7 Tips for Eating Out Without Gaining Weight

Are You Addicted to Restaurants?

What used to be considered a treat, going out for dinner, has become more common that cooking at home, and we think we're better off? Think again. Restaurants, fast foods and highly processed foods are turning us into a nation of fat and sluggish people. It's time to take back control of our waistlines.

Restaurants Must Make a Profit to Exist

The bottom line is restaurants exist to make a profit. They pile on the extra butter and rich cream sauces, caramelized sugar toppings, cheese sauce, double-deluxe, new improved, and whatever they can to make the food so enticing, so delicious, we just cannot resist. Fine for an occasional splurge, but not every day, and therein lies the problem.

Extra Value Meal or Just Extra Fattening?

McDonalds started the trend by offering slightly larger portions for a bit more money, and every other food establishment quickly followed suit. Extra value they called it. Who wouldn't order a bit more for only pennies? Today nearly every restaurant, fast food or sit down dining, serves gigantic quantities that boggle the mind. There is usually enough food served for two, sometimes three meals.

In "Restaurant Confidential" by Michael F. Jacobson (read this and prepare to be alarmed) the calorie count in typical restaurant meals is so staggering it solves the riddle of why obesity is rampant and continuing to rise. Cheese fries with Ranch dressing has over 3,000 calories and 217 grams of fat (91 of them saturated). That's more than the calories a very tall, very physically active man requires, yet we eat it as an "appetizer." Add to that what else you ate that day and you can see how easy it becomes to consumer far more calories than you realize.

If you eat out regularly (once a day or more) you're likely consuming closer to 5,000 calories a day; likely double the amount you need to maintain a healthy weight.

Getting the Calories Out: Painless Ways to Reduce Calories at Restaurants

1. Just say NO to super sizing. The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you'll save money (see How to Save Money and Lose Weight).

2. Skip the bread and rolls. Many restaurants serve a bread basket no matter what you've ordered. Unless it's fresh baked or something special, skip it. Don't fill up on ordinary bread when you're paying good money for a meal, just push it away, or ask to have it removed. Choose not to put a roll on your plate (you can do it, really, you can). Try it, just once and see if you don't walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.

If you can't skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That's right. Eat it plain. Good bread doesn't need butter.

3. Stop ordering drinks. Drinks are the restaurants cash cow. For pennies, they sell you a squirt of syrup and soda water, then act like they're doing you a big favor by charging only $1.29 for a giant 64 ounce drink. Start saving those pennies and dollars. If you order to go, skip the drink, and if you're eating it in, ask for water. If nothing else switch to diet drinks. "Fat pop" or full calorie soft drinks are not worth it. Kids can start losing weight rapidy by making this one switch alone.

5. Trim visible fat and skin. You really love the skin, of course it tastes good, it should, it's pure fat. Do you want to get leaner, or do you want to eat fat? You choose. I never eat chicken skin, and never eat the visible fat hanging off a steak, good taste or no. You have to decide what you want the most; a second's worth of pleasure with a yummy tasty bit, or a lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 lbs?

6. Ask for a doggie bag before you start eating. When the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Most restaurants serve way too much food. If you think this is gauche then just portion off what you're not going to eat and don't eat it; I really don't care, but in my mind, I'd rather think in terms of having it the next day so I take it to go.

7. Get a copy of Restaurant Confidential and start checking out how much you're eating. Yes, I mentioned this twice. It's important. If you think eating out isn't causing part of the problem, I say, you're fooling yourself. This little book can help you realize what's been going on, and then you may find it easier to choose other dishes, split the meal into two, or skip some extras.

8. Order one dinner and ask for an extra plate. Many restaurants will do this (sometimes for a slight extra fee). Share the meal with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle.

Try these ideas to reduce the calorie load of restaurant eating.

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