Enjoying time at a restaurant with friends and family is so important and incorporating it into a successful day of hitting your macros is totally possible with practice and planning. Remember, the goal of counting your macros is to create healthy, sustainable relationships with food. We want to teach you ways to feel confident while still maintaining balance! And you would be quite shocked how accurate you can be while estimating. Here are some of our top tips:
Should you weigh your food: If you are comfortable whipping out your food scale at the dinner table, go for it! Again, it comes down to your specific goals and how they line up with your personal needs. Refer back to your goals and the flexibility they allow and decide where you stand! Do you need to be strict or do you have wiggle room?
If and when possible, plan ahead. Look at the menu and see what options are available. Pick a meal that you know you'll enjoy and can track relatively accurately. Use the meal description to log your meal ahead of time. This also reduces any anxiety you may have about the dining experience. You can be more present with your company instead of doing mental gymnastics in your head about what you want to eat.
Choose standalone items- things like steak, chicken and fish with baked potatoes or rice; veggies as sides. If you pick a dish with tons of ingredients, it will be harder to track. Look for words like “grilled”, “baked” and “steamed”. Don’t be afraid to ask the server how its prepared! If they cook in butter ask for it to be cooked in oil. Always ask for dressings and sauces to be on the side.
If you know what you are going to eat ahead of time, then log that first and work backwards the rest of the day. Start with an educated guess: Estimate what the portion sizes will be and log them into your MFP diary straight away. Set aside a certain amount of calories/macros for this meal out. We usually recommend to save a decent amount of carbs and fats as restaurants tend to pack those in!
Reference your tracker: If you’re eating out at a chain restaurant, MyFitnessPal has an extensive database that has almost anything and everything in there if you just search for it! You can search the name of the restaurant or a specific meal at that restaurant. If you cannot find it that way use something similar.
Don’t go to the meal starving. Try to make sure you are well hydrated. Have protein filled, well balanced meals earlier in the day so you aren’t tempted to eat everything off the table at the restaurant.
Don’t feel pressured or obligated to eat everything that comes to you on your plate. Chew your food well, put down your utensil between bites and eat slowly. Often if you just slow down the rate at which you eat, this will naturally result in you stopping before you feel stuffed.
If your meal arrives and its a HUGE portion, immediately ask for a to-go box. Box up half of your meal and put it away so you can control how much you eat at the restaurant. Then you have some yummy leftovers!
WHEN IN DOUBT REACH OUT TO YOUR COACH!
PRO TIP FROM THE HABYT COACHES:
It is perfectly ok to bring your own dressing, oil, sugar free ketchup, hot sauce or any seasoning to restaurants to save on macros and better control portions.
Double check your macros on calorieking.com if you’re unsure of how to track a dish at a restaurant or need to verify a food entry that doesn’t have a nutrition label.
Ask if your meal can be cooked using cooking spray instead of oil.
Log it as a meal in MyFitnessPal so you can order it again next time you go to that restaurant! Then you won’t have to do any work! We suggest keeping around the same meals on rotation so it is easier log!