How To Keep on Track When Eating Out

Safe within the confines of your own kitchen, it is easy to manage your diet and make sure you don’t consume too many calories. Yet you don’t have to remain a recluse in order to lose weight.

In fact it is possible for you to confidently go out with your friends and family, eat at a restaurant and remain in control of what you eat.

Simply remember to do the following steps:

Step One: Do your research

You can now find most restaurants and their menus online, so before you go out take a look at their meal choices and select their healthiest choices. Some will even go as far as to tell you their calorie, fat and carbohydrate content. However if they don’t you can easily look online to find out the average calorie count of their meals.

Now if you cannot find the restaurant you are going to online, you can still plan ahead. Simply give the restaurant a call and get them to fax/email you their menu or alternatively you can nip into their restaurant in advance of your meal and go over their menu.

Step Two: Order your main from the appetiser menu

If step one has proved uneventful and their mains are too calorie dense, then swap your main for a meal off their appetiser menu. These are generally reasonably portioned and even if you are feeling quite peckish can be transformed into a meal by ordering a side salad as well.

A good appetiser choice is soup as these can be quite filling. Just be careful to not order a cream based one as this will be loaded with calories.

Step Three: Look for keywords

If your visit is last minute and you haven’t had chance to look at their menu, you can still wean out the high fat meals by looking for specific keywords in their description. For instance if they contain cream sauce, butter, oil, au gratin, breaded, Alfredo or are battered, you are safe to assume that they are quite fatty.

Step Four: How has your meat been cooked?

Whilst you cannot always be sure of how your meals have been prepared, when it comes to meat there are only so many ways it can be cooked. Where possible opt for your chicken to be steamed, poached, roasted, broiled, boiled, grilled or baked.

Step Five: Order portion controlled meals

Some restaurants will allow you to have an endless supply of pasta, breadsticks etc with your meal, which while tempting can load you up with too many calories and carbohydrates.

Now if you have trouble saying no, make sure you only order a portion controlled meal as this can help you to keep track of your calorie intake.

Step Six: Order half portions

There will be times when there’ll be nothing you can do but order a large meal. In these instances, first try to see if the restaurant will give you half the portion size. If they can’t, you can either ask the restaurant to wrap up your leftovers so you can take them home; get a friend to share your meal with you or if you have got the will power to stop, only eat half of the meal.

Step Seven: Avoid all you can eat buffets

All you can eats may be great valuable for money; however it can be easy to fall into the trap of overeating.

Now you have got two options when it comes to these types of restaurants. You can either only eat their healthy selections or you can make the decision to visit the buffet table once to get your food and not go up again. Either way you are going to have to have a lot of will power.

Step Eight: Eat mini-meals

If you know you are eating out later, you can help to balance out your calorie intake by eating smaller meals during the day. By eating enough to tide you over so you are not ravenous when you arrive at the restaurant, you can give yourself a bit more flexibility when you order.

As you can see, eating out doesn’t have to result in panic. Simply try to keep the above steps in mind and try to prepare for your outing as much as possible so you don’t run the risk of overeating or ordering a high calorie meal.

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