Eating out without gaining weight. Choose a dish, not the set menu
To eat out without gaining weight, choose a dish, not the full set menu. A main course with vegetables often comes to 300 to 400kcal less than a starter, main and dessert deal, for the same enjoyment. Restaurants and pubs are not the enemy of healthy eating.
A club coach looks at your situation with you and gives you the best advice.
Book your free assessmentIn this article
Nights out and invitations, worth keeping
A way of eating that makes you turn down invitations does not last 6 months. It isolates you, and isolation tends to end in an evening where you let everything go. A meal out is 1 meal in 21 over a week. What really counts is the week after, the one where everything seems ruined.
What to look for on the menu
- The calories. In England, larger restaurant chains, pubs and cafes must show calories on their menus, under the calorie labelling rules for the out-of-home sector. It is a quick way to compare 2 dishes.
- The words grilled, roasted, steamed, braised, baked. They signal cooking without much added fat.
- Be wary of battered, breaded, creamy or buttery sauces. The same chicken can double in calories.
- The side. Ask for vegetables, a salad or a jacket potato instead of chips. Hardly anyone says no.
Starter, main, dessert, 2 out of 3
Starter and main, or main and dessert. Never all 3. Decide when you arrive, not after the bread basket. While you wait for your food, a glass of water keeps your hands busy and calms hunger, just as it helps you curb hunger naturally at home.
Drinks, and the day after
Water first. A pint of lager or a large glass of wine often carries 150 to 250kcal, and a sweet cocktail can carry more. The NHS guide to alcohol units reminds you not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis. Alcohol also stimulates the appetite and lowers your guard. Alternate a glass of water with each alcoholic drink. Fizzy drinks and fruit juices can contain as much sugar as a dessert.
If the meal goes off track, do not compensate. Skipping breakfast the next day means arriving starving at lunch. Go back to normal meals at your usual times. The body copes well with a single excess, much less with the deprivation that follows it. Repeated, this pattern sets up yo-yo dieting.
Eating out several times a week
Lunch out 4 times a week? Those meals become your foundation. Build them like the others, with a protein, vegetables and a sensible portion of starchy food. Before you go, choose your dish from the menu online.
At Witney Nutrition Club, support is daily, and the free assessment builds your meals out into your plan. To get started, read our guide on where to start with healthy eating.
This article gives general information. It does not replace the advice of your GP or another health professional.
Your weight loss curve
Enter your profile and the curve redraws straight away.
At the median pace, it would take about 11 weeks to lose 8 kg. At the gentlest pace, about 4 months.
The benchmark most often given for lasting weight loss is 500 g to 1 kg a week. That is the ideal zone of the chart. Above 1 kg a week on a regular basis, the body draws on its muscles as much as on its fat. That is the hatched zone.
An indicative projection. Every journey is personal and results vary from person to person. The calculation runs on your device, nothing is saved or sent. Over 65, talk to your doctor first.
How this curve is calculated
The top edge of the zone matches 500 g a week, the gentlest pace. The bottom edge matches 1 kg a week, the risk threshold.
The first weeks go faster, mostly water, then the pace slows. After 40, the median curve slows gradually, because metabolism slows. For the same effort, a man usually loses weight a little faster than a woman.
The journey curve adds plateaus of a few days and small regains, as in real life. It does not predict your own journey.
This advice is general. It does not replace medical advice.
Further reading
For day to day support, see the healthy eating programme.