Challenge: Dining Out

fitjerseygirl

Hey all - my biggest challenge so far (and the one thing that has made me go up and down with my weight loss) is dining out. I love to eat out and I live in a city that has awesome food so I usually go out 1-2 times a week. I know all the usual tips of scaling down and I have been doing them (dressing on the side, skinny margaritas, ordering fish, no bread, etc. etc.) and I have even been "prepping" for my night out by doing 2xs as much cardio (so that basically I can eat back all my calories at dinner) but I know that I am still gaining weight back that I've lost, e.g. if I have been "good" working out once a day and eating around 1,200 cals then I will definitely lose around 2 lbs a week BUT if I do all that and then go out to eat on a Saturday night I'm gaining back even though I am keeping track of my cals and putting in extra time at the gym. I don't want to be house bound for the next year. Maybe I am doing something wrong?
Also, I never know how accurate the cardio machines at the gym are as far as cals. I put in my age and weight so hopefully they are fairly accurate, but they seem to vary wildly.
Any support or tips is much appreciated!
Thanks!

Scorpioangel

Take a look at your calories for the entire week if you can. I have that option on my iPhone that creates a graph. I eat out every week and have surpassed my goal and am in the best shape of my life. It can be done and you don't have to eat what is considered "perfect" to get to where you want to be Sounds like you know what you are doing and I think that you will be fine. I love places that have good things to eat - my big weakness is pizza I have it once a week it's one of my favorites

The machines at the gym are not accurate, buy a heart rate monitor with a chest strap if you can and it should sync with the gym equipment and show up on the display instead. That will give you a more accurate idea of what you are burning

Good luck and if you have any questions, friend me!

JenGranzow

I agree with the previous poster - the monitors on the machines are not at all accurate so that is probably impacting your rate of loss. Also, restaurant food is notoriously oversalted, and the sodium could certainly be impacting your weight loss.

I do the same thing when I am planning to go out for dinner - I exercise more so that I have plenty of calories in my bank when it comes time to order. I think you would really benefit from using a good HRM to track your true calorie burn. Good luck!

fitjerseygirl

Thank you both! This is a huge help.

Does anyone have that monitor that MFP advertises?