Since eating healthy & covid happened

mc62412

I have not ordered out at all. And I have just really been wanting a “cheat meal” BUT I fear that will start a slippery slope. And that it will be more of a detriment to what I’ve done so far.
How are you guys doing with things like that.

Like, I just want some pizza. Or wings. Or Chinese. Lol. But I haven’t done it !
I tried cauliflower pizza crust and made it at home. while it was ok it WASNT THE SAME. 😂😫

gallicinvasion

Do you log your meals and try to hit a calorie target? There's nothing wrong with ordering some take-out as long as you practice either 1. making it fit in your deficit-calorie target, 2. take a maintenance day and make it fit in your maintenance-calorie target, or 3. eat a little bit less over the previous days to "save up" some calories to order the take-out meal you want. OR 4. Just decide that you will be over your calories for this one day, and accept it, log it, and move on.

Take-out meals are harder to log and will involve some estimation (and are always higher-calorie than what most people make at home, because restaurants use more oils/butters/etc.) But it's great practice to learn how to estimate these meals, and a lot of chain restaurants have nutrition information available online too.

If you need tips with how to estimate the calories in pizza, wings, or Chinese, I'm sure lots of people on the forums can help you with that too!

Zoomie402

What are you looking to get out of not eating out? Are you wanting to stay away from it all together? If so, then stay strong!!! You have made it a long ways if you haven't had any since COVID hit!

If not, then go for it!! Just make sure you are logging and holding yourself accountable to not making it a habit.

pancakerunner

I think it is unhealthy to go into with the mindset of having a "cheat meal." Is the risk worth the reward? Just order what you want, listen to your body, log it (or don't!) and move on. It's one meal.

AnnPT77

I didn't want to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue permanently in order to stay at a healthy weight, except for a sensibly moderate calorie deficit until I reached a healthy weight in the first place.

With that for context: Would you plan to give up pizza, wings, Chinese . . . forever? If not, maybe start figuring out how to work them in now.

In my mind, weight loss is maintenance practice.

In my case, nowadays (in maintenance, mostly) I eat a little under maintenance calories most days, to bank some wiggle room for a more indulgent meal or day occasionally. So, on any given day, I may eat a little under goal, right on goal, or well over goal . . . with the recognition that it needs to balance out over the long term, or the bodyweight scale will head in a direction that's not what I want.

I can usually fit some more treat-like foods into my maintenance calories day to day (it's about portion control), but I'll still indulge beyond that now and then.

I didn't lose weight dramatically differently from that, but tried to keep the over-goal days to actual special events or occasions, since I had fewer calories to play with while losing. Now, it's a little more random.

Still at a healthy weight, heading into year 5 of maintenance, so the overall strategy worked for me.

sijomial

"In my mind, weight loss is maintenance practice."

Nicely stated young lady!

We have eaten take out with our family's normal frequency during lockdown. Indian. Chinese, Thai and Pizza.
Not a high frequency as we all enjoy home cooking.

The bigger influences on our collective weight was the increase in home baking as those items were both delicious and extras to our normal diets and increased alcohol consumption. Moderating those two items did have an impact. I decided to drop to my best cycling weight over the last few weeks and eating infrequent take out didn't stop me losing successfully.

Personally I dislike the terminology of seeing treats as cheats and I'm not a fan of making treats less tasty by making substitutions like cauliflower pizza crust. If I want pizza I want a really nice pizza.