Tracking macros while eating out can feel overwhelming BUT most fast food restaurants are required to have calories/nutrition information easily accessible and on their websites! So anytime you go anywhere that you know has more than 5 locations, google the restaurants name with “nutrition info” or “nutrition pdf” or “nutrition calculator” and likely something WILL pop up!
OK, BUT you may be wondering that you find something you want but the macros are a little insane and you’re wondering how to adjust the meal to be more Macro Friendly and then how do you track those adjustments? I’ll explain how EASY this can truly be!
First: How to make a meal more Macro Friendly
I talk about this more in my “Mindful Eating Tips at Restaurants” blog post, but a few similar guidelines I like to follow for easy tracking & keeping it macro friendly:
•Choose a lean vs fried or breaded protein
•Choose 1-2 fat sources if a dish comes with multiple (Ex: Cheese, sour cream, nuts, guacamole, dressing)
•Stick with 1 full serving carb source or mix & match based on preference. 1 full carb source serving would be about 40-60g of carbs (ex: 3-4 taco tortillas, 1 bun, 1 cup fries, 1 cup rice, 1 cup beans, 1 large burrito tortillas, 20 chips) (or have 1/2 of each of these)
Second: How to Adjust a Meal you want based on these tips
After reading through that, let me show my real life example of how I adjusted a Wendy’s Southwest Salad to fit my Macros and still be satisfying!
The salad originally is marked with being at 41g of fat which is WAY over the 10-20g I try to stick with for most meals! The fat sources in this meal are cheese, dressing, bacon, and guacamole.
I asked myself what fat sources sounded good to me that I wanted to keep in🤔 I decided I wanted bacon and was fine with just a little avocado and dressing and I was fine with ditching the cheese.
The salad comes with 1 oz pepper jack cheese, 2 dressing packets, and 2 scoops avocado. I was planning to keeping in 1/2 a dressing packet and 1 scoop avocado, so I decided to search for the macros in My Fitness Pal for 1 oz cheese, 25g avocado (which I’m guessing is a scoop), and 1.5 of the dressing packets (since I was only going to use 1/2). Then I was given the total of what I was NOT going to be having from the original macros so I could subtract that and get the new macros for the meal
Finally: How to Enter New Meal Macros in MFP
SUPER easy to add in new meal macros and save them for the future!
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Need help with setting up your maintenance calories and/or doing a reverse diet and want guidance with macros/nutrition and/or personal training from me, a Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist? Check out my coaching serviceswhich range from me just setting up macros and training programs to macros with meal ideas to more in-depth one-on-one coaching that involves 24/7 email access to me and weekly check-ins.
*This post was created by Ashley Cates who is not a Registered Dietician or a Medical Professional, nothing said should be taken as medical advice or replace any advice given by a Physician. This information does not in any way intend to diagnose or treat any health condition/disorder. The information provided is based on Ashley’s education and experience.