Eating out Italian

GFrank1

Question about earing out, and earing out at an Italian restaurant. Suggestions for planning ahead food wise - also suggestions on what to order and how to handle myself so I don't totally blow my efforts to eat healthy, lose weight and get into better shape.

goal06082021

If it's a national chain, the nutrition information should be available on the website - scope that out and decide in advance what you want, don't even look at the menu. If it's a small local place, you'll still probably land in the right ballpark if you use similar menu items from a national chain like Carrabba's or something.

Request a to-go container as soon as the food is brought to the table and immediately pack up half of your dinner. Restaurant portions, especially Italian restaurant portions, are easily 2 and sometimes 3 meals' worth of food. Out of sight is out of mind - I find it much easier to pack up half right off the bat and then eat what's left on my plate, rather than trying to stop about halfway, ask for a box, and then stare/pick at my remaining food while I wait for the box to come.

Opt for an entree that is not pasta-centric, if possible. This will likely mean getting a chicken breast/fish fillet/sliced eggplant, possibly breaded, but that's not the worst thing in the world. It will come in some kind of sauce, and sauces are always a crapshoot, but a tomato-based sauce will probably be the lightest hit, calorically-speaking; a cream, oil, or wine-based sauce is going to be considerably heavier. You can probably swap out a side of pasta for steamed vegetables, if you ask. If you have the choice between soup or salad, get a salad, make it a house salad rather than a Caesar, and get the vinaigrette dressing on the side. Do your best to skip the garlic knots.

As far as "totally blowing" your efforts: one meal will not matter in the grand scheme. Presumably you don't go out for Italian every night, since you're here asking for tips. It is physically impossible for you to undo *all* of your hard work in a single meal. Plan ahead and eat lighter earlier in the day to save calories. Make the best choices you can in the moment. Log it as best you can. If you go over budget at this one single meal, then you're done eating for that day, and you'll be back on-plan the next day.

Xellercin

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

If your goal is to stay under a certain calorie amount for the meal, that's pretty hard at restaurants in general, they tend to use WAY more fat than home cooks do, and dole out enormous servings. If I'm ordering a main dish here, I just expect it to be over 1000 calories, even main course salads. That's just the amount of food that most people expect from a restaurant meal. Although a lot of really high end restaurants have smaller portions. Pasta, unless freshly made, is dirt cheap, so the portions tend to be huge at most Italian restaurants I've been to.

When I was limiting my per-meal calories, I would usually just order an appetizer or a soup. Most restaurants that have calories on their menus clock their appetizers in at around 500-600 calories per serving, which is around where I wanted to be eating.

Otherwise, my husband and I would split a larger meal, which was my preferred approach.