Eating at restaurants is part of real life, and you don’t need to avoid restaurants to be successful with MacroRx+. The goal is to learn how to make restaurant meals work within your prescription.

Whenever possible, plan ahead and log your meal before you go. Many chain restaurants publish nutrition information, and you may be able to find the exact meal in MyFitnessPal. Knowing approximately what dinner will cost you in calories and macros lets you make better choices with the rest of your day.

If nutrition information isn’t available, make the best reasonable estimate you can. Look for a similar meal from another restaurant, estimate the major ingredients separately, or choose a comparable MyFitnessPal entry. An imperfect estimate is much better than not logging the meal at all.

Restaurant portions are often larger and foods may contain more cooking oil, butter, sauces, dressings, or other calorie-dense ingredients than you would use at home. Keep that in mind when estimating.

You can also make restaurant meals easier to fit by choosing a good source of protein, adding vegetables when available, being intentional about portions, and deciding which extras are actually worth the calories to you.

That doesn’t mean you always need to order grilled chicken and vegetables. Sometimes you want the burger, pizza, dessert, or another favorite meal—and those foods can fit too. Planning for them is usually more effective than treating them as foods you’re not allowed to eat.

If you know dinner will be higher in calories, it’s reasonable to make somewhat lighter choices earlier in the day while still eating normally and getting adequate protein. Don’t starve yourself all day to “save” every calorie for dinner. Arriving at a restaurant extremely hungry can make intentional portion decisions much harder.

And if the meal ends up being higher in calories than you planned, log it as accurately as you can and move on. Don’t skip meals, dramatically restrict calories, or add punishment exercise the following day.

Plan when you can. Estimate when you can’t. Enjoy the meal, log it, and return to your normal prescription.