subject: Should I Eat In Restaurants If I Need To Lose Weight [print this page] If your goal is to shed some pounds you need to consider giving bistros a wide berth. According to fresh studies roughly two thirds of US people are large. Including fast food outlets, a big number of us consume one meal a day in a diner. We might stop by the drive in for a fast egg, cheese muffin and coffee on the way to work or dine out with associates at lunch time. It is not unusual for families to hit the drive through on route to and from college events.
Though this is great in the interests of convenience, the drawback is that eating in bistros not only hampers weight management, it can in numerous cases, add to the problem. Not many folks realize that the average serving size in a cafe has a tendency to be three or four times larger than an ordinary sized meal.
It is not uncommon for restaurants to serve big amounts of bread with meals. This could truly pack on the pounds and sabotage your hard won dieting feats. Restaurant food is also usually higher in fat as this makes it incredibly tasty and ensures people come back time after time.
In diners there are multiple traps that will catch would be dieters who are not aware. One such trap is the habit of lots of junk food chains to supply free refills on soda. The difficulty is that soda is in general either extraordinarily sweet, or contains synthesized sweeteners, which are essentially more unhealthy. Drink sizes also reflect the sizes of the meals. Actually what had once been a huge sized drink at a fast food outlet is now the small size and the current large size(some even offer extra large) is literally enormous!
The follow on effect of this trend is that we shall frequently increase our plate sizes at home so we are eating the equivalent of what we have become used to eating in the eateries. The reality is that dining out is now such a very large part of our lives we are influenced even if we are not conscious of it. One problem dieters face is when their job forces them to eat out once or twice every week, which is often the situation with sales folk and middle management.
If this is you, then how do you ignore the diet busting food stuffs that are consistently there to entice you? One way is to go for a starter that includes vegetables, is not fried and is low fat. Do not be frightened to ask your waitress the way the food is prepared. Even ask them to tell you which are the most healthy options from the menu. You would be amazed how useful eatery staff can be with these types of requests.
Another great method is to only eat half your meal and ask for a box to take the balance home. Use caution not to starve yourself before you eat out, because this will surely result in causing you to eat more than you would have eaten otherwise.
If you can use these great tricks and eat sensibly, irrespective of whether you are dining out or at home, you will be on the dieting fast track and on the way to achieving permanent weight loss success.