How often do you eat out during weight-loss phase?

Sophsmother wrote: »

Briargrey wrote: »

It's not a 'lifestyle' if you're doing it to cater to her whims about not eating your cooking. But yeah, not a parenting forum, so whatever. Let her walk all over you and let her build up (probably) bad habits at the same time.

Where do you eat out at? What do you typically eat when there? What does she typically eat?

Putting on weight really shouldn't be about cramming your face full of crap. Losing weight shouldn't really be about cutting out everything until you go crazy and switch to cramming it. Moderation and all that. Catering to a 10 year old under the guise of 'it's my social thing' just seems...off to me. But yeah, whatever.

Thanks for posting. I'm gonna leave my daughter's dietary needs up to the specialists as they know what they're talking about and have been really helpful. As for parenting advice, umm, thanks...I guess.

For me, I was just asking how people who dine out often manage to still lose weight. I never go to chain restaurants only because there are tons of family owned places to eat all within walking distance from my house. And they are cheap and good and you can get fresh food, which meets both of our dietary needs. But like I said in the original post, I know there are hidden calories.

Anyway, I meet with my dietician tomorrow. She's going to give me some really easy recipes for home that even I can't mess up. I'll get my daughter involved in the cooking and see if that helps her. But I'm just trying to focus on me in this post and am sorry I mentioned her needs at all.

Perhaps it's benefit you both to take note.

No ones being nasty, we are being honest.

I eat out every meal and I've been hitting my goals.

Okay, I'll pop in as someone who has, at a time in her life, eaten out up to 7 days a week with my daughter. I was able to afford it, plus for 2 years my kitchen was being remodeled so I couldnt cook, but then after it was complete, I didnt feel like picking up cooking again, so it was still another 2 or 3 years before I used my kitchen for something other than making coffee. For years, my fridge had beer and fruit in it, and a pint of B&J in the freezer...I swear, that was literally it.

Anyway...we lean towards Asian foods...so at least 5 to 6 nights out of the week, we were eating traditional Chinese, or Japanese foods. Once a week we'd have Italian or Mexican...but rare really, because we *love* Asian food. So not Panda Express or Chinese Take out with deep fried chicken wings LoL but sushi or sushami, steamed dumplings, loads of steamed vegetables...stuff like that. Kiddo isnt big on rice, so shed sub it with more vegetables. We'd eat half, then box up the rest to have for lunch the next day. None of this was for weight or health reasons..its just how we ate.

Now mind you...I was near the low end of my weight range, and kiddo has always been lean and muscular so I really can confidently say that eating out did not have a negative effect on us, because there was no negative effect on us. I wasnt overweight and she wasnt underweight... But yeah, basically, our choice of where we ate, along with it that we rarely ever finished what we had and would take the rest home for later is I think a major reason why we were able to do what we do.

But...my life situation changed, and I could no longer afford it....so I started making meals from home. Didnt feel like a failure at all..actually, I thought it was awesome that I could create pretty much the same things at home and it cost so much less. I started to experiment and learned to make all sorts of awesome things, to the point where kiddo would rather eat my cooking than go out to eat....hearing kiddo tell me she prefers my food...feeling no failure from that at all...even though I can still barely boil water without a recipe...with one, I am a force to be reckoned with!!! LoL And I was still thin, and kiddo was still healthy.

NOW where things hit the fan for me is with my ex bf...he took us out to eat about 3 or 4 nights a week, but it was steak (with baked potato...loaded!!!) and italian (pastaaaa) and french (escargot in butterrrr) and blah blah blah...hed order 2 appetizers plus our courses plus dessert blah blah blah. I was young and skinny, what did I care? And it tasted so good! BUT thats what made me gain the weight. It was always fine dining, freshly prepared, not fast food or chain restaurants, but also waaaay more fattening than my lil Asian fare and even my home cooked meals ever were. I ended up gaining nearly 50lbs in the 2 years we were together. (ETA - Kiddo was still thin and healthy...cause, a teenagers metabolism lol)

Anyway, take from that what you will...just keep in mind, during the time of my life where we ate out all the time, I was in my 20's to early 30's...slender, fit, as was (and still is) kiddo. And also, our diet even with eating out was 90% steamed vegetables, raw or grilled fish and fresh fruit. Oh, and we also ate at a vegan / raw food restaurant that opened up close by us quite a bit too. That was pretty much it.

OH! ETA! To finally answer your question... Im devoted to cooking at home, because well..I really do enjoy it now, and like I said, kiddo prefers it to eating out. But I will now eat out maybe once a week.

With 1200 calories, unless your maintenance calories are as low as 1400...you have wiggle room.