There’s a lot of reasons why people eat out. You can get access to delicious foods and not have to cook it yourself. However, if you want to focus on eating healthier and achieve your fitness goal then you need to focus on what you’re eating.
There are so many tasty fast food restaurants out there and it can be easy after a long day at work to just order something online or visit a drive-thru on the way home. In this guide, we will focus on how you can look to make healthier choices while you’re out and find the right balance so you can still enjoy your favourite foods.
Key Considerations
There are a number of variables which influence the decision to eat out. It can be to save time and effort or to simply satisfy cravings. Eating out is important for your social life, but it’s important to find the right balance so that you still reap the rewards of all your hard efforts to be healthy.
Choice Of Food
Generally speaking, the majority of the population are aware of what healthy food choices are. They mainly consist of food that is in its most natural state, for example wholesome foods, vegetables, organic foods etc. We know fried food is not a healthy choice and regular consumption can lead to negative health effects such as weight gain, diabetes and fatty deposits around your organs.
You can still eat fried food but you should limit how often you eat it. Depending on how extreme your fitness goals are you may want to limit this to once a week or once a month. If your goal is to lose weight and improve your fitness levels you should focus on cooking your own meals. Learn more about this in our Meal Preparation Guide.
Another process you can follow is to simply look for healthier places to eat out, or for the healthier choices on the menu. A lot of mainstream restaurants have focussed on improving general health by showing the nutritional values of their foods. This is very useful as it allows you to see how many calories you are consuming, so you can start to see if you are in excess of your daily calories. This is particularly important if you are calculating your macronutrients to measure your daily intake of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
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Limit How Often You Eat Out
It can be easy to resort to takeaway food for convenience, however overdoing it will not only be bad for your health but it will also be costly. As an alternative, you can always try and bring the restaurant experience home. For example if you are a Nando’s fan, their sauce is available in most mainstream supermarkets, so you can create your own delicious dishes at home.
Increase Your Nutritional Knowledge
Another simple yet effective method you can follow is to develop your knowledge of healthy foods, which can help you to make better choices when you are out and about. Increasing your knowledge will definitely help you to spot the quick wins.
Next time you are out, take time to look at what’s on the menu and do your research. You may find that there are options which are much healthier and it’s these small changes which over time lead to the biggest results.
Control Your Portion Sizes
Again this may seem like an obvious thing to do but it’s easy to get carried away when you have the option to order large portions or succumb to your cravings. Healthy foods contain fewer calories than fried or takeaway food, meaning you can get away with eating bigger portions. This helps you to feel full for longer and you will also benefit from better quality nutrition.
Let’s look at an example of someone who wants to lose weight and has a target calorie intake of 1,750 calories per day. Now, if this person eats healthy all day and has a takeaway burger which all equates to 1,750 calories, they will still lose weight. However, if they eat healthy all day but order 2 burgers and exceed the calorie intake, they will not lose weight. On the odd occasion, you may not notice the effects of doing this, but if it becomes a regular habit you will struggle to see results.
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Find The Right Balance
To finalise we will look at finding the right balance. The great news is that you can eat your favourite takeaway foods and live a healthy lifestyle. Taking into consideration our points above, you should look at your day to day decisions and see where improvements can be made. Going on a strict diet and cutting out all of your favourite foods will not work for long as this can lead to you getting bored or having cravings.
Generally, healthy people will eat clean for the majority of the week but factor in “cheat meals” from time to time. You can look at this as a reward for all the hard work you’ve been putting in.
Here’s a sample plan which you can follow:
- Look at your current lifestyle choices
- Educate yourself using our Weight Loss guides
- Develop a weekly plan and make sure you stick to it
- Calculate your macronutrients intake to achieve weight loss (try myfitnesspal on the app store)
- Track your progress and make changes where needed
