Help for restaraunt dieting

Usually there are always healthy options available...italian restaurants get a little harder for me BUT there are definitely ways to make your food healthy. You might have to do a little bit of research before hand. For example, I just went out to my friend's bday dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill (Italian) and they give out free bread and olive oil to dip it in...I had 1/6th of the bread with little bit of the olive oil dip...and then ordered a healthier pasta. They have a thing called "create your own pasta". I didn't even finish all of it because it was so much. Ate half and packed the rest. The whole meal turned out to be good calorie wise.

So yeah there's always healthier options available.

My husband and I are living well under the poverty line and therefore only eat at restaurants maybe once a month or less because it's so much more expensive than eating at home. Even if I'm getting stuff just for me to cook at home, I find it's cheaper than eating out.

I've never heard of someone eating out because they were too broke to grocery shop. I'm also really curious about where you're eating out that's so cheap and where you grocery shop.
I can feed my family of three for about $200 a week...and every time we eat out it's about $50. Times that by 3 meals a day and it doesn't add up.

Hello. Let me first tell you that it is EXTREMELY HARD to lose weight eating out at restaurants all the time. Losing weight and sustaining that weight is all about changing your lifestyle. And for most people, this lifestyle consists of preparing your meals at home for the most part and limiting restaurants.

I think I'm doing very well financially but I shop at WalMart and buy the Great Value brand for a lot of their products. They are actually pretty good. Unless you are talking about fast food burger places, normally eating out at restaurants--Chilli's, Fridays, Olive Garden-- is more expensive than cooking at home.

It seems that if you don't deal with your dad's "childishness" about non-branded grocery foods and his preference for eating out, you will have trouble with your weight loss efforts. Please deal with this issue first and foremost. I can not overemphasize this.

But having said that, the trick to restaurant eating is do your homework. I have gone through my favorite restaurants web sites and printed their menus with calorie information. Then I highlighted the foods that are lower in calories. I then compiled everything in a binder. Before we go out to eat, I would look at the binder and decide what I'm going to eat.

But in general, follow these rules:
- avoid appetizers
- avoid desserts
- avoid drinks with calories
- split with your companion
- salad dressings can contain a ton of calorie so order the non-fat or light dressing
- have them separate the dressing from the salad
- fish is normally lower in calorie
- order 1 side of vegetable, skip the fries or baked/mashed potatoe
- a petite steak is okay

These are the rules that I follow. In fact, in order to enjoy myself, I still eat out once or twice a weak but stay within my calorie budget. But this is a compromise and not the healthiest situation. Even if your calories are within your budget when you eat out, normally restaurant food is loaded with sodium which is not good for you.

Again, I encourage you to reexamine your eating habits and try to prepare meals at home for the most part.

If you are single, you'd be surprised. The going out math vs eating out math is much harder. Especially if you are into ng organics and whole foods.

I spend about the same when I go out a lot or cook at home.