HOW TO ACCURATELY TRACK MEALS OUT: A BREAKDOWN INTO 4 KEY CATEGORIES.
At the Physique Club, we understand that accurately tracking meals can be a significant concern. It can be the most challenging issue we see people face when aspiring to achieve results while maintaining a social life. Eating out and tracking is still doable, but it depends on the type of cuisine and dishes you choose to incorporate. We can often be unaware of the exact calorie and macro breakdown as we cannot know the specific ingredients and quantities used in preparing these meals. After all, the chef's passion is to make great-tasting food; they don't care about your macro or calorie goal. Rest assured, we are well-equipped to guide you and help you navigate these challenges effectively.
Eating delicious food with friends and family is vital to our well-being, connection-building, and overall life enjoyment. However, the bigger the health and fitness goal, the more you may need to sacrifice events and situations, applying self-discipline for a long-term reward (to support your big goal!).
We observe that individuals typically respond in one of two ways when unsure about the nutritional content of meals while eating out: some choose to avoid eating out altogether, while others decide to indulge freely and address any concerns later.
We aim to find a balanced approach that allows you to make significant progress while maintaining a social life. Adopting a sensible strategy will enable you to achieve your results without feeling restricted or deprived.
How often you can eat out weekly will depend on your current health and fitness goals. A significant difference exists between dining out with a 1500-calorie daily total intake and a 2550-calorie daily total intake.
Calorie surplus = Consuming more meals out is acceptable (meals out will contain a higher calorie content than homemade meals). However, we still advise making 80% of your meals homemade to contribute to better health.
Maintenance = Consider sticking to a handful of meals out per week; the more meals out, the higher your overall weekly calorie intake can be, pushing you into a surplus (potentially contributing to weight gain).
Calorie deficit = The fewer meals you consume, the better and more accurate your tracking will be.
Let's break it down into four situations to make tracking more accessible, understanding this is key.
- Meals with a direct nutrition label—such as those from packaged foods or food chains—provide detailed information on calories and macronutrients on the menu or the company's website.
Accuracy - Moderate
For example, consider the Simply Grilled Simon Says burger with a traditional bun. The nutritional information allows us to track the meal's macronutrients and calories accurately. This data lets us monitor our dietary intake when dining out.
- Estimating the nutritional content of meals without direct nutrition labels can be effectively done by comparing them to similar foods with known dietary information. While this method is not 100% accurate, it provides a reasonable estimation.
Accuracy - Low to Moderate
For instance, if you order a burger at a local cafe, you can reference the nutritional information from a comparable burger at a fast-food chain like McDonald's.
Similarly, if you dine at a Japanese restaurant, you could log the nutritional content of sushi by comparing it to sushi from a well-known sushi train or fast-food chain with updated macro information.
- You can also track meals without direct nutrition labels but with simple, identifiable ingredients and portion sizes.
Accuracy - High to Moderate
For example, steak, chips, and greens at the local steak restaurant OR Poached eggs + toast & avocado at the cafe around the corner.
These meals usually have fewer ingredients, making them easier to track.
You only need to estimate the portion size, which you should be good at because you have been doing the basics and tracking your nutrition at home using a scale & the fat used in creating these meals.
TIP: I add a 20% adjustment to these meals to account for potential tracking inaccuracies due to hidden ingredients, such as fats (e.g., butter) added during preparation. This approach is the most accurate method for tracking and maintaining a caloric deficit while dining out.
- Foods that are challenging to track lack nutrition labels and differ from those meals from chain restaurants.
Examples include:
Grazing menus
Picnics
Birthday, wedding, and Christmas celebrations
Accuracy: Very Low. We only recommend this method when you are in a maintenance phase or caloric surplus. Estimating the calories for these meals is complex and time-consuming. For more precise tracking, consider choosing meals from other categories.
If this method is your only option for dining out, stick to mindfully eating. Mindful eating means prioritising consuming high-protein foods and vegetables first, chewing your food sufficiently, listening to your hunger cues and stopping yourself before you get overly full. Staying adequately hydrated throughout the day can help with satiety, too.
