Losing weight whilst living your life can be challenging.
It would be so much easier if you prepared all your meals at home, or got someone else to do it for you.
To remove all possible distractions and temptations, it would also be easier if you only ever ate at home, alone.
I don’t know about you but to me this sounds both boring as hell and socially isolating.
Now for some people they don’t mind this.
They figure that for a while they are prepared to live like a monk in the pursuit of their goals.
Like everything though, every action has a consequence.
For most people they can do something for a while whilst they chase their goals and then once they get there, they completely abandon what’s got them to where they now are to live a more ‘normal’ life.
What then happens is that you slowly morph back into the body shape you had before this all started and possibly be in an even worse position.
You may know this as yo-yo dieting or going around in circles.
Either way it’s frustrating and completely unnecessary.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again…
HOW YOU LOSE WEIGHT MATTERS.
The only real difference between losing weight and maintaining weight should be your calorie intake.
In my opinion, you may exercise a little more when trying to lose weight but training 5 days a week for 2 hours a day then going to 3 days a week for an hour is too much of a contrast.
Ideally, you want to create a well-rounded lifestyle that can be easily adapted to your goals at any-one-time.
This includes eating the foods you like and having a social life!
Your meal frequency doesn’t need to change.
Your protein intake doesn’t really need to change.
Usually, if one of my clients wanted to lose weight all I would do encourage them to increase their activity by increasing their daily average steps by a few thousand per day.
Coupled with this, i’d reduce their average calorie intake.
That’s it.
It really isn’t that difficult if you understand the maths of calories in versus calories out.
Now, back to the main topic…
Yes, you can still eat out if you want to lose weight if you take into account the points above.
BUT, and it’s a pretty big but…
I would encourage you to be selective of the food you have and the type of restaurant you go too.
Avoiding an all-you-can-eat buffet is a pretty safe bet for example.
For most people it’s just too tempting to overeat in this situation.
A better option could be going to an Indian restaurant though and having something like tandoori chicken and rice.
I am sure you would like to have naan bread, oily or buttery sauces all over the meat and a dessert afterwards.
But, understand that if I did this you’re likely not going to get any change out of 2,000 calories for that which could easily account for your whole calorie allowance for that day.
In theory, that may not still be a problem.
You could raise your overall activity and/or lower my calorie intake on other days to even the week out.
I have done this before, i’ve had clients do this before, and it can work.
But from a time perspective (you need more time to burn more calories) and from an energy perspective (you calories would be low on other days which can effect how you feel and how hard you could train in the gym), it’s probably something I’d only consider doing as a last resort.
So in summary, yes you can eat out and still lose weight but there are a few things to consider when calculating what the best strategy is for you to make it happen.
The good thing is that when you do reach your weight loss goal, you will no longer need to obtain an overall calorie deficit.
This would likely give you an extra 3,500 calories to play with per week.
Which then would give you the option of a more varied meal, maybe even a dessert and/or glass of wine.
Thanks for reading, have a great day.
Craig
Do you need confidential help with your health, fitness or nutrition? I have a range of services available, with Personal Training in my Private Gym in Manchester, also at your home or workplace in the surrounding areas. For clients further afield, I provide Online Personal Training, Nutritional Consultancy & Private Fitness Holidays.
