How To Become A Skilled Eater Outer To Reach & Maintain Your Ideal Weight

Generally speaking, the less you eat out, the better the results you’re going to see on the scale. The reason for this is obvious- there can be a lot of hidden calories in food prepared in restaurants! If you let your stomach do the thinking, you can easily consume hundreds of grams of fat and thousands of calories in one go. Even vegetable dishes can contain a ton of calories due to the addition of oil and butter.

The first step to becoming a skilled eater-outer is familiarizing yourself with the nutritional realities of the types of foods you like to eat when you dine out. You can do this on a website like CalorieKing, which has an entry for just about any type of dish you would want to eat. If you’re eating at a chain restaurant, the exact meal might be listed. Olive Garden’s Fettuccine Alfredo, for example, is listed at 1,219 calories with 75 grams of fat and 47 grams of saturated fat. The BBQ Chicken Salad at TGIFriday’s has 990 calories and 56 grams of fat. The Miso Glazed Salmon (filet only/ without rice) at PF Chang’s has 660 calories and 37 grams of fat.

When you find the exact dish you want to eat, I recommend you add 20 percent to the calories listed, because many restaurants underreport the actual number of calories in their food. When the exact restaurant’s take on the dish isn’t listed, search for it under the “average all brands” section on Calorie King’s website (and add 20 percent).

The more you look menu items up and familiarize yourself with the reported nutritional content, the better you’ll get at deciding the best choices for you. But, overall, the best rule of thumb to reach and maintain your weight goal is to be very intentional about eating out. Decide where and how often you choose to eat out and it won’t be a problem as you’re creating the results you want!