What Do You Eat When You're Out To Eat?

It's all about dieting lol, it's pretty much 85% diet, and 15% workout.

Actually, it's 100% about calories in and calories out when you're just talking weight loss/weight control. Making better decisions about what you eat is general nutrition and working out is for fitness. From a purely weight loss/weight control standpoint, a 100 calories from fruits and vegetables is no different than 100 calories from cookies....but from a nutritional standpoint, you obviously are more nutrient dense with the fruits and veg.

BTW, a little red meat once in awhile isn't "bad"...I watch my saturated fats very closely so I don't eat a lot of it, but I do have red meat once or twice per week, including burgers. Red meat and even burgers have a lot of other good nutritional properties. If you looking for better general nutrition, don't worry so much about the hamburger itself...worry about the bun and the fries on the side. A lot of times I just get a burger sans bun and a side salad instead of the fries.

I rarely eat out, but when I do I always get chicken of some sort and get water to drink.

Burgers can be part of a healthy diet. Eat up!

Like others have said, fit it into your daily calories and make up for at another meal that day or if you weren't planned on working out that day, work out. Or you can make it healthier, choose your condiments wisely. Personally, I don't really eat meat so I get a veggie burger which isn't as horrible.

if you really want a burger, get it loaded with veggies, leave off creamy toppings (ketchup, mayo, etc.) and only use half the bun

it's usually pretty safe to get the simplest thing on the menu (like a plain burger or regular hot dog)

they might be somewhat high in calories but better than most of the other things on the menus (baked goods and salads REALLY add calories at restaurants...) (unless the salad is mainly vegetables and little dressing of course)

a lot of people misunderstand what the word diet means. the term "diet" refers to what you eat. whether that is 10,000 calories worth of donuts or 15 calories worth of lettuce. both are the persons diet.

so yes, losing wait is about diet, but not in the sense that most people use the word.

di·et
/ˈdī-it/
Noun

The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.

took the words out of my mouth! Enjoy your burger as long as it doesn't happen everyday, you will be fine. Also like many have said before sub fries for fruit or salad or even soup...no cheese mayo or creamy/sugary sauces and you will be A-ok!

edit: when i eat out i just get what i want. we dont eat out that often so when i do i make the most of it.

1) You CAN give up a burger for something better. No amount of advice is going to help you with the attitude that you can't give this up.
2) Don't trade in for a salad unless you actually, in fact, LIKE the salad. Salads really aren't that much lower in calorie than most entrees.
3) Focus on dishes that most heavily feature protein and veggies.

Your best bet is to get to know the offerings of the restaurants you frequent most and find dishes you like that roughly fit your macros. I have a basic dish for pizza, chinese, sushi, Applebees, diner, Chipotle etc So when I do go out on a whim I have something to fall back on that's within my control. I tend to save my big splurges for things planned in advance- date night once in a while, or a particular celebration, and will choose something that goes over my macros without much concern in these cases.

It's all about research and planning.

The other day I went out to eat with friends and everyone else got burgers and fries. I got salmon, with garlic mashed potatoes and fresh veggies and only ate half the meal and it was a little under 500 calories.The funny thing is everybody with the burgers and fries kept commenting on how good my food looked and it was!

I guess if you really like burgers you could just cut it in half and take the rest home.

Some places, including Red Robin, will do a lettuce bun instead of bread that takes a LOT of the calories out of the burger. You can probably also just order the burger bunless and use a knife and fork to eat it. Leave off mayo, and you trim another significant chunk of calories. You CAN eat burgers and stay within your calorie limit. Just not ALL the burgers. :-D