Losing weight for dummies

Why do you have to eat out?

Heres how i might approach it off the top of my head.

1. Breakfast you control and whatever it is should be in the database from cereal to soemthing you have cooked.
2. Lunch in restaurant, then use the database for an approximation of something similar or take your own or get further info from the restaurant about whats in things or order something simple so you know what it contains roughly. Making an educated guess is infinitely superior, than not making the effort. You should educate yourself about whats healthy or not, alternatively you can use portion control as a calorie counter. Alternatively take your own lunch in. Logging an accurate amount is a really importnat tool to make sure you are in deficit and helping you lose weight, hence its worth the effort.
3. If it was sabotaging my efforts, id just ditch eating out and take my own. It shouldnt be hard though.
4. Dinner then make your own food and you will know the calories.
5. Dont let the restaurant thing stand in your way, there will be a way to make it work for you.

Having and maintaining a deficit is important, but imo you shouldnt eat below 1200 calories, unless you have a good medical reason to.

Macros I dont worry about, but I try and hot the recommended amount of protein and fibre. the rest takes care of itself. Some people who wnat to follow low carbs and high protein use them as targets and it works for them, but to start you need a consistent deficit. Keep asking here till you get it to work for you.

If you pre plan then you can see which meals have unknown counts and then get the information you need. Keep a note or refer to your previous entries.

OK, I live in Italy, and can imagine your problem in Bulgaria. Because you have to eat lunch out, you will have to learn to "eyeball" as accurately as possible. At home you have to buy the same stuff that you usually eat for lunch and weigh it all. Or buy 2 lunches, bring one home and take it apart and weigh everything--you would only have to do this once. That's the best I can suggest, since lunch will wind up sabotaging your weight loss. Good luck.

Take one day a week, on your day off and pre prepare all your lunches for the following week. Food that can be frozen and reheated. Slow cookers are your best friend in this case, you can find them online and are not very expensive. There are literally thousands of slow cooker recipes that you can finds online for free, most of which involve simply putting raw food in, adding a few spices, turning the switch to "ON" and walking away. Even the most hopeless cooks can manage this. Find some recipes you think you'd like and make enough to last you the week. Easy.

You can't cook? You don't have time to make a packed lunch?

You can cook. It's entirely feasible. You just need practice. One of my favourite dinners involves almost no cooking at all: Oven on, Rice on. Salmon fillet (175 degrees fan) for 15 minutes - wrap in tin foil and put curry powder on top). Veg of choice - boil for 6-10. I like brocolli, or green beans. Lots of it!

Dish up, and serve with soy sauce on rice. Done.

Edit: I do make my own tandoori rub. When I say mine, I mean someone else's, what I stole from the internet: http://www.food.com/recipe/tandoori-dry-rub-16231

One rule to rule them all...

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.
-Wayne Dyer

It's about moderation not deprivation. There are no good/bad foods, only bad eating habits. Do or do not, there is no try. You have to want it, you have to work for it, you have to realize that only you can do it.

This may help: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1455850-new-here-have-questions-this-may-help

If you want to go out to eat for lunch and you think you calories are sabotaging you, change the calories that you are controlling. allow more for lunch and watch the calories that you are drinking as well... If you are not losing weight and you're not accurately tracking your calories slowly reduce, give it time to show a result one way or another and then proceed. Also as a female it can take a full month to see results that you're expecting. I judge my weight on my monthly cycle, it increases after it decreases and doesn't decrease for almost another 3 weeks... it sucks, but it is the way mine is. yours may be different.

Since you mention going out to lunch is also a time for you to unwind, try this; whatever you order, try to choose something that is meat+vegetables, and avoid carbs/starches. And then, depending on the portion, maybe try not to eat it all.
If all the other meals in your day are measured, this should help a bit.

Move more and eat less is a good tip. If you are not losing weight it is because you are eating too much (generally). So, you can either 1) eat less - if you have to eat out, leave some on your plate. Don't eat it all. 2) Move much more to work off what you have eaten - although this does sound like a no-no with the time aspect 3) Do both.

Hi

My little bit of advice is, if you are going to eat out try and eat at places that publish the nutritional information for their meals. Two examples here by us is KFC and Debonairs Pizza. That way you can plan for those meals as well. Some Deli's also have nutritional information for their food.

how tall are you, how much do you weigh?
IMHO you should not give up eating out for lunch and sit alone at your desk, that would probably be a poor career move.
Instead learn how to order properly, drink sips of water , eat raw veggies and request meat cooked without butter or with very little oil. Someone suggested eating one half of your food for lunch and the other half for dinner.

15kg is about 33 pounds, that is not a huge amount to lose but be very careful, during the upcoming holiday season, not to gain weight. Try to take it easy with all the sweet treats that "appear" in an office setting.

In addition, it may help you to avoid or eat small portions of potatoes, pasta and rice etc.
GL