How To Track Calories When You Go Out To Eat

So you’ve decided to start counting calories to stay on track with your fitness goals.

Thanks to your food scale at home, you know roughly what four ounces of chicken, 200g of rice and 32g of peanut butter looks like.

Your only question now is.. 

How do you count calories when you go out to eat?

Should you..

Bring your food scale to the restaurant?

Ask the chef to weigh out your food for you? 

Never go out to eat again?

I’ll answer all these questions and more. By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to count your calories when you go out to eat, and I’ll even give you some examples that you can refer to the next time you’re out to eat.

Let’s get started!

Check the restaurant’s website

The first thing you should do if you’re going out to eat is check to see if the restaurant has their macronutrient and calorie information posted online. 

If they do, it’s as easy as entering it into whatever tracking app you’re using.

This is the simplest method, and most chain restaurants and fast food chains have their nutrition information readily available. 

What if the restaurant you’re going to doesn’t have their calories posted anywhere? Or if you’re at an event like a wedding or your friend made you a meal?

Estimate each component of the meal

Use the knowledge you’ve gained so far by tracking to make an educated guess as to how much of each component of your meal is on your plate. I’ll go through some examples at the end of the article that will help you get started.

If you’ve been counting calories for a little while, you should have an idea of what serving sizes look like. 

You won’t know exactly how much the serving of fries you’re eating is, but do your best to estimate. It’s better than not estimating at all and eating everything in sight.

Look up similar foods

If you’re not sure what exactly makes up the dish you’re eating (like lasagna, pizza, casseroles, etc.) you can google the calories and macronutrients of the dish and use those calories.

You’ll probably find a few different dishes with varying calories. In this case the best option would be to find the average of two or three different dishes.

Account for extra fats

Most of the time, restaurants are going to cook with more oil than you’d use at home. 

It makes sense, as most restaurants want their food to taste better so, you know, you come back.

Depending on the meal, you might want to add in an extra teaspoon of olive oil. This will help account for some of the extra calories from cooking.

Don’t try to be perfect

No matter how close you think your estimates are, they won’t be perfect.

And that’s okay.

As long as you’re trying to estimate, being a little bit off won’t impact your progress very much at all. 

Remember, attempting to estimate your meal and being 100-200 calories off is better than using the excuse of “not knowing” to go completely off the rails and eat everything in sight.

F**ck it.. It’s only one meal

There are times when counting your calories doesn’t make sense, and it’s okay to take a night off from tracking here or there.

Big events like Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, and weddings are events where I might say “f**ck it” and take the night off from tracking.

How often should you take the night off from tracking?

It really depends on how close you are to your goal, and how long you have to reach that goal. 

The less time you have to reach your goal, and the further you are from that goal, the more strict you should probably be with tracking your calories.

Generally, taking 1-2 nights off from tracking per month probably won’t have any appreciable effect on your progress. 

Just don’t go completely nuts like powerlifter Dave Tate and eat a 13,000 calorie cheat meal.

Examples

Here are some examples to get you started. These are just examples, so you’ll need to keep that in mind when trying to estimate your own restaurant meals.

I’m using Mike’s Macros to track the examples below, but you can use whatever tracking app you’d like. 

Burger + fries

You can track a burger and fries two different ways. 

If you’re eating a burger and fries from a fast food restaurant like McDonald’s or Wendy’s, you can go to their website and just plug in the calories and macros to the app you’re using.

If you’re at a mom and pop style restaurant with no nutritional information, you can estimate each component of the burger.

Let’s say you’re eating a double cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and ketchup on a brioche bun with a side of sweet potato fries.

You can see I added a teaspoon of olive oil to account for the oil the restaurant cooks the burger with. I also didn’t add the lettuce or tomato, because those are so low calorie that they don’t really matter.

Tacos + chips & guacamole

Tacos are pretty straightforward. You’ll just estimate the components of the tacos, along with any chips or guacamole you have with them.

Guacamole will be pretty similar no matter where you go, because it’s mostly avocados with a few veggies and lime juice thrown in. 

I also included the teaspoon of olive oil here because there’s a good chance the restaurant uses oil in the marinade for the grilled steak.

Pasta 

When tracking pasta, you can still estimate each component of the pasta dish. Eyeball the amount of pasta first, then the sauce and protein (you were going to make sure there’s some protein on there.. right? If you weren’t, I’d encourage you to read THIS.. and add some damn protein!).

Let’s say you go to an Italian restaurant and order penne vodka with grilled chicken.

I would definitely add a teaspoon of olive oil here. 

Sushi

There is a big difference between sashimi, nigiri, and sushi rolls. Before you track the sushi you’re eating, make sure you know the difference.

Sashimi is usually just raw fish by itself. It’s a great option if you’re already high in carbs for the day and you need more protein.

Nigiri is usually a piece of raw fish on top of rice. Sushi will generally be higher in carbs and protein and lower in fats. That makes it a good option if you’re trying to keep your fats low. 

Sushi rolls, or Maki, are combinations of raw fish, rice, vegetables and sauces wrapped in seaweed. Sushi rolls are the highest in calories and the hardest to track, mainly because they contain a combination of carbs, fats and protein. Make sure you track things like the sauces on the roll as well as high calorie ingredients like tempura.

When it comes to sushi, I would not recommend estimating the individual components. There are too many ingredients and you’re not going to be able to accurately guess how much of each are in your sushi.

I would find a similar roll or piece of sushi in whatever tracking app you’re using, and go with that.

Just be sure that the sushi you choose makes sense. If the sushi entry you found looks suspiciously low in calories.. it’s probably incorrect.

Lucky for you, I’ve already searched the internet for the most accurate sushi calorie estimates on the internet.. you’re welcome 😁

Pizza

Pizza is going to be another food that I wouldn’t recommend estimating the components of. You’re not going to have any idea how much dough, cheese, sauce and toppings the restaurant is using. 

To track pizza, I would recommend finding the calories and macronutrients of similar pizza and use those.

Try to be specific. Does it have a thick crust? Thin crust? What toppings are on it? 

Try to get it as close as you can, but don’t stress out because it’s not going to be perfect. 

Brownies + ice cream 

I would go about tracking brownies and ice cream (and other desserts) the same way I would track pizza. 

Since you’re not going to know every ingredient that went into the brownies, I would find similar items, estimate the weight or serving size, and track that.

Odds are, you’re going to find a few different calorie entries for brownies. This would be an instance where finding the average of a few different entries would be a good idea.

The same goes for the ice cream. Try to be specific with the kind of ice cream (does it have chunks of cookie dough? Caramel swirl? Fudge?) if you don’t know the brand, but don’t overthink it.

If you’re eating the brownies and ice cream at a family gathering and you know the type of mix that was used, you can use that calorie information and estimate the serving size.

Wrapping up

Tracking your calories (and macronutrients, depending on your goals) can be an amazing tool to help you see progress in the shortest amount of time possible. It also teaches you what portion sizes really look like and can help you establish good eating habits for the rest of your life.

To really learn the skill of how to count calories, you do need to spend some time weighing and measuring your food. That’s why I would limit going out to eat at restaurants to 1-2 nights per week, at least during your first few weeks of learning to track calories. That way, even if your estimates are way off, you’ll still be able to make progress.

If the restaurant has nutrition information available on their website, use it! It’s probably not 100% accurate, but that’s okay.

If there is no information available, do your best to estimate portion sizes and move on with your day. 

Remember that to get results, you don’t have to be perfect. Being consistent is much more important.

As long as you are tracking your progress (by weighing yourself, taking measurements and progress pictures), you’ll be able to eat out a few nights per week while counting your calories.