Indian Restaurant...

Have the curry but just pay close attention to the sides. Nothing deep-fried and have a small portion of plain boiled rice and you should be fine.

Hi Beth..

My take is forget the logging, eat sensibly and eat what you enjoy...calorie counting is way too hit and miss when eating out, especially in Indian restaurants....Indian food is loaded with hidden ingredients and very rich fats.

Just enjoy yourself, and work it off tomorrow.

I;m just going ahead and telling you that indian food is hhiiiiiigh in calories. I've made indian food many times and have spent time in the country. That said - it is your birthday, so don't freak out.

Go with a small portion of rice, and go ahead and get the lamb. Usually indian restaurants also have a cucumber/tomoto salad that is seasoned. its very declicious.

Just go for a run before. and enjoy yourself.

My fiance is half indian, so we go out for indian food atleast once a month. It has not stopped me from losing weight. I might be up a pound the next day, but within two days that extra fluid is gone.

Here's what I do:
1) Eat a very small breakfast/lunch
2) Do some high intensity exercise earlier that afternoon to torch as many cals as possible...for me, I aim to burn around 600 calories or so...for you, it may be higher or lower
3) EAT! Try to go light on the rice and naan (but I always do have some of each...I love them!)
4) Avoid the fried stuff (Pakoora and Samosas)
5) Chug water with the meal. I usually get my glass refilled 4 or 5 times.

A healthy indian dinner is hard to find, and is nowhere near as good as the fatty stuff. I make exceptions for the rare days we get to go out for a dinner there.

Darnit, now I want lamb korma...

I think that database prediction is wrong I would say lamb massala is prob closer to double that.

"Healthiest" things on the menu

Tandoori chicken - it's oven baked and usually comes with salad and sauce try to restrict the sauce as that can be loaded.
Boiled Rice (try to not have loads)
Chapatti (avoid naan)
avoid starters as they're loaded and try to go for veggie, chicken or prawn as lambs quite high cal too.

If you want to go for something in a sauce try to stick to the tomatoe based ones like balti and rogan josh, massala can sometimes be loaded with cream. Also ask if they can do low fat, no harm asking.

Another thing would be to go for something alot hotter than your used to like a jalfrezi or a hot madras so you can't manage to have a huge portion ;P

Yum, love Indian food. Tandoori lamb would be a good choice (or chicken). They're grilled and without sauce, and delicious. Add steamed jasmine rice and it's really a pretty healthy and low fat meal, at least in comparison to many of the curries, which can be pretty heavy. There's also a good selection of Indian foods in the MFP database, so you can poke around and see what you might be getting into if you choose a curry. But tandoori meat and rice would probably even leave room for some naan and/or rice pudding without being an unreasonable meal.

This won't be the last time you go to a restaurant, right? Figure out how to handle eating out as part of your new thin life, so you can enjoy eating out at restaurants instead of worrying about it, or regretting it later. You can look up a restaurant's menu or at least the types of foods before you go, and decide ahead of time what you're going to get and how much of the dish you want to eat. If you want to steel your resolve, log it into MFP before you go. Once you've written down what you plan to eat, you're more likely to stick to what you've planned. My husband thinks I'm a little obsessive, but it works great for me.

You could wait until tomorrow, or you could just start today living your new thin life!

Hi there and well done for starting...even if it isn't the best possible day...as you say, you can always find a reason to postpone.

When I go to our local Indian restaurant, which I do fairly often I have either the Tandoori chicken or Tandoori lamb as a starter [just coated in yogurt spices and then baked].

As a main course I have ....the same! BUT I order a side jug of vindaloo sauce on the side so that I can jut dip my meat into it rather than have it served actually in the sauce...this controls how much sauce I eat.
My other half doesn't have to watch his weight at all but still orders his madras sauce on the side as he doesn't like his meal to be too sloppy.
It's a great way to keep your calorie count lower.

I order a couple of baked chapati instead of boiled or fried pilau rice or a naan bread to go with it and I also have a poppodom [spicy which is baked rather than plain which tend to be fried]

I also order a side salad which helps my plate look fuller

Hope these tips help.

Sky x