Dining Out Diet: Avoid Dining Out Diet Disasters & Keeping Fat Level Low

One casual lunch or a single dessert splurge won't really hurt, but if your dining gets out of hand, with too many high-calorie meals consumed too often, you can push your bodyfat percentage up too high and your self-esteem too low, flow high is too high? One nutrition expert noted that if a bodybuilder is at 10 percent bodyfat or higher, he is fat. Moreover, he doesn't even look like a real bodybuilder until his bodyfat dips to 8 percent or lower. So a bodybuilder has to be twice as careful about what he or she eats, and this vigilance must extend to dining out. In a restaurant you face the potential of tons more calories than when eating at home. Many chefs love to use butter- lots of butter- to prepare their tasty dishes. Others fry food in oils. Sauces are notorious for being very high in calories as they contain butters, cheeses, and many other calorie-dense ingredients. Some seemingly harmless pasta dishes contain thousands of calories. Restaurant desserts are super high in everything but what the bodybuilder needs. Calories seem to come at you from all angles when you dine out. You have to be extra careful. Here are a few precautions you can take to ensure you keep that trim midsection.

Dining-out Decisions

Do you want to keep your intake under control, or are you allowing yourself a "junk meal"? This is a very important question to ask yourself before you reach the restaurant. After you've arrived is too late. The tantalizing aroma of food and the masterfully attractive menu will probably conspire to tempt you, and you'll end up eating too much. Decide before you go out whether or not you intend to stick with a tight diet. If you are giving yourself a night off from your strict regimen, you don't need to worry about calories. Eat away. But if you do want to limit your calories, you need to decide ahead of time that you are not going to go hog wild with the menu, no matter how tasty the food appears. Your own senses will betray your efforts to eat nutritiously, so make a firm commitment to eating light before you arrive. First, envision what is important to you. If a trim middle is your goal, if having a low level of bodyfat matters, if you want to win the contest, focus on that as a first priority. This prioritization will help you see what comes first and act accordingly.

If you find yourself frequently dining out with friends who order big, high-calorie, high-fat meals that they eat in front of you, take some positive steps in advance. Before going out, have a moderate meal of a food that has a good combination of complex carbohydrates and fiber. A medium- size dish of oatmeal with raisins can be helpful. So can a large dish of popcorn (non-buttered, low salt). Another option is a banana and a couple of rice cakes. These foods will satiate your stomach without the high calorie crunch that a large plate of pasta or a burger loaded with cheese and mayonnaise contains. Use a smart-choice high- fiber "preemptive strike" on your stomach's satiety level before you dine out, and the food your friends are heaping on their plates will be less tempting. You can have a non- caffeine tea and be fine.

Mayonnaise is one of the prime culprits whenever and wherever you dine out. It multiplies the calories on a hamburger or sandwich. A typical tablespoon of mayonnaise contains 110 calories and 12 grams of fat. Some hoagy length sandwiches can be smothered with as much as three or four tablespoons, which translates into an extra 48 grams of fat - and that's only counting the mayol. Eating like this quickly elevates your daily fat intake, so always request "no mayo." Also be wary of special sauces as they usually are mostly mayo. When you dine out on sandwiches, hoagies or burgers, ask that they be stripped down. Instead of the mayo or special sauces, use a light mustard or other low-fat flavoring. Go for low-fat cheeses. Tomatoes and lettuce dress up a sandwich or burger without adding any real calories.

Take control of your menu. Delete items that can be high in fat. Ask for a salad instead of fries, and go light on the croutons. Make certain you get a low-fat or no-fat dressing as well. A salad with several scoops of regular-style dressing, cheese, and a lot of croutons is almost as bad as fries. A couple of dollops of some salad dressings can tally up to 30 grams of fat and over 300 calories. Custom-design whatever you order. Ask for your dressing "on the side" so that the server doesn't pour the whole amount on your salad. Use no more than one-quarter to one- third of the salad dressing-even if you order the "lite" style.

Many menus now contain a "light" section which features foods that are much lower in fat, sugar and calories than the rest of the dishes offered. Take advantage of these items for a lower calorie count. Eating from this lower-calorie group may not be as much fun, but remember your priority - that trim physique and tight waistline. Dining out can be dangerous to your physique with many hidden and not-so-hidden calorie traps. Be wary every time you sit down to eat in any restaurant. Have a plan and stick with it. Fill upon fiber beforehand if you are on a strict diet. On the flip side, give yourself a break now and then. The bow that is always bent eventually breaks. After an occasional one-meal splurge get back to your low-fat, low-sugar nutritious diet. Stay focused on that vision of what is important to you.