[Meg]

Glory started a really interesting thread in the Weight Loss Support forum about the outrageous calorie counts in restaurant meals: Grrr - Red Robin Restaurant and it got me wondering. How many people who have lost weight and are keeping it off (or maybe are still successfully losing) have done it eating frequent restaurant meals? Is it possible to eat out often and still lose weight? Or do the high calorie counts in most restaurant meals make eating out and weight loss mutually exclusive?

During the year that I was losing, I ate out rarely -- less than once a month, I think. And I pretty much stuck with grilled chicken salad, no dressing, because I really didn't want to risk a gain. Now that I'm maintaining, DH and I eat out maybe once a month but I'm still cautious about what I order because I know that even with good choices, I'll be way over my calorie limit for the day.

In my very unscientific experience, the more often someone eats out, the heavier they are. But maybe that's my circle of friends? What do you all think about restaurant meals and weight loss? Do you think that eating out frequently correlates with weight gain or stalls out weight loss?

[nelie]

When I first started losing weight, I didn't eat out at all. When I was in the upper 200s, I started to gain weight (hit 300 again) and I blamed my love of Indian restaurants partly on the gain. Cut those out but kept restaurant eating in the equation and I've gotten to where I am now.

Most weeks, we eat out twice a week, sometimes once a week. I blame period of 'stalls' (ahem) really on what I eat on a daily basis rather than my eating out. The difference I notice on the weeks where I lose a lot versus maintaining really isn't what I eat on the weekends when I eat out but really depends on what I ate during the week.

Of course if I eat crap during the week, it'll sometimes lead me to eat crappier things when I eat out. The other thought though is that really why waste calories during the week on crappier stuff when I know I'll eat out on the weekend and could have a splurge item if I wanted.

[bamachick38]

Hi Meg; First of all I want to say that I am a long time lurker on this board but never participated until recently; and you have been such an inspiration to me; just thought that you would want to know how much of an impact you have on people that you don't even know exists.

Now to answer your question based on my experience, I eat out a lot. My dh hates and I mean hates to eat at home. I started out basically like you eating grilled chicken, steamed veggies and dressing on the side only and I found that I quickly got bored. I have gained and lost the same 40 lbs a million times but this time I decided that if this was going to stick I couldn't keep feeling deprived and bored, so I started eating what I want within reason at restaurants. I am in the middle of a very stubborn plateau at the moment and eating out may have something to do with it but I don't think so. Fortunately I am an absolute exercise junkie and I usually get notice for when we are going out; so I compensate at the gym prior to going and manage to create a nice little calorie deficit beforehand. This has resulted in a thirtyfive pound weight loss since April. Not too bad. Hope this helps your experiment a little.

Renee

[midwife]

When I was packing on the pounds, I ate out often. Very often. And I gave no thought to my choices when I did.

Now I am so careful and cautious with nutrition. The calories just aren't worth it for many restaurant meals. I have a few exceptions. I have a small local restaurant here and their breakfast burritos are fantastic. I went from a huge one 2-3 times a week when I was at my high weight to a half a burrito once a week. Although I did not have one last week.

Hmm....I wonder if they are still in business now that I missed a week.

I went out to dinner to a fancy schmancy restaurant for a girls night out. No calorie counting occurred. But that is a once a year thing.

I do not eat out often at all nowadays.

[Meg]

Hi Renee and thank you for your kind words. Congratulations on your weight loss! Your experience is really interesting since obviously you're doing something right!

[Meg]

Again with the totally unscientific observation ... when I walk into a place like TGIFridays, Macaroni Grill, or Chilis, it seems like almost every person there is supersized -- big people eating big portions of food. Cause? Correlation? Coincidence?

[Glory87]

I love love love nice meals in nice restaurants - but I try very hard to put a once a week limit on eating out.

Since beginning maintenance, I usually have at least one very nice meal per week in a restaurant. This normally includes a glass of wine and splitting a dessert. I try to stay out of the bread basket, but I'm usually only semi-successful. I still try to stick to my basic rules - I avoid cream based sauces and fried foods. I still try to stop eating when I'm full and not overeat just because something tasty is on my plate.

If I eat out more than once a week, the other restaurant meals have to be "on plan" - meaning I make the best choices possible. I like Chipotle, sushi, P.F. Changs, On the Border (They have a great steak salad which I special order to pieces and still really like) and a few other places that have really good options that taste great and don't blow my calories for the day. I am a special order queen and always get dressings on the side, no sauce, no butter on veggies, double veggies etc etc. Most places are very kind and accomodating. I'm also a huge fan of dividing the food on my plate into "what I'm going to eat" and "the food I"m not going to eat" and slowly eating my portion.

Oh my other big rule - no leftovers from a restaurant. The ONLY exception is P.F. Chang's, I get the spinach, brown rice and Cantonese scallops and it's enough for 2 healthy meals. Otherwise, restaurants are a huge calorie bomb and it's a one time shot, I don't take any home to ruin the next day. I know it's wasteful, but gaining weight and having to buy a new wardrobe would be more financially wasteful!

[lilybelle]

I have found that I definitely lose weight or maintain my weight much easier when eating very infrequently in restaurants. Even with making good choices, I tend to gain water weight from all the salt in restaurant foods.

When I was at my higher weight , I dined out almost daily. I didn't pay any attention to the nutrition of my foods. Now on the rare occasion that I do dine out, it's almost always a grilled chicken salad with LF dressing. I also tend to always take home 1/2 of my meal as restaurant portions are at least double what I would cook for myself at home. I have totally given up ordering beverages to drink at restaurants, now it's just water for me.

[JayEll]

Like midwife, I ate out a lot when I was gaining weight, as in, sometimes twice a day.

I did go out to restaurants while losing, and I still eat out--just not nearly as often. For me that means once or twice a week. I learned really quickly about portion sizes and choices, and that obviously I could not eat all of what I was served. Sometimes I could only eat 1/3 of what was served!

Often I don't want to take home what I haven't eaten, and so I got over the reluctance to leave food. Better in the garbage than on my body.

Places like Macaroni Grill, Carrabbas, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, TGIFridays... I visit these very rarely. When I do, I order the best things I can find. I leave a lot of food--like pasta--and take home most of what I order. And sometimes I throw a lot of that away later.

One of the places I like best is Sweet Tomatoes, but even there, it's easy to overdo the calories without realizing it. I have had to be very careful there. And I see a lot of obese people there, probably thinking they are just having a "healthy salad."

I like breakfast out, but I try not to do that much because it's too easy to go over on carbs.

My weight loss stalls have more to do with my not being able to stick with my calorie limit than with whether I eat out or not. The pitfalls are here at home as much as out there. In fact, in some ways it's easier to overeat at home because the food is right at hand.

Jay

[bamachick38]

Thanks Meg;
I am finding it an interesting (but not unpleasant) experience also. I must add though, that I work two jobs one full time and one pretty close to full time and still try to exercise 2 hours a day. It may be that I'm never still for very long therefore causing bigger deficits than I should be. I eat 1200 to 1400 calories a day on a typical day. Per the Making the Cut plan. (I am not following the diet portion to a T) but trying to stay close.

I have also noticed though a corelation between notoriously unhealthy restaurants and the size of the patrons . My son asked me to take him to Burger King the other day before an activity that we had planned. We walked in and there was a very large family in there. Even the children were morbidly obese and my heart went out to them. Truthfully and I am ashamed to admit this but I really wanted to tell them that there are much healthier options out there and to drop the burgers.

[Megan1982]

I've never gone out to eat a whole lot. Growing up it was a rare treat in my family, as my parents cooked often and mom was also very frugal, and believed eating out was too expensive. I used to go out once in a while, perhaps 1x a month, throughout childhood, and then college is was mostly university dining with a few trips out to restaurants a month.

Now I go out or get takeout maybe once every other month. Especially where I live, restaurant choices are very limited to seafood restaurants with "brown" sides - everything fried, a few pizzerias...a real shame b/c we do have so much wonderful seafood. Why does it need to be drowned in oil or breaded and deep fried? I would rather make my own. Or I am left with the standard chicken salad option. I would rather make my own chicken salad with mixed lettuces, a variety of fresh vegetables, and homemade dressing, than pay $8-10 for limp iceberg with a chicken breast slathered in oil on top. There are a few nicer restaurants that prepare food very well and are worth the splurge. BF takes me to my favorite on my birthday... if my parents are visiting we might go... that's about it. I also am on a budget, so a smaller part of not eating out is being careful with my spending also.

I also have trouble with portions, taking half home, always avoiding the bread basket, etc. so part of not eating out it not wanting to put myself in the way of too much temptation, even if I did have more restaurant options.

I can't say I go to big chain restaurants often, like I said, as I live in a rural area and we simply don't have them.

[nelie]

I should also say that I do choose healthier restaurant options when I go out. Dessert and appetizers aren't part of the meal and the places I go tend to not have bread baskets. I did find a wonderful meal at a local italian chain a few weeks back. They will substitute sauteed veggies (zucchini and other stuff) for pasta in any of their dishes. The veggies were fantastic and the sauce I chose was nice.

My favorites are:
Chipotle
Local 'health focused' chinese restaurants
BD's Mongolian grill

Splurges include:
Red Robin (usually a lettuce wrapped veggie burger, sometimes with fries)
Kabob veggie sandwich (I love the bread but there is a kabob place here that makes a mean veggie sandwich with their bread)
Pizza (veggie pizza with no cheese at a local chain that uses no oil in sauce/crust)
Ethiopian food (good but sometimes a little oily)
Indian food (very careful here and it is a rarity)

Also with the fact that I don't eat meat or cheese, it is easy to avoid some of the major calorie hits that occur in restaurants.

[Glory87]

Oh yeah, I love Mongolian Grill type places, there is one near where I work! I also love Indian, my favorite dish is chana masala (chickpeas) and it tends to be fairly safe calorie wise. I skip the rice and get whole wheat roti without butter.

Mmmm Indian.

I love love love love Ethiopian, but haven't found a good restaurant in San Diego yet.

The italian place that subs zuch for pasta is VERY intriguing!

[midwife]

I am jealous that some of you guys feel comfortable and safe with certain choices. My problem is that I have been burned by what I thought *were* good choices.

To a certain extent, I believe that eating out should be a pleasurable experience with good food and making the healthiest choices possible. But everytime I read one of those articles detailing calorie counts, I am shocked anew at how restaurants cram so many calories into such innocent appearing dishes.

I think we just kind of have to do the best we can, but I think that for me, a good rule of thumb is to double the number of calories that I *think* an item might have in order to be closer to reality. Or just not worry about it for that rare occasion I do eat out.

[WaterRat]

Hmmm. As opposed to bamachick, my DH hates eating out! So if I go out it's usually with GFs and frankly unless we drive 50 miles to Anchorage, there are only a handful of restaurants and we all know what are the "safe" things to order there. When DH and I do go out - usually when we're on vacation - we often get two salads and split a healthier main course. I seldom drink beverages other than water or coffee (or okay, wine ) either at home or in restaurants. For the most part I'm not willing to drink my calories - doesn't fill me up.