How to eat out and not ruin your dieting

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Athena125
Athena125 Posts: 102 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm looking for some tips on eating out at the following types of restaurants. What do you eat that's under 700 calories?
-Chinese
-Thai
-Mexican

I'm noticing eating out is 85% of my problem. I'm cutting back, but it's difficult with social situations.

I'm also noticing now that I've cut back, when I do eat out, I feel SICK. I mean, BAD. My stomach gets all bloated and I feel awful for the next 12-24 hours! What gives? What the hell is in restaurant food that makes you feel so bad?

Replies

  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
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    What the hell is in restaurant food that makes you feel so bad?

    Palm oil, creepy cheap grease, margarine, soy , food colours, flour, salt, sugar, additives, processed cheese.

    Eat between the third and the half of the portion. Even that can be 5-6-700 calories at some places.
  • SirZee
    SirZee Posts: 381
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    Its easy, don't eat out ;)

    Or if you do, make it a picnic, and BYOF.
  • sing4me4you
    sing4me4you Posts: 88 Member
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    For Chinese, stick to stir fry with chicken or shrimp. Also many Chinese restaurants offer brown rice instead of white.

    For Mexican, try carnitas or fajitas without the tortilla.

    The other strategy is to plan to take half of whatever you order home for lunch the next day.
  • cook6609
    cook6609 Posts: 182 Member
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    See if you can get a copy of their menus, then manually look up the ingredients and calculate it yourself. If they have a website, then they should list the nutritional information on there as well. If I'm not mistaken all restaurants should have nutritional information available for consumers. As far as the ones you listed, I'm not to entirely sure about how they do things, but I have been allowed to take home menus from Applebees and Hoss's that are near my house. Most of the time they will let you take the menu home or they will have one that has the calorie amount on them already or they will direct you to their website.


    I have been able to eat out at my favorite restaurants (Applebees, Red Lobster, etc) and stay under 500 calories. A lot of restaurants are now promoting those type of meals! Hope this helps :-)
  • sunnyside1213
    sunnyside1213 Posts: 1,205 Member
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    Lots of chains have the nutritional info on their websites. I ask for a box and put 1/2 in before I start to eat.
  • blu_meanie_ca
    blu_meanie_ca Posts: 352 Member
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    Restaurant food is all carbs and fats. I went for Mexican earlier this week, and while I fit within my calorie goal (barely, and that was with extra exercise), and after I was so tired I had to make coffee to stay up long enough to excercise. That's because, although my meal was just over 700 cals, there were also over 100g of carbs. That's 3/4 of a day's carb intake for me, all in one meal.

    A better way for me to have done that would of been to eat the meat, skip the sides, and add a salad or other veggies. Next time...
  • sara6795
    sara6795 Posts: 29 Member
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    I avoid eating out like the plague--but if I do, I go for shrimp usually and avoid pasta and heavy, creamy, buttery sauce.
  • monikalama
    monikalama Posts: 75 Member
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    OMG thats is same with me .. Just 2-3 week of healthy eating and dieting but i already feel sick and have upset stomach when i eat out.. ...
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    I've made a sacrifice in my social life by not going out to eat. Like you, I often get sick. So, most the people I know are drinkers. So, after eating, they'll go somewhere to drink, or if its associated with an activity, I just tell them I can't make dinner, but I'll meet them at the next stop. It works for me. But, I get invited out a lot less these days because of it.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    How often do you eat out? You say it is social. Try looking for other social activities. Cook a healthy meal for everyone, then go dancing. Take a picnic to the park. Eat on your own and meet up with everyone at the movies.

    The typical Americanized versions of those cuisines don't usually offer many healthy choices, but good restaurants do.

    For Mexican, look for grilled (a la parrilla) or roasted (asado). Fajitas are a ok , but usually cooked with quite a bit of grease and served for two to four. Most Mexican seafood dishes are usually great!

    For Thai, spring rolls are great, as is satay chicken. I am running out of ideas, because my default it Pad Thai.

    For Chinese, watch the sauces. Many stir fries have a lot of sugar. Take me with you and we can order Peking Duck and not eat the skin. Or the pancakes. Or the sauce...
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    if restaurant food is making you feel sick, I would pick better restaurants. It's one of the reasons I really don't do institutionalized franchise food; I prefer local establishments that actually prepare their meals with fresh ingredients and have an actual chef in the kitchen.

    That said, I don't eat out that often and never really have. Growing up, it was always something special to go out, and still is for me. For that reason, I really don't worry about the calories so much...though I do usually only eat half of what's on my plate and often will split an entree with my wife...my stomach is too small these days to actually eat a whole restaurant serving size.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    If you don't eat out very often, then just eat what you want, stop eating when you feel full (personally I take home what I don't finish and eat them as a meal the next day) and don't worry about counting the calories. What you eat once in a while won't make you fat. It's what you eat day in day out that does that. If you normally eat a healthy balanced diet and are losing fat at a steady rate, one day of higher calories won't change that.

    If you eat out regularly, then there are quite a few ways you can get fewer calories while eating out, plus many restaurants will be able to tell you how many calories there are in their meals so you can log them:

    - just drink water with your meal. restaurant drinks tend to be really high in calories, even relatively healthy drinks like fruit cocktails can have a huge amount of calories in.

    - go for lean options like chicken breast, fish and seafood, and have the sauce on the side so you can control how much of it goes on the food (sauces in restaurants tend to be very high in calories)

    - watch out for salads, some restaurant salads are 1000+ calories a serving, and the dressing is the usual culprit, so have the dressing on the side

    - exchange fries for vegetables or a side salad (without dressing)

    - skip dessert, or share your dessert with someone else so you only have half the calories, or finish your meal with a tea or coffee (and not one of the high calorie coffees) rather than a dessert

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