggie.
Go out and enjoy a meal at the restaurant without having to worry about calories. If you really are worried, then simply go with the healthier options and I am sure you know which foods have that. This is not mentally good for you as I’ve been in this route before too.
The thing is, 1 meal at the restaurant isn’t going to impact your total physique. The key to maintaining a healthy diet and looking in shape is consistency of what you eat everyday.
If you eat out a lot, I would stick to eating foods that are whole and natural that aren’t processed foods or refined carbs.
Needing to obsess too much about the macros of a meal is unhealthy, and can be a sign of an eating disorder. Going out to eat is a special occasion that won’t hurt, and may even help make your nutrition plan more reachable
I guess. If it’s fast food, I go to something similar. Like a McDonalds QP is pretty much the same as a QP burger from 5 guys.
Honestly if I’m eating fast food, I’m not worried because I already know I busted my goals for the day!
I have found that most restaurants in my area have a nutrition chart, at least for the big chain ones. For example chipotle has their own calculator that shows macro and I believe micro nutrition as well. If it’s something like a mom and pop italian eatery, you might have to take a guess. For example the pasta served might be 3-4 servings worth of pasta, and then top that off with 1-2 servings of a generic sauce sauce in MFP like a generic alfredo if that’s what you ordered. It might not be exactly it but it will be close enough.
I personally avoid eating out while on a cut cycle. Any little bit that’s in excess or considered a “splurge” tends to throw off the progress. Especially if you have aggressive timelines or are trying to dedicate to a certain look.
You certainly can eat out. It just means for that 1 meal it’s not 100% accurate. When trying to lose weight though 100% home cooked is definitely the more ideal way.