By: Chris Gates

One of the biggest challenges to losing weight is learning how to track calories at restaurants.

Honestly, this is an aspect of dieting that can really derail your progress.

I go over this topic all the time with new clients, because virtually everyone experiences the same struggle. You probably have, too.

You’ve got a solid routine going Monday-Friday, but then when you go out for dinner and drinks with friends, or you hit up your favorite Sunday brunch spot, your diet spins out of control.

An unassuming nice night out to dinner turns into a stressful situation, because you don’t know how to track calories at restaurants.

And you end up overeating, or stressing about overeating, and it makes being in a calorie deficit seem 100 times harder.

Well, you’re in luck. You can stress no more!

Because in this article, I’m going to outline for you exactly how to track calories at restaurants!

We’ll break down:

• The importance of tracking calories.
• What strategies you can use to stay on track.
• And how you can create your own system that allows you to eat stress-free meals at restaurants.

Let’s dive in!

Why You Should Track Calories At Restaurants

Let’s start with the “why” behind tracking calories at restaurants.

This all comes down to your goal of losing weight, which of course requires you to be in a calorie deficit.

If you don’t know what a calorie deficit is, my article on how to know if you’re in a calorie deficit will help. Start there.

In a nutshell, a calorie deficit means you’re taking in fewer calories from food than your body burns each day. Another term for this is negative energy balance.

The only way your body can lose fat is if you’re in a calorie deficit, so this is an incredibly important concept to understand.

Tracking calories is the most efficient way to get in a calorie deficit, because it gives you a clear look at how many calories you’re eating each day. From there, it’s pretty simple to figure out how to reduce your calories to get into a deficit.

You don’t have to track calories (I’ll explain more about that in a minute). Admittedly, it’s not for everyone.

But it’s without a doubt the easiest and most efficient way to figure out how to start losing body fat and see progress.

You Can’t Control Everything, And That’s OK

Tracking calories at restaurants inherently comes with a level of imperfection that you can’t avoid.

You’re not in control of preparing the food, so you won’t be able to track things 100 percent accurately.

That’s a truth you have to accept, and you can’t worry too much about it. There’s no reason to stress about something you can’t control.

And honestly, it’s not that big of a deal.

Whether a restaurant provides nutritional information on its menu or not, each dish is going to vary based on a variety of unknown details:

• How much cooking oil is used?
• Are they using 95 percent lean ground beef, or 85 percent?
• Is the portion size the same every time?
• Exactly how much cheese was sprinkled on top?
• How much dressing was added to your salad?

The list goes on and on.

All of those things matter, and they’re also out of your control. And that’s OK.

How To Track Calories At Restaurants: It Starts Before You Go To The Restaurant

One of the simplest and most effective ways to make sure a night out to dinner doesn’t spiral out of control is to do some work on your other meals throughout the day.

For instance, if you know you’re going to dinner tonight, there’s a lot you can do with your breakfast, lunch, and snacks today to provide some ease of mind.

Some simple tweaks to those meals earlier in the day can make a huge difference.

Start by reducing your portion sizes at breakfast and lunch.

I’m not talking dramatically.

I mean slightly.

Little tweaks can really add up and reduce what you eat by several hundred calories. Cut out a few carbs here, reduce some fat there, and all of a sudden you’ve created a ton of flexibility for yourself later in the day.

Or perhaps you just skip your snack today. That could be 300 calories or more, depending on what you snack on or how many snacks you typically eat.

Making those tweaks is all about providing you with some added breathing room later in the day. It will allow you to eat what you want, and have less stress about being able to track it 100 percent accurately.

You can’t control the cooking oils, portion sizes, meat selections, added cheese/dressings, etc., so this will help you go into that meal with a buffer.

How To Track Calories At Restaurants: Estimating Is Better Than Nothing

Sometimes the thought might creep into your mind that, “if I can’t track accurately at a restaurant, then I’m not going to track at all!”

And that’s certainly your choice.

Honestly, it can be beneficial to have an untracked meal from time to time. Tracking calories to be in a calorie deficit takes effort, and sometimes it’s good to take a planned break.

But before you say “screw it,” I want you to understand how helpful estimating can be.

Not tracking things exactly.

ESTIMATING.

You’re not going to be 100 percent accurate. You know that.

But estimating will help you approach that meal at a restaurant with intention. It will help you still make choices that align your goals.

And at the end of the day, estimating the calories of what you’re eating is a far better option than not paying attention to the calories at all.

That’s how a meal can really spin out of control.

If your restaurant doesn’t have it’s menu nutrition available, you can probably find a restaurant with a similar item. And that similar item is probably close to the same calorie count as what you’re eating.

Close is pretty darn good.

For example, if you go to a local Mexican restaurant in your area and its chicken tacos aren’t in MyFitnessPal, you could log chicken tacos from Chipotle or another larger chain.

And the calories will probably be very similar.

You’ll stay on track.

Your meal won’t spin out of control.

I’ve seen it happen way too many times as an online coach, where a client can’t track his or her meal so they just say “screw it” and that meal turns into a binge.

Sometimes it even snowballs into the next day or two and you’ve got an entire weekend out of control.

But you could have estimated, and everything would have been fine.

Estimating is better than nothing.

How To Track Calories At Restaurants: Additional Strategies

Alright, I mentioned above that we’d talk about how you can choose to not track calories at a restaurant. Let’s dive into that topic.

Because really, you don’t have to.

And everything will be fine.

I’ve got an entire article about how to be in a calorie deficit without tracking calories, which is a really good read. It outlines a ton of strategies you can use, as well as how to monitor progress to know if you’re in a calorie deficit.

One of those strategies really rings true for this discussion about how to track calories at restaurants.

If you simply try to build your plate in a logical, responsible way, you’re going to be fine.

Start with a protein source. Make it the focal point of your plate.

And build around it with a nutritious carb source, plus a fruit or vegetable.

And keep it to one plate. No never-ending refills, OK?

If you do that, you’re almost guaranteed to have your meal out at a restaurant fit perfectly within the rest of your diet plan.

Don’t Stress. It’s Not That Big Of A Deal

Let’s wrap this article up by acknowledging one really important detail that I haven’t brought up yet.

Whether you track or not, it’s not that big of a deal.

One meal isn’t going to ruin all of your progress. It’s not going to be the one thing that determines whether your diet is a success, or a failure.

You’d have to overeat by upwards of 3,500 calories to gain one single pound of body fat, and honestly that’s pretty hard to do in one meal.

So if you decide not to track, or if you estimate and it’s a little bit off, at the very worst it’s going to be a microscopic blip on the radar of an otherwise successful diet.

Your weight may spike up for a day or two. It’s just water weight, and it will come off soon.

And you’ll get back on track, get back to your regular routine, and continue crushing it.

So don’t stress.

Enjoy that meal.

I hope this helps!

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If you’re interested in getting some help along the way in your weight loss journey, check out my coaching page! I work with clients all over the world to build muscle, burn fat, and develop more confidence through fitness and nutrition.

Thanks for reading 🙂