Think you can’t stay lean while dining out? Here’s 5 simple tricks you can use to eat healthier and stay lean while dining out at your favorite restaurant.
The challenges of losing fat or staying lean are everywhere. Dining out is one of the many challenges, but it’s a big part of most people’s lives.
Maybe you have to eat out frequently based on your job or maybe you have to entertain clients at restaurants.
Perhaps you could be someone who doesn’t even like to dine out.
Whatever the case, if you want to keep a nice lean and fit body, restaurant meals will give you a huge challenge to overcome.
In fact, dining out at restaurants is one of the BIGGEST reasons why so many people get fat.
Here are a few VERY easy and simple tricks you can use to eat healthier, stay lean, even lose weight while dining out at your favorite restaurant.
The 3 most critical foods to avoid that are in every restaurant are:
- Deep fried foods (using trans fats)
- Sodas, juices, or other sugary foods
- Refined starchy foods
If you can skip these major culprits, this eliminates the major food sources that do the worst damage to your body:
- Trans fats
- Processed sugars
- Refined starchy carbohydrates
- Refined vegetable oils
Honestly, you should try to skip these popular foods:
- Basket of bread
- Skip the french fries that come with every single sandwich
- Reduce all of the heaping portions of pasta and rice that are often loaded on the plates
Instead of these unhealthy foods, try to order just meat with a side of vegetables or salad
Asking for the vegetables or salad as a substitute for the typical french fries, pasta, or rice, that most restaurant meals usually come with are great alternatives!
Just about every restaurant I have ever visited will usually allow me to substitute vegetables or a side salad for the french fries or chips that almost always come with burgers or sandwiches.
On a side note, it always amazes me how many people are so critical of me because I substitute vegetables for fries by telling me that I am “not living” because I refuse to eat french fries…
Are you kidding me! If that’s your idea of “living it up,” you need to find other interesting things to do!
The funny thing is, these are also the same people that will complain that they’re overweight and have “tried everything,” yet can not lose the weight, no matter what.
Look, I am all for moderation with many things including foods, but if there are 2 things that should be totally removed from everyone’s diet because these foods are simply that dangerous… it is sodas and fries!
Take a look at the typical difference this simple substitution makes between choosing smart alternatives and doing what most people do…
Most people will eat a meal out such as this:
- Burger
- chips or fries
- soda or other sweetened drink (and no, diet sodas are NOT healthy!)
A MUCH smarter alternative if you care about your body and health is this simple change:
- Sandwich
- Salad or veggies
- Unsweetened iced tea or water (no diet drinks — unless you like to drink poison!)
These 2 very simple alternatives save at least 400-900 calories every time you eat out (depending on drink refills and fries portions).
The BEST part is, you’re cutting out the most harmful foods that affect your body as well by avoiding the evil trans fats and high fructose corn syrup from the fries and soft drinks.
Another side note:
A little-known way to eat full portions of pasta, rice, and breads and actually get away with it WITHOUT packing on the pounds is to make sure to schedule a high intensity full body resistance training workout before your scheduled meal time.
Sometimes it may be hard to fit the workout into your schedule right before the meal, but if you can, the meal can be your “post-workout meal.”
After a high intensity resistance training workout, your body can handle a higher amount of carbs than normal to help replenish the muscle glycogen depletion you had during the intense workout.
A typical moderate intensity cardio workout will NOT cut it for this, it must be high intensity resistance training workout to deplete enough muscle glycogen to handle restaurant portions of carbs.
I hope these dining tips help you choose smarter and healthier for a leaner body next time you eat out.
Now that you know how to eat while dinging out to stay lean, you need a complete nutrition and workout plan while you're at home!
Did you know that certain foods can actually DAMAGE levels of important fat-burning hormones in your body?
Even more, these same foods RAISE levels of your fat-storing hormones, making it nearly impossible for you to lose fat and see those abs…
And many of these foods are touted as healthy!
