How much meat for a BBQ
Plan about half a pound of cooked meat per adult for a cookout where the grill is the main event. The catch is that you buy raw, and meat loses weight as it cooks, so the raw order is always higher than the served weight. Boneless cuts lose the least, while bone-in mains like ribs and fatty cuts like brisket need noticeably more raw weight for the same plates, which the main-dish selector accounts for so you are not under-buying the cuts that shrink most.
Burgers, hot dogs, and buns
Most adults eat about two handhelds across a cookout, so buns are sized at roughly one and a half to two per guest with a few spares, because buns are the item people always come up short on. Match the bun count to the main: an eight-to-one burger patty pack and a bun pack rarely come in the same number, so the tool rounds both to their real pack sizes and adds a buffer for the guest who wants a third.
Sides, condiments, and cooking for a crowd
Two sides at four to five ounces per adult covers a cookout, with classics like potato salad, slaw, beans, or corn. Condiments are cheap and run out fast, so they get their own line rather than being an afterthought. As the headcount climbs past fifty, grill capacity becomes the real constraint: cooking in waves, holding finished meat in a low oven or a cooler lined with towels, and prepping sides ahead matter more than buying slightly more food.