Managing Weight While Eating At Restaurants

We all enjoy dining at our favorite restaurant from time to time; however, as a population, we eat out more frequently now than in the past.  While this might not necessarily be a bad thing to do, research has shown that eating in restaurants contributes to excess calorie consumption due to eating larger portions of foods loaded with calories.

A new research study examined the habits of men and women in regards to their weight management strategies while eating out and the things that kept them from eating healthy at restaurants.  While this new paper is free to download or read online, I wanted to briefly outline some of the researchers findings.

Common Weight Management Strategies Used:

• Avoiding sugar-rich beverages
• Choosing steamed vegetables
• Stopping eating when full
• Eating foods made with whole grains

Weight Management Strategies Rarely Used:

• Asking to have the chip or bread basket removed from the table
• Eating a low-calorie snack before going out to eat
• Asking the chef to prepare the meal in a low-fat/low-calorie manner

Personal Barriers to Good Weight Management Strategies:

• Being over-hungry due to busy lifestyles
• Good tasting food available at the restaurant
• Desire to not waste food

Differences Between Men & Women:

• Compared to men, women were more apt to share appetizers, eat an appetizer as their meal, choose a salad as their main course, order salad dressing on the side, take half the meal home, and share a meal with a dining partner.
• Men found it less difficult to have the bread/chip basket removed from the table compared to women.

Dining at restaurants, no matter the type, has become much more frequent due to the busy lifestyles many of us pursue.  In fact, the researchers indicated that their study volunteers ate out an average of 3.5 times per week.  With many of the food choices at restaurants being high in calories and large in portion size, it can be difficult to manage one's body weight.  Developing appropriate strategies for dining out is important if you are looking to maintain a healthy body weight.  This new paper provides a list of 30 potential strategies including such things as avoiding high-fat appetizers, trimming fat and/or skin from meats, avoiding deep-fried foods, and eating fresh fruit for dessert.  So, if you find yourself eating out frequently, make sure to find ways to watch what you eat that works best for you.

One thing you can do if you plan on eating out, is to make sure that your other meals during the day are healthy, calorie-controlled meals.  My Slim and Beautiful milk protein bars and milk protein shakes make great meal replacement options to help you manage your caloric intake throughout the day.  Visit us at www.drtabor.com to learn more.