What to order in a restaurant if you’re on a diet: dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
How do you calculate the calorie content of what you eat if you dine out and don’t want to deviate from your slim body? And what should you order in a restaurant or cafe on a diet to make sure you don’t make a mistake?
Accuracy is the courtesy of kings. How can you achieve it if you come unexpectedly or are planning to eat out? Let’s follow the rules.
1. Don’t drink calories in a restaurant! This means no soda, except sugar-free, no alcohol, no sweetened teas. In principle, nothing complicated if you follow this rule at home.
2. Don’t rush to place an order.
There is no need to feel guilty for making the waiter wait. Pointing a finger at a dish you don’t know without knowing its calorie content and macronutrient composition is not the best option if you control your diet.
Ask the staff to come back later, and choose the dish and figure out how you want it to be prepared. For example, steamed, grilled, dry frying pan or with a minimum amount of oil.
3. The order of food in a restaurant: protein, then the rest.
Even if you come with the mood to try everything on the menu, your enthusiasm is guaranteed to subside after a piece of grilled meat or fish with vegetables. Remember a simple rule – first protein, then vegetables, and only then delicacies.
4. Don’t hesitate to ask for a flow chart.
Ask the waiter for it and you will find the weight of each portion of the selected dishes. Calorie cards solve all the problems of people on a diet.
5. Choose simple dishes.
Meat, potatoes, fish, add greens and your favourite vegetables. You can always ask the chef to weigh the steak and garnish before cooking. Any good restaurant will do this for you with care. To achieve a good result, you need to determine your ‘working’ calorie intake and strictly adhere to it. After all, with an approximate calculation, the result will be approximate.
6. Social networks
But this does not mean that you will have to completely abandon your social life while following a certain diet – no one cancels dates, birthdays, meetings with friends, life goes on as usual.
How to choose a restaurant or cafe for those who are losing weight?
We’ve figured out the basics. Now a few practical tips. And let’s start with the main thing: it’s not as important what to eat in a restaurant on a diet as it is which restaurant you choose. The set of options that will be available to you depends on this.
For example, restaurants serving Caucasian and Georgian cuisine are very good, but is it worth going there for people on a diet? In most cases, it’s better not to. There is too much fatty and fried food. And even if you don’t see pork there very often, even lamb fried over an open fire in fat is too many calories that you’ll have to burn off with hours of cardio training.
Yes, it’s up to you to choose a restaurant, but we recommend going for Asian, Pan-Asian or Italian cuisine. In the first two cases, you will get a lot of healthy fish, dietary rice and lots of vegetables. In the second case, it’s a perfect menu for a Mediterranean diet.
However, if you are not satisfied with any of the options, we recommend following a few simple rules:
1. Carefully study the menu before going to the restaurant. There should be dishes that can be classified as dietary;
2. Study the drink list. You have a very limited choice, so it’s best to look for establishments that have natural juices without sugar, lemonades (without sugar) and other low-calorie but tasty drinks;
3. Learn the technology of cooking dishes from the menu, if possible. Often, a harmless and dietary-looking dish turns out to be a storehouse of a huge amount of calories, which you will have to sweat and sweat off in the gym.
And most importantly, choose an establishment that arouses your sincere interest. There’s no point in going to a vegan cafe if you can’t stand meatless dishes. A wonderful evening will turn into torture. Even a Caucasian restaurant will have something for those who want to lose weight, so choose a place with your heart.
What to eat in a restaurant or cafe for breakfast when losing weight?
This is a difficult question for those who are used to large portions in the spirit of an English breakfast, especially fried potatoes, eggs, beans and a cup of coffee as a drink.
Fortunately, it is not that complicated. You can order:
– cottage cheese pancakes;
– oatmeal porridge;
– yoghurt with muesli (the main thing is to have a minimum of sugar);
– omelet with vegetables;
– pancakes (for example, made from buckwheat flour, but without high-calorie toppings).
As for drinks, you can choose the most classic ones that are drunk in the morning: tea and coffee. But with a twist: no sugar! And in the case of coffee, without cream. The ideal option: Americano, espresso, filter coffee.
What to take in a restaurant or cafe for lunch while losing weight?
What to eat in a restaurant at lunchtime if you are on a diet? The choice here is much richer and largely depends on the time of year. This is especially true for drinks. You wouldn’t drink hot coffee in the summer heat, would you? Lemonade is much better.
It is also important to specify the portion size. A standard lunch is soup, salad and meat with a side dish. However, there are nuances. For example, a portion of Caesar is quite suitable for a full meal. It would be unnecessary to order a second course to go with it. It’s the same with soups. If you go to a Vietnamese cafe, you will be surprised to find that a portion of soup there is a full meal. And a very satisfying one at that. Do you need to add anything else to it?
If we talk about specific dishes, we recommend paying attention to:
– vegetarian borscht or any other vegetarian soup;
– chicken salad (the same Caesar will do);
– grilled rice with fish and vegetables;
– Greek salad;
– poké or bowl (if we are talking about Asian cuisine);
– sushi, rolls (but without a lot of curd cheese).
Be careful with drinks. Water with lemon is ideal. You can also order fruit drink or lemonade, but check in advance whether there is syrup in the composition and how much sugar is added to the drink.
What to eat in a restaurant or cafe for dinner when losing weight?
Dinner is an important ritual and an equally important meal. You shouldn’t neglect dinners, but it’s also a bad idea to throw everything into yourself. You’ll be going to bed soon, so you don’t want to overload your gastrointestinal tract. It also needs rest.
What to eat out on a diet for dinner? Preferably something low-carb and not too fatty. Therefore, you don’t need to lean on carbohydrates. Especially fast ones. There should be a minimum of them. We recommend paying attention to the following items:
– fish, poultry, lean meat, seafood;
– soups, if they are on the evening menu;
– salads with a base of fresh vegetables and herbs;
– assorted grilled vegetables.
The list does not include the usual potatoes, rice and other popular side dishes. It’s easy to explain: too many carbohydrates. It’s better to do without them in the evening. You can also order a salad, but without any fatty sauces. The ideal option: leafy vegetables with olive oil.
And no alcohol! Your drinks: water, lemonades and juices without sugar (in moderation), green tea. If you are losing weight, you will have to give up alcohol. It has a lot of calories.
