Restaurants

Marthy101

Hi all! I've whined about the restaurant dilemma here before, but...Today my biggest problem was underestimating the calories (fat, cholesterol, etc ) in restaurant food! I tryyyy to eat light, but it snowballs quickly, I guess.
I swear I just had a small grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of veggie soup, but I am SO full 2 hours later!!!
Not only am I physically uncomfortable, I'm concerned that I've blown many more calories than I'd estimated!! Be warned. Also, What The Hell does one do to prevent this??? No calorie info available for the little diner we went to.

socioseguro

Hi:

I try to cook my own food for the office on Sundays.
If I have to go to a restaurant, I check their website in advance. They usually have their menu online and some have even the calories posted there.
If not, I try to choose the healthiest available option. It is hard to calculate the calories, so I just allocate a high number ( 1000 calories) and try to burn more calories at the gym that day to cover for the extra. I go back to my nutrition plan afterwards.
Good luck in your healthy journey

Nataliegetfit

Your best bet is to have grilled cheese at home where you can control the calories, it doesn't seem like it, but they are crazy high in calories at a restaurant. It is hard to find the best calorie wise food to pick.

Francl27

Marthy101 wrote: »

Hi all! I've whined about the restaurant dilemma here before, but...Today my biggest problem was underestimating the calories (fat, cholesterol, etc ) in restaurant food! I tryyyy to eat light, but it snowballs quickly, I guess.
I swear I just had a small grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of veggie soup, but I am SO full 2 hours later!!!
Not only am I physically uncomfortable, I'm concerned that I've blown many more calories than I'd estimated!! Be warned. Also, What The Hell does one do to prevent this??? No calorie info available for the little diner we went to.

You go for options that don't have all the cheese and butter that your grilled cheese probably had... grilled meat and veggies, turkey and veggies sandwich with condiments on the side etc. The soup was probably fine though!

questionfear

Restaurants are tough. I try to pick food based on what I can reasonably estimate, so I try to go for grilled chicken, or a burger with no bun, or a salad with dressing on the side. It's not perfect, but at least then I can ballpark the components of the meal and go from there.

And grilled cheese sounds awesome right about now.

skyblue99

I try to find something similar. If I'm not sure on the accuracy of the calories, I may add 50-100 more calories to what I'm eating. 90% of the time we tend to overeat at restaurants anyway so I'd rather add some extra calories to be safe!

tulips_and_tea

Generally speaking, a grilled cheese sandwich at a restaurant is going to be full of butter and cheese. A heavy choice to begin with. Soup is a toss up: was it broth based or creamy? Again, generally speaking, broth based is a better choice, but restaurant soups are also laden with sodium. Could be that that is making you feel full and bloated and not even the sandwich at all!

What were some other options there? Maybe we could help you choose something "better" in the future. (I say "better" meaning that wouldn't make you feel poorly physically afterwards; NOT labeling foods good or bad.)

RodaRose

Next time you could order a small steak or a simple burger with no cheese.