Eating out most of the time can I still lose weight?

Whenever I cook a meal for my family, I prepare one extra serving and freeze it to pack in my lunches. I let it thaw in my lunchbox so it takes less time to microwave. That way, I've already input the recipe into MFP, so logging takes less time as well. Helpful hint:be sure to label everything unless you like surprises!

Another idea is to make several days worth of salads. put the dressing on the bottom, then layer meat, cheese, hard boiled egg, then chopped veg like broccoli and carrots, then the lettuce on the top so it stays fresh. When it's time to eat, just turn it over and shake it, ready to go!

Eating takeout won't hurt your weight loss, as long as you plan ahead and make choices that fit into your goals. When I first started, it was easier to eat out as so many restaurants have their info already in the database!

Good luck!

I am taking everyone's advice on board and will definitely try the pulled meat and beans advice! Do any of you have recommendations of meals that are quick to prepare that i could microwave at work? I do make a lot of sandwiches for lunch so maybe i could try eating more of those with brown bread and lean meats?

Lean Cuisine meals at your local Walmart/Kroger, or a similar product are good microwave meals if you can budget the calories.

It's possible. The first time I lost weight, I lost 60 pounds over a six month period when my job required me to travel all the time.

A few practical pointers:

1. Eat a high fiber cereal for breakfast. Assembling a bowl of cereal isn't really preparing food. It'll take less time than running out and grabbing something, I guarantee it.
2. For lunch, I got used to eating monotonously. I'd have a subway sandwich every lunch. This was back in their "Jared" days, and not in their current "Frito Pie Sandwich" days, but you get the point. The same effect can be found eating Chicken Nuggets from Chick-Fil-A. I agree with the earlier statement that you need to know the calorie count of what you're eating. That'll make it much easier.
3. For dinner, I'd usually go out and get a salad, with some kind of vinaigrette dressing on the side.

And exercise. I wouldn't have lost that 60 while eating out without also exercising sufficiently.

One other thing to try is to try to measure the time it takes to pick something up at the restaurant and bring it back. You might actually surprise yourself with how long it actually takes to drive out, order, wait for your food, and bring the food back to the house. In many situations, you can save more time by simply throwing a chicken breast into the oven.

Some time-saving options might also include one of my personal favorites, which is to buy a warm rotisserie chicken at the supermarket, and break it into four equally sized portions, throw them in plastic bags and put them in the fridge. Boom. Four meals ready to go, cheaper than eating out, and more time saving than eating out.

Also, the Weight Watchers or Smart Ones meals are a great option. Takes all of three minutes to prepare, and the calorie count is very well known.

Just a few ideas to help you, but you CAN lose weight and eat out all the time. I know because I've done it.

Sorry but Im in agreement with most of the negatives.
I work LONG hours every week, mostly night shifts travelling between 7 different hotels.
Quite often working 7 days with very small breaks.

I still manage to prepare my food and go to the gym on a daily basis..

Willpower is all that matters...

(You're not gonna get many people replying encouraging a fast food and eat-out diet. It would be counter productive and against site TOS to encourage an unhealthy diet)

fast food and eat out diets are not counter productive and against ToS ...if it were there would be a lot of us in trouble all the time.

It is against the ToS to encourage VLCD...and who says you can't eat healthy eating out...

Chicken and a salad is healthy...ie DQ chicken strips and side salad, or grilled chicken salad or wendy's tuscan grilled chicken with a salad...

ETA: there was a teacher who ate at McDonalds everyday and I believe for every meal, exercised and lost weight over 30 days along with bettering his health markers through blood work...

We shall have to agree to disagree.

If yiu honestly think that a fast food and eat-out diet is healthy then all the best to you but I for one will never feel comfortable posting to encourage it.

Please check the TOS carefully, promoting a takeaway diet would be classed as promoting unhealthy heating patterns, seeing ad OP stated curry as one of the takeaways and no other real references to which kind of takeaway, it doesnt look brilliant.

fast food and eat out diets are not counter productive and against ToS ...if it were there would be a lot of us in trouble all the time.

It is against the ToS to encourage VLCD...and who says you can't eat healthy eating out...

Chicken and a salad is healthy...ie DQ chicken strips and side salad, or grilled chicken salad or wendy's tuscan grilled chicken with a salad...

ETA: there was a teacher who ate at McDonalds everyday and I believe for every meal, exercised and lost weight over 30 days along with bettering his health markers through blood work...

We shall have to agree to disagree.

If yiu honestly think that a fast food and eat-out diet is healthy then all the best to you but I for one will never feel comfortable posting to encourage it.

Please check the TOS carefully, promoting a takeaway diet would be classed as promoting unhealthy heating patterns, seeing ad OP stated curry as one of the takeaways and no other real references to which kind of takeaway, it doesnt look brilliant.

I am in the "TOS" (you mean the community guidelines, right?), and there is nothing about takeaway, fast food, and the like. I take it this is what you are referencing:

3. No Promotion of Unsafe Weight-Loss Techniques or Eating Disorders
a) Posts intended to promote potentially unsafe or controversial weight loss products or procedures, including non-medically prescribed supplements or MLM products will be removed without warning.
b) Profiles, groups, messages, posts, or wall comments that encourage anorexia, bulimia, or very low calorie diets of any kind will be removed, and may be grounds for account deletion. This includes positive references to ana/mia, purging, or self-starving. Our goal is to provide users with the tools to achieve their weight management goals at a steady, sustainable rate. Use of the site to promote, glamorize, or achieve dangerously low levels of eating is not permitted.
c) Photos intended to glamorize extreme thinness will be deleted.

She is not asking about supplements, MLM, anorexia, bulimia, low calorie diets, unsustainably fast weight loss, or extreme thinness.

There is nothing inherently unhealthy in eating out. I am going to Panera for lunch today. I am fitting it into my daily calories. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I could eat it every day for lunch and be just as healthy as I am now. I wouldn't eat it every day because it's harder to fit into my daily calories, not because it is counter productive to weight loss or breaking the MFP ToS.

So that I am not posting all of this without talking to the OP... here's a delicious crock pot side (I sometimes eat it as a main) that I've made a few times and I loveeee. It will make your kitchen smell like cinnamon and heaven: http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/213042/savory-slow-cooker-squash-and-apple-dish?evt19=1 (sorry it's the mobile version of the site).

You don't really have to cook to eat your own food from home. What about sandwiches, hardboiled eggs, cans of soup? These are all things that can be low cal/healthy and you can also track their calories. What about the freezer section of your rmarket? They have microwaveable meals that are cheap, easy, quick and track-able. What about bananas, apples, yogurt? There are so many things that you don't have to cook that you can just grab and go, and TRACK.
If you really really want this to work, you're going to really need to track your calories, at least in the beginning. I commute to my full time job through downtown traffic, have a young child, a houseful of animals, and daily workouts, and I somehow find the time. You can certainly at least try. Nobody said you had to cook a rack of lamb or beef wellington every night !

It's not an ideal situation, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. You will need an initial investment of time, but you pretty much only have to do this once:

Sit down with a computer and look up the nutritional info on all of the places you normally would eat. If no nutritional info is available, stop eating there or take your chances with guessing. Make a list of the places you plan to eat, along with the healthy dishes they serve, and the calorie/macro counts. If you think you're going to splurge once in a while on dessert or some favorite dish, make sure you include those items so you won't have to look them up again later. Stick with that list. You'll need to update it every so often as new places open or seasonal menus change, but for the most part, once you have your list, you're done. Just stick with that list.

You don't really have to cook to eat your own food from home. What about sandwiches, hardboiled eggs, cans of soup? These are all things that can be low cal/healthy and you can also track their calories. What about the freezer section of your rmarket? They have microwaveable meals that are cheap, easy, quick and track-able.
If you really really want this to work, you're going to really need to track your calories, at least in the beginning. I commute to my full time job through downtown traffic, have a young child, a houseful of animals, and daily workouts, and I somehow find the time. You can certainly at least try. Nobody said you had to cook a rack of lamb or beef wellington every night !

Reminds me of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution... the kids didn't like his food, so the parents packed lunches for the kids. They tossed Lunchables, chips, and candy in there, since anything packed at home is healthy too (maybe healthy with love?). I'd rather have fast food than Lunchables and frozen meals. When I ate those, I always had to add extra protein and veggies because they just weren't filling enough for the calories. By that time, the convenience factor was gone.

I lost lot of weight traveling for work every week. Keep it simple, its no big deal losing weight eating out.

You don't really have to cook to eat your own food from home. What about sandwiches, hardboiled eggs, cans of soup? These are all things that can be low cal/healthy and you can also track their calories. What about the freezer section of your rmarket? They have microwaveable meals that are cheap, easy, quick and track-able.
If you really really want this to work, you're going to really need to track your calories, at least in the beginning. I commute to my full time job through downtown traffic, have a young child, a houseful of animals, and daily workouts, and I somehow find the time. You can certainly at least try. Nobody said you had to cook a rack of lamb or beef wellington every night !

Reminds me of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution... the kids didn't like his food, so the parents packed lunches for the kids. They tossed Lunchables, chips, and candy in there, since anything packed at home is healthy too (maybe healthy with love?). I'd rather have fast food than Lunchables and frozen meals. When I ate those, I always had to add extra protein and veggies because they just weren't filling enough for the calories. By that time, the convenience factor was gone.

Didn't mention Lunchables, or chips, or candy, or anything of the sort, neither would I eat that, or tell anyone else to eat that........ Today I have Veggie Lites Chili Cornbread bowl at 200 calories for lunch. My diary is open so you don't judge what I say before you see what I am referring to - I eat lots of very healthy pre-packaged foods, non-gmo, organic stuff. And I also mentioned yogurt and fruit, too, but you must not have seen that.