7 Diet Traps to Watch Out for When Eating Out and Want to Lose Weight

Many people must have encountered this kind of trouble: although they have made up their minds to lose weight, they are invited to dinners by friends one after another, and they feel embarrassed not to attend. However, when they dine in restaurants, they often consume thousands of calories. How should they eat so as not to ruin their weight loss plan and enjoy the meal? According to the Huffington Post, there are seven traps when dining in restaurants that can cause people to unknowingly consume too many calories. If you are careful not to fall into the "calorie trap", people who want to lose weight don't have to worry about attending dinner parties.

7 small pitfalls of dining in restaurants:

1. Dip bread in olive oil before meals

Olive oil is often hailed as the healthiest type of oil, but the calories in bread dipped in olive oil before a meal cannot be underestimated. In addition, the large gaps in the bread make it easier for it to contain excess oil. Two slices of bread dipped in olive oil have about 380 calories. It is recommended to add an appropriate amount of balsamic vinegar to olive oil to reduce the amount of oil adhesion, reduce calories, and add flavor.

2. Side dishes in small plates

Some restaurants will provide side dishes that are suitable for drinking, or fried foods. Usually the contents are foods that are suitable for eating one bite after another, such as French fries, squid rings, peanuts, etc. A plate of them has about 500 calories, and people regard them as side dishes, so no matter how much they eat, they will not feel full easily, and they will consume high calories unknowingly. To avoid this crisis, you should give priority to grilled dishes when ordering side dishes, as grilled food uses less oil than fried food.

3. The menu is not always right

The menu always describes every dish as mouth-watering, but the calorie issue that we care about most rarely appears on the menu. Chefs focus on deliciousness and usually don't care much about how much oil and sugar are used. When ordering food, it is best to ask the waiter whether the meal contains cream or other high-calorie ingredients. For example, if you choose an appetizer soup, tomato soup will be healthier than cream soup.

4. Do not add seasoning when blanching vegetables

Please ask the waiter not to pour the sauce directly on the vegetables. The blanched vegetables, which are originally low in calories and healthy, will often have a surge in calories due to the sauce. Choose root vegetables such as sweet potatoes and radishes, which will absorb less oil than soft vegetables such as eggplant and mushrooms.

5. Don’t be fooled by the pictures of the dishes

The pictures and layout of dishes on the menu are designed to make consumers underestimate the actual size of the food. After finishing a dish, they end up eating more than they originally expected. It is recommended that the amount of protein should not exceed the size of a smartphone, and the amount of starch should be equal to the size of a fist. This is convenient for calculation and does not require overeating.

6. Fish is not necessarily better than steak as a main course

Many people often worry that eating steak will be too high in calories, so they would rather choose fish fillet. In fact, whether it is fillet or sirloin, the calories in steak are not much higher than salmon or tuna. The important part is the sauce. You can add some lemon or lime juice to the steak to reduce the absorption of calories.

7. Salads contain hidden calories

Caesar salad may seem healthy, but it's actually not as low in calories as you might think. The goat cheese, candied walnuts, and Thousand Island salad dressing contained in it are all high-calorie ingredients. The best way is to choose salad ingredients according to your own method. You can tell the waiter which ingredients you don't need to avoid consuming too many calories.