Glory - My only problem with indian is the naan... I love naan more than almost anything.

midwife - that is part of my strategy as well. When I'm not sure, I do double my estimate of calories. Even these articles/websites that give calorie counts aren't too reassuring to me.

I guess that my 3 years of maintenance has made me feel more comfortable - I have been doing this for 3 years and my weight has been very steady, within 5 lbs for the entire time - even with my weekly indulgence and the occasional, other off plan blips.

I am very strict normally, keeping my daily calories under 1800 almost every day. I eat that way so I can have my weekly treat meal - I save up for it every day :)

Everything is so individualized, I don't know if I could be successful on a daily basis if I didn't have that one meal a week to look forward to. I really really enjoy it.

For the other restaurant meals, I just do the best I can with good decisions and I'm sure I eat more than I know sometimes, but it seems to all work out okay.

We used to eat out a lot more than we do now. We were eating out probably 4-5 dinners a week, and a couple breakfasts. I was not paying attention to what I ate, and therefore ended up at 250.

Even while losing weight, we still ate out - but I was paying more attention to what I ate.

Now, we regularly have breakfast out twice a week (bagels - yum!), and usually one weekend meal. Many times DH and I split an entree, which works out great. When I want pizza, we go to a local place that has the best, get one calzone and split it with a side salad. That way I am limited as to how much I can eat (whole pies have a tendency to go down my gullet in multiple slices), and still feel like I get a yummy meal.

I have found restaurant portions are really just to big - and I don't want the leftovers. I don't like thinking about what a deal it is to have dinner and lunch for the next day. I just think - that was a lot of calories for half, do I want to take the rest home??

We went out for ice cream the other night. I wanted to treat myself to some real stuff (instead of yogurt). I asked for the child size scoop - and it had to be a cup of ice cream! What little kid needs that much?

So, in all that rambling, :blah: I guess that eating out probably has affected the speed of my loss, but I don't really want to deprive myself of certain places I enjoy eating.

And here I thought it was just me noticing because I've become so hyperaware (I'm trying to limit my use of the word *obsessed* :lol: ) of my own size. You should spend a minute watching the folks in the buffet lines at some of our hotels, eesh, scary. Sometimes it actually makes me a little sad and I spend time wondering which ones are going to be beating themselves up later for going overboard. But, I digress, back to the subject at hand...

Because of DH's line of work - lots of schmoozing (pc term is *networking* :D ) required - we still eat out fairly often. I'm not at goal yet and a little stalled so not sure if I can qualify as "still successfully losing" but I'm definitely successfully not gaining anything back. If we're in a *sit-down* restaurant, I do like JayEll and just make the best choices I can - lot's of times putting together my own "meal" from sides like steamed broccoli (with specific instructions of no butter, oil or salt) and sliced tomatoes - and keep a very close eye on how much I actually eat. If all else fails, I just order a house salad with oil & vinegar on the side. House salads are generally not embellished with much of anything except the occasional single shred of cheese (at least I think that's what it's supposed to be :lol:) and an olive slice so I think (hope) they are fairly safe. My favorite is buffet style though - I can pick and choose without getting heavy sighs and rolling eyes from waitstaff, and am in complete control of how much makes it to my plate.

My big trick that I shared with someone on another thread is, when I know we are going out, I'll choose something to wear that is fitted in the waist - not tight enough to look bad, just a little snug. It really helps me keep my mind focused on not going overboard if it pinches a little when I try to reach for the bread basket :D

LOL Nelie, when I was overweight I would eat two orders of naan all by myself.

My rule since I started losing has been to eat out no more than once a week. When I was losing, I would restrict my calories a lot the rest of the week except for that one meal, where I would eat whatever I wanted. It worked out so that my average cals per week were okay, even if I ate 2000 cals in that one meal out.

We haven't been going out as much lately, since we have had more family obligations. Instead, I count eating at the in-laws' house as a meal "out" because I know it is going to be over my normal calorie budget for dinner. I sometimes substitute my meal out with something else, like getting an ice cream cone in the afternoon.

When I was in college and gaining, I ate at the dining hall every meal almost every day, and any other meals I had were at restaurants (I didn't have a kitchen). Eating at a dining hall is like eating at an all-you-can-eat buffet, but where the only thing that tastes good is the dessert and breadsticks. When I was in high school we ate out probably 2-3 nights during the week, then had breakfast out at least once on the weekend, lunch usually fast food on the weekend, and usually dinner out saturday nights too. That adds up to seven restaurant meals a week. It was a big change for me to drop down to 1 restaurant meal a week.

I eat out a few times a week and my weight loss hasn't stalled yet (maybe that will change though - who knows?) . I do make *very* different choices when I go to restaurants now than I did in the past, and I try to pick restaurants than seem like they might have "safe" menu options.

One of the primary reasons I go out is for meat. I live in a vegetarian household, so I can't cook or store meat in the house. For instance, I'm planning to go out tonight so I can have some fish. There's a great Hawaiian BBQ place that serves grilled mahi mahi with green salad and a scoop of brown rice. I go there frequently, and that's what I always order.

Experience is a great teacher. I'm so glad you have found a way to satisfy everything that is important to you. I think that as I "play" with maintenance a little and try different things, I'll find out what I can do and what I can't.

I eat out a lot. My son is in college now and I don't have to cook, and my husband likes it too, so we eat out all the time. That said, I am lucky to live in a place with a lot of small individually owned restaurants and I'm not limited to the chains, which I try to avoid, with their huge portions and not so great nutrition (especially since I also have diabetes concerns, which limits me further). I am not shy about asking what exactly goes into a dish and I pay the same attention to carbs and calories as at home. I also avoid the type of restaurant I know won't have much to offer me (such as most Italian places). Over time we have a list of places that suit us and we go to them most of the time. By now we also are practiced at reading menus and knowing if we even want to set foot in the door (many have menus on the internet, even better). It has worked best to know ahead of time what my choices are, and then I don't get caught ordering something I regret later.

I eat out at least twice a week. What I do is look up the restaurants' meals' nutrition online and then decide what I'm going to eat. In addition, I totally specialize. Below are my faves:

Red Robin Ensenada Chicken Platter, no dressing, no tortilla strips on salad
about 400 cals
Red Robin Burger in a lettuce bun with side salad
Chili's Guitless Salmon, double veggies, no beans

Chili's has some good Guiltless items. I also get roasted chicken at certain restaurants and just don't eat the skin. It's worked out for me pretty weel so far.

also, I eat a lot of sushi. Not the best choice, but I can't resist!

I believe if you customize, you'll do okay eating out!

And Rubios and Baja Fresh. Those places are great! I get the healthmex tacos all the time!

The year I was losing I barely ate out. And when I did, it was very, very cautiously. Like a plain, undressed salad and grilled chicken, that I of course pestered the waiter about the amount of oil used in cooking it. I would count my calories and always estimate high, just to be on the safe side. For me, it just wasn't worth it to eat out. At home I know EXACTLY what's in my food and I can always get more volume with food that I make myself. Which is VERY important to me.

Now that I'm maintaining I eat out more often then when I was losing, but still not very often. I think with the chain restaurants we're playing calorie Russian Roulette. I think we stand a much better chance at the singularly owned type restaurants. I could be wrong though. But at least at those type places you can ask for custom foods and question what's really in there.

I know Glory has had much success eating out, (and IN for that matter ;)), but for me, eating out usually means overspending my calorie budget.

As I get close to my goal weight, I am trying to figure out how to eat in order to maintain. I had an emotional eating phase at the beginning of the year where I ate take out meals daily and gained weight rapidly. These past few days, my meals have included some take-out & restaurants, but I eat very differently than I did in the past. For example:

Thursday: Went to Panera with co-workers, got the creamy chicken rice soup and ate 1/2 of it (100 cal, 6 g fat) with some of the whole wheat baguette. I had already filled up on my lunch prior to going with them, but I had to go and sit there with them or else it would look bad. Later that night I had 1 serving of Arbys popcorn chicken (363 cal, 16 g fat); this is used to be my emotional eating staple and I haven't had it in over 4 months so I felt safe eating it.

Friday night: was craving Indian so walked to the restaurant and got Malai Kofta (veggie-potato balls in a creamy thick curry). Brought it home and ate 1/2 of it with 1 measured serving of the rice that comes with it, but added a good helping of frozen veggies to it and diluted the thick curry with some water to make the dish go further and be my entire dinner.

Saturday night: ate the other 1/2 order of the Malai Kofta and rice in the same way

Sunday night: impromptu get together at the Indian restaurant with friends. Ordered a samosa chat appetizer item that I am sure had probably 500 calories in it, and very slowly ate 2 out of 3 idlis (steamed cakes from rice flour) and the tiny cup of lentil soup which was probably 300 calories max. A very small meal compared to what my friends had. I also hadn't ate much besides a small breakfast and healthy lunch and fruit all day, so I felt ok at the restaurant. However, if I had known we were going to eat out on Sunday, I wouldn't have gotten the Indian takeout on Friday night.

Monday: didn't eat anything from a restaurant today

Tuesday night: I knew I'd be craving chicken with my homemade veggie loaded pizza, so I went to KFC and got 1 chicken breast to accompany my dinner. I pick off a lot of the fried skin and ate about 2/3 of the chicken, so I am sure I don't consume the entire 440 cal, 27 g of fat listed on their website.

I have still been doing fine with my weight loss and I still drag myself to the gym every day. I also have a rule where if I want to get take out, I must walk to the restaurant to buy it. I don't count calories strictly because it was a pain to figure out all the strange combinations of food I make at home in Fit Day, but I try to stay between 1200 - 1500 a day.

So yes, I feel safe eating foods from restaurant places more often, but I generally don't consume them the way they are intended to be eaten by the restaurant. For example, I sometimes get my favorite Asiago cheese bagel from Panera, but I cut it in thirds and only eat 1/3 per day. This way it is only 123 cal, 2 g of fat every time I eat a third. However, I have had to get myself into a very disciplined mode to be able to eat this way. If today was January instead of August, I would have just ate the whole bagel.

However when my boyfriend takes me to a nice restaurant, all calorie bets are off. :drool:

For me it's not eating out dinner, it's lunch. Because I'm self employed, I don't have a group of people at an office that I interact with so in order to keep up with friends (and sometimes with clients) we meet for lunch a lot. I just *have* to get out for the socialization and lunch seems to work best for everyone.

So I've got a handful of restaurants where I know what I can eat and how much:

Chipotle veggie salads w/ extra black beans and no cheese or guac (although sometimes I splurge on the guac cause I love it so!)
Tin Drum does a Thai curry where they'll sub all veggies and brown rice for the chicken and white rice. Mmmm.
Applebee's spinach and shrimp salad (1/2 portion)
Jason's Deli Turkey Slimwich and a cup of french onion soup (and sometimes a serving of frozen yogurt after)
PF Chang has several options on their menus that are good and relatively low cal.

Also on the days I go out to lunch, I often skip my afternoon snack because I'm still full from the larger or heavier lunch I ate, so I can factor in some extra calories there.

And, of course, if I feel like I've really overdone it, I will add 15 extra minutes to my time on the elliptical. That's a really good incentive to NOT overdo it cause I really don't want to ahve to do the extra time. :)

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Hi Everyone, I have to eat out alot as part of my job. There is no question part of my weight gain was due to eating out, the other part was due to bags of chips at night. I knew what I was eating was bad for me but i had no concept that the calories were that horrific at restaurants. Who thought a nice pasta primavera could account for a whole day's intake.
I still have to eat out alot as part of my job. Once a month I am away from home for 4/5 days. The rest of the time I eat lunch out 4/5 days and then the occassional dinner event. Now I am very careful about what I choose. I try and look at the nutritional info before I go, if not I order salad without dressing, and chicken or steak. I watch my portion size very carefully and I have no qualms about asking for whatever I am ordering plain without sauce. I have had no problems doing this- I have not had any situations that I can attribute to stalls. I also am careful about the restaurant- no chinese, no thai (too afraid). Anywhere else I can find what I am looking for. Love sashimi! My only challenge has been when I am at a conference and I don't have food choices. ie boxed lunches chicken salad sandwhiches or buffets. I've decided to tell people I am allergic to mayo and butter that way I can just get food served plain. It is amazing conference co-ordinators are happy to address allergies but get annoyed with just dietary restrictions. I make sure I travel with "rescue foods" ie protein bars (which I rarely eat- but in a pinch), almonds, boiled eggs (if there is a fridge in my room). I was on a long drive home the other day and I completely forgot to pack snacks so i stopped at McDonalds of all places and I ordered the grilled chicken sandwhich (plain) and ate only the chicken. It really hit the spot and was 130 cal. I wouldn't do it often because the sodium in it was something else but it was good to know that I can still make good choices at a fast food place. The rough part is paying for the sandwich and throwing most of it out- gotta get over that. Anyway so far so good, I have learned to be extraordinarily careful.