Can you eat out and still lose fat? 

Absolutely…but it takes some conscious thought.

We still want to make the vast majority of our meals at home, but sometimes life happens and ya get busy so you need to grab something on the go, or ya might just wanna head out for some food with friends or your partner.

So here’s what you need to know…

In general meals out are WAY more calorie dense than you might think, so for example Cactus Club is a popular restaurant chain here in Canada and they have a ‘lifestyle menu.’

One of the most popular items on the lifestyle menu is the modern bowl and it’s basically rice, a bunch of veggies, avocado, some sauce and then you can add something like chicken. This thing has 750 calories.

The Cactus Club tuna poke bowl, 880 calories, for a poke bowl…pretty crazy eh!?

Their crispy tofu bowl clocks in at 900 calories and remember these are items on the lifestyle menu.

I’m not bashing on Cactus Club at all because I like their restaurants, but this is just to show you how calorie dense meals out truly are.

How about Chipotle…

A chipotle burrito with chicken, rice, cheese and veggies (so even skipping the guacamole and the sour cream)…1080 calories.

If you add sour cream and guac all of sudden your burrito is 1,420 calories. For a smaller female that might be her entire calorie intake for the day and we’re talking about a burrito from Chipotle!

To put that into perspective, a Cajun chicken burger with fries from Cactus is 1390 calories…

That’s a bit of a mindfuck because you go to chipotle thinking you’re grabbing a healthful meal out and it’s just as calorie dense as a burger and fries! To be fair the food quality is going to be different but still, meals out are just loaded with calories even when ya think you’re making a healthful decision a lot of the time. 

So, this is why I wanted to put this article together, I want to teach you what to think about, what to look out for, how to modify and what to think about when approaching a meal out in a way that doesn’t sabotage your fat loss goals. 

There are essentially 3 elements to a meal, we’ve got protein, we’ve carbohydrates (carbs) and we’ve got fats.

For the protein portion we want to make it a leaner protein which will reduce the calorie count because fatty proteins contain more calories because they contain more fat…makes sense right!?

An example of a lean protein would be something like chicken breast, turkey breast or a piece of white fish like tuna.

An example of a fatty protein would be something like ground beef, chicken thighs or salmon.

Now I want to be clear…I’m not saying beef, chicken thighs or salmon are bad options or unhealthy in any way shape or form. They’re great nutrient dense foods, however they’re higher calorie protein options and being that restaurant meals are already so calorie dense, we want to reach for lean proteins over fatty ones. 

Carbs…carb sources are going to be things like burger buns, rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, things like that and wherever possible we’re better off reaching for things like rice and potatoes because they’re single ingredient foods and they’re much more satiating than bread, pasta and burger buns per unit calorie.

Fats…we’re going skip fats altogether because restaurants already cook with tons of oils, butters, fatty marinades and sauces so we just don’t need to go out of our way to add fat to our restaurant meals, even if they’re healthy ones. Remember the protein example, salmon has lots of healthy fat, but we just don’t need the calories and the same applies to things like avocado, it’s just going to add to the calorie density of your meal. So, I’d recommend skipping added fats altogether because you’re already getting them via the cooking process in restaurants. 

For example adding guacamole to your chipotle burrito adds 240 calories…I love guac, I think most people do but man, that ain’t nothing.

Sauces and dressings are where things can really get away from us because they’re so calorie dense and restaurants typically use a ton of them.

You can either skip some sauces all together or you can order a sauce or dressing on the side and add a lesser amount yourself. If you’re really watching your calories, I’d recommend skipping the sauce all together or at least really minimizing it.

A couple examples of sauces…the miso sauce from Cactus Club, just the sauce, 150 calories.

Lemon thyme vinaigrette which is likely viewed as a lower calorie option…170 calories.

A serving of honey mustard sauce, 260 calories.

Honey lime vinaigrette, this one actually surprised me…320 calories.

Dijon lemon vinaigrette…220 calories.

Garlic mayo…290 calories.

I’m sure you get the idea, sauces and dressings are absolutely loaded with calories and not to mention…the more sauce that you put on your food, the easier it is to overeat typically. 

For example, even if you take a low calorie sauce like soy sauce, it’s extremely low in calories, it’s about 5-10 calories per tablespoon…are you more likely to eat more or less sushi with or without soy sauce? It’s much easier to eat more sushi with soy sauce because the sauce itself changes the taste and the texture of the sushi making it more palatable.

Now take that example and apply it to pasta…most folks don’t actually like pasta on its own, but with a delicious calorie dense sauce it’s amazing. Meaning, the sauce itself makes it easier to consume more of the pasta aka additional calories from the sauce actually make it easier to consume more calories from the pasta. Kinda crazy right!? By eating more calories, you’re able to eat more calories!! 

Side note, I use soy sauce every time I eat sushi, but I just wanted to illustrate that point around sauce in general.

So as you’re probably starting to see, it’s definitely worth being mindful of sauces and dressings because they’re incredibly deceiving on the energy density front.

As far as the psychological aspect of eating out goes, some folks find it tough to modify their meals because they don’t want to come across as ‘that customer.’ But, just know that servers themselves modify their meals a TON when they go out to eat. They ask for exactly what they want and you’re allowed to too, you’re paying for a service and therefore, you’re entitled to ask for what you’d like. The restaurant might not always be able to accommodate everything, but there’s no harm in asking.

Also, funny enough this logic only seems to apply to food because if you went into home depot looking for some paint, you’re not going to not ask for what you want because you’re worried about the home depot employee thinking that you’re picky…you’re going to say I’d like this specific paint, this is the colour I’ve chosen, can you mix it for me please?

Now, let’s get into a few specific examples of modifying your meal in a fat loss friendly way.

First up is Chipotle…we had our burrito that clocked in at 1420 calories, how can we modify it?

We can go with a burrito bowl instead of the flour tortilla, that’ll save us 320 calories. We can also skip the guac, the sour cream and the cheese…that’ll save another 450 calories and all of a sudden we’ve got a burrito bowl with chicken, rice, beans, veggies and salsa for 650 calories.

Those modifications saved us 770 calories…that’s no joke!

How about Cactus Club, let’s see if we can change-up the modern bowl a little bit.

The modern bowl with chicken has taboulleh, pineapple salsa, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumber, greens, jasmine rice and miso carrot ginger sauce.

If you just skip the miso sauce the modern bowl goes from 750 calories to 600…not too bad right and you only had to make one modification, easy!

Now if you REALLY want to keep your calories low you can go with a salad from Cactus…let’s use the raincoast greens as an example.

It has greens, chicken breast, avocado, tomatoes, feta cheese, spicy pecans, cucumber, egg and lemon thyme vinaigrette…as it is, it’s a 660 calorie salad, but if we even just go with half the dressing we can reduce that to 575 calories…not too shabby! If you wanted to take it even further you could skip the pecans and it would drop that total even more, I’d say by at least another 50-75 calories, so you’re looking at 500 total calories…that’s pretty legit.

Before I give you guys some other practical take home tips around eating out in general let’s do a little overarching recap of what to think about when ordering…

Focus on a lean protein, potentially a single carb source, a meal that contains veggies because they’re filling and then really be mindful of the added fats (even if they’re healthy ones like avocado) as well as sauces and dips.

So protein, a carb and veggies should be the base of your meal and then sparingly add some sauce if ya feel like your meal needs it. If you’re really watching your calories you can even skip the carb source.

Or if you want to simplify the ordering out idea even more, just order something as close to what you’d make for yourself at home as possible…you can think about it that way too. 

Now I want to share 7 quick tips with you guys that’ll make it easier to stay on point.

1.     Look at the menu ahead of time because I’d say just about 100% of the restaurants out there right now have their menus online and lots of them even have their nutritional information laid out as well. Have a look ahead of time, figure out what you’re going to order and then stick to it.

2.     As soon as you get to the restaurant before you order, chug a big glass of water. This will likely fill you up a little so you’re more likely to order something waistline appropriate and be at less risk for over-eating in general. This tip applies anywhere by the way, you can do this at home too. Side note, some folks find sparkling water even more filling so if that’s you, feel free to drink some Pellegrino or something like it. 

3.     If you’re at a restaurant where they bring a bread basket out, just ask them to take it right back into the kitchen. It’s really easy to overdo it with the bread and butter when it’s sitting right in front of your face, not to mention before you actually eat a meal because you’re likely hungry, so you’re better off not tempting yourself and asking them to take it away.

4.     Don’t make the mistake of thinking that something labeled ‘plant based’ or ‘gluten free’ automatically means it’s healthy, because it doesn’t. If you haven’t looked at the menu ahead of time be sure to look at the breakdowns of what’s in the meal and make the best decision ya can. Also, this is where asking questions comes in, ask your server about anything that you’re unsure about, they know the menu inside and out because it’s their job to.

5.     If you think you might be tempted to make poor decisions, like the water tip, you can also have something like a big salad with balsamic vinegar before heading out. All that food volume from a bunch of veggies will fill you up a lot and make it more likely for you to stay on point.

6.     If you know that you’re really going to be indulging in a restaurant meal at night or just choosing to really go for it, you can go lighter on your food intake during the day to accommodate for that. For example, you could eat plenty of lean protein, veggies and minimal carbs and fats during the day and then have whatever you’d like in the evening. This strategy could be used just as a general fat loss modality as well, some folks (me included) like to have larger meals at night and eat a little lighter during the day.

One thing to note on going lighter during the day and indulging at night is that you don’t want to go into that meal ravenous because that’ll just be a disaster! It’s relatively easy to eat an entire day’s worth of calories and more in an evening, especially at a restaurant…so be sure to strike a balance with this one. 

7.     Be aware of how booze impacts your appetite. Restaurants and alcohol typically go hand in hand for most folks and even after a drink or two our food decisions just aren’t as good vs. being sober.

Also, different alcohol tends to impact peoples appetites in various ways, for example I find that beer crushes my appetite completely, but wine on the other hand is more of a net neutral meaning it doesn’t enhance or supress my desire for food.

Everyone is different, so just know yourself and keep that in mind when you’re out and about having drinks in a restaurant setting.

Lastly, when you’re approximating the caloric value of a restaurant meal I think a helpful general rule is to multiply it by 1.5 so for example, if you don’t have access to the calorie information and you approximate that your meal was 500 calories, multiply it by 1.5 and assume it wasa closer to 750.

If you think it’s 1000, bank on it being closer to 1500…the reason for this is like I mentioned before, restaurants cook with tons of added fats i.e. butter, oils, marinades and sauces and the calories from these add-ons REALLY add up quick, so the 1.5x rule is a safe way to go.

If you want real world fat loss results via personalized 1-on-1 nutritional coaching and/or workout design with me, click the ‘COACHING’ icon at the top of this page and apply!