If you are anything like me, you’ll jump at the chance to go out for a meal with good company. I mean, what’s not to love? No cooking, no dishes, no cleanup, and you can sit and talk with people who are important to you. Or, if you are going solo, you can save yourself some time, since there are only a limited number of hours in a day, you want to make the most of them.
Yet, trying to stick to a healthful diet, and going out to eat often can be difficult, especially if you are tracking your calories or macros. Perhaps you have encountered some of the following problems when trying to eat out while tracking:
- Feeling hopeless when looking over the menu, not knowing what to eat that is in line with your goals.
- Trying to look up nutritional information for the restaurant on your phone, then trying to figure out the math.
- Skipping going out so that you can stick to your diet. When I first started, I did this too many times to count, but never again. Your lifestyle changes should be a part of your life, not overtake it!
The good news is that there is an app for that. Fudist was created to help eliminate those common problems, and is available for both iOS and Android. Admittedly, I don’t go out to chain restaurants too often, but when I do, it is much easier to use Fudist than to fumble through trying to find their nutrition information on my own.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jason, the creator of Fudist, at the 2015 Kansas City Fitness Summit, and I’ve been using the app ever since. Jason was recently on one of my favorite podcasts (Side Quest, the unofficial podcast of Fitocracy, where I was their first guest way back in October 2014). The video of their chat is here, in case you wanted to hear about the app from Jason himself! Warning, it’s an hour long and has lots of nerdy references. =)
In the spirit of full disclosure, any links to the Fudist site are affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you decide to purchase a subscription. Even if you download the app, you do have to sign up for an account on the site. As I would hope you know, I rarely recommend specific products, and even then, I only recommend products & systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands. I promise that I’m only ever going to recommend anything that I’m putting my full trust into. Fudist is one of those products on a very short list.
Fudist works by utilizing your GPS location (or you can input a location where you plan to be) and asking for your calorie and macro targets. The app then finds restaurants and meals in your area that fit your macros.
Fudist then matches up combinations of food to fit your targets, and you simply have to pick from the choices. Fudist only includes chain restaurants for now (a system for mom and pop restaurants is coming soon!), but it can still be very useful for flexible dieters that frequent those establishments or those who just need a quick meal out but don’t want to miss their calorie and macro targets for the day.
Fudist makes deciding where and what to eat so much simpler by finding every possible meal combination at every restaurant to fit your diet. Fudist can help find meals that work for IIFYM, Zone, Keto, Leangains, Ornish, Mediterranean, and more. It also (experimentally) integrates with MyFitnessPal, and new restaurants are being added frequently.
Fudist is a subscription based service that runs $10 for a single month or $5 a month if you sign up for a yearlong subscription. Also coming soon is a way to use the app for a 24 hour period for those unexpected times when you just need a quick meal. It is currently US based, but is looking to expand internationally soon!
So, if you are frequently going out for meals, and are struggling with what to eat, give Fudist a try. Soon, you’ll be conquering restaurant meals! And please let me know what you think about it either via comments, or sending me an email!
Like I said, I am not going to recommend anything that I don’t fully put my trust into, and I think that it can be of great help to many of you!
The featured image, “the portions at margie’s diner” is courtesy of emdot and used under a Creative Commons License.