The Restaurants Are Calling Me

The calorie count is necessary. It is essential when you go and eat out.

I can count on one hand the number of times I ate out during my weight loss journey.

Wait no, that's not true. I ate out plenty except I always brought my home cooked food. You see back then I was terrified. Terrified to try something new because the 'diet' I was on was working. I had never had anything worked for so much & so long. I also didn't understand too much about nutrition back then, so my reflex was not to change anything I was doing, being super afraid that I would break some kind of momentum and everything would come to an end. That's not true. It's entirely possible to eat outside food and stick to a caloric deficit and continuing being consistent on progressing towards your goals.

Here are a few tips on how to calculate calories when you don't know the calories eating out:

1) Only order the main dish. Most main dishes are relatively reasonable calories. A Big Mac without fries & coke is 563 calories. It's consistent. It's not THAT much. Which means a cheeseburger, a fish burger, or a chicken burger is much fewer calories than that. If you order just the burger when eating out, it's super easy to stick to your daily calories. Asking for extra fries, sauce, coke is where people go wrong. It's the extras, the chips, coke, chicken nuggets, that usually get you in trouble. So skip it, and go straight to the main dish. Spaghetti, rice, burgers, sandwiches, alone they're all most likely 500kcal or below. It is also filling to our stomach, therefore choosing the main course instead of the starters should be your rule.

2) Lean proteins & veggies. They tend to be lower on calories while also helping you hit your daily macros & micros. Regardless of cooking method or sauce, it's difficult to overeat on lean protein + veggies; it's usually quite a safe choice. Protein and vegetables are very feeling. A person cannot eat it more amount as it feels you up real quick, so adding these to your meal list help you count calories.

3) Order your favorite thing on the menu, eat it, stop when you're full and get back on track. You don't always have to calculate everything every meal. It's completely fine to enjoy your meals out too during a weight loss journey. As long as you get back on track, there isn't anything that you could possibly eat in one meal to mess up your progress.

Enjoying the journey is important too.