Dining out should be fun, but if you’re trying to log meals, it can also feel a little daunting. Menus are long, nutrition information isn’t always clear, and portions rarely look like the ones at home. The good news: with a few smart strategies from expert dietitians, you can log restaurant meals with confidence, no stress required.
Below, MyFitnessPal dietitians share their best tips to make tracking restaurant meals easier. Plus, you’ll find out ways to use MyFitnessPal tools to simplify the process.
1. Check the Menu Before You Go
“Tracking will be a breeze if your restaurant of choice is a chain with 20 or more locations, since they’re required by law to provide calorie and nutrition information,” says Katherine Basbaum, RD. Even if nutrition info isn’t available, she suggests checking the “sides” menu before you go. Options like a side salad, baked potato, or steamed vegetables can be swapped in for richer components and make logging easier.
Denise Hernandez, MS, RD, LD, also recommends sticking with familiar dishes when possible. “Look for common meals, like spaghetti with meat sauce. This makes it more likely you’ll find a match in the database. Meals that aren’t mixed dishes, like salmon with rice and broccoli, are simpler to log because each part is separate.”
2. Use Visual Cues to Estimate Portions
Restaurant plates can be oversized, but you can still log accurately by using your hands as a built-in portion guide. “Palm for protein, fist for carbs, and two cupped hands for vegetables,” says Daisy Mercer, RD. She notes that this method works well because not all restaurants use standard plates.
If the serving is huge, Mercer recommends slowing down, eating mindfully, and boxing up the extra. When you log later, adjust the portion to what you actually ate. “If you ate half the potatoes served, you can reflect that in your log,” she says.
About the Experts
Daisy Mercer, RD, is a Food Data Curator at MyFitnessPal. She graduated with her bachelors of Food Science and Dietetics from Colorado State University and completed her dietetic internship with the VA San Diego Healthcare system.
Denise Hernandez, RD, is a Food Data Curator at MyFitnessPal. Denise completed her Master’s Degree in Nutrition from Texas Woman’s University. Her areas of focus include adult and childhood weight management, women’s nutrition, and chronic disease management.
Katherine Basbaum, MS, RD is Food Data Curator at MyFitnessPal. She received her Masters in Nutrition Communication from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University and completed her Dietetic Internship at UVA Health, where she also works as a nutrition counselor for cardiology patients.
3. Make Simple Swaps When Ordering
Ordering strategically not only lightens up a meal but also makes tracking more straightforward. “Fresh and simple is the way to go,” says Katherine Basbaum, RD. “A baked potato or steamed rice is easier to log than scalloped potatoes or a cream-based soup.”
She advises looking for menu terms like steamed, roasted, baked, or seared — these typically indicate fewer added fats and simpler preparation. On the other hand, words like creamy, fried, breaded, or buttered signal a more calorie-dense meal than you may have planned on.
Hidden extras can be especially sneaky. “Fish is often a fantastic choice, but if it’s been butter-basted, it’s richer than it looks,” Basbaum notes. When in doubt, ask how a dish is prepared so you can log it more accurately.
4. Take Advantage of Logging Tools
Sometimes the biggest barrier to logging restaurant meals is the time it takes. That’s where MyFitnessPal tools can help.
“Meal Scan may be the easiest to use in a restaurant as it’s a quick picture,” says Mercer. You can use it to log instantly or save the photo as a reference if you prefer to enter details later.
The barcode scanner is useful for bottled drinks, packaged sauces, or grab-and-go sides, while voice logging makes it easy to capture your order in real time. If you’re a creature of habit, saving your favorite restaurant meals means you’ll only need to log them once. “It’s the same idea as creating and saving a favorite recipe in the app,” Basbaum explains. “It’s at your fingertips for the next time.”
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5. Handle Buffets and Shared Plates with Flexibility
Family-style meals and buffets can be tricky, but there are still ways to stay on track. Denise Hernandez, MS, RD, LD, recommends using the plate method at buffets: fill half your plate with vegetables, a quarter with protein, and the last quarter with carbs.
When logging, you can either create a custom meal with ingredients or choose a generic version in the database and adjust the portion. MyFitnessPal tools can make it even smoother. “Use Meal Scan to take a picture of your plate for an estimate, or try voice logging by saying each item and approximate portion,” Hernandez suggests.
For meals with listed nutrition facts, Quick Add can be a helpful shortcut. Enter the calorie and macro information directly for a more accurate log.
6. Don’t Aim for Perfection
Even the most seasoned trackers can’t log restaurant meals with 100% consistency — and that’s okay. “It’s important to remember we don’t have to be perfect to see results,” says Denise Hernandez, MS, RD, LD. “We generally aren’t eating out every day, so having a meal that isn’t logged exactly won’t derail your journey.”
Dining out is also about joy and connection. “The key is to balance the frequency of eating out with your goals,” Hernandez adds. By using the tips above, you’ll get close enough for consistency. And consistency matters more than precision!
The Bottom Line
Restaurant meals don’t have to throw off your logging streak. With a little planning, a few smart ordering choices, and the help of MyFitnessPal’s features, you can enjoy your meal and still feel good about staying on track. As Basbaum puts it, starting with simple, fresh foods and logging what you can put you in control, so you can savor both your meal and your progress.
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