The Main Reason Eating Out Is Bad For You

Who doesn’t like eating out at a posh restaurant?! Eating out, especially if you are opting for a nice upscale restaurant and not a fast-food joint, can feel like a celebratory event. It’s also the most common way to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, promotion or special occasion.

But here is the thing—-if you want to truly clean out your diet, eating out must NOT be a part of your regular diet. Now there are several reasons that dining out can detrimental to your weight loss process. You feel tempted to order something indulgent and high in calories, you feel a craving for a dessert to end the perfect meal and desire a chilled cocktail to go with the meal. But even if you managed to avoid these temptations, you still aren’t going to make the best food choices for your health, no matter how hard you try.

There is no way to gauge how many calories you have consumed, because there are so many hidden calories in that delicious meal that looks otherwise innocent (and rather healthy too!).

We give you not one but three examples to prove this one point!

The Sneaky Appetizers

As soon as you are seated at the restaurant, your mind is mentally prepared for the task of ‘Eating’. And when the waiter passes the basket of fresh rolls and mini croissants that have just popped out of the oven, you can’t help but take one while you wait for your healthy order to arrive.

What you don’t realize is that these processed carbs baked with rich butter are easily adding another 500 calories to your meal count, and are often high in both sugars and salts.

The Low Quality Fresh Ingredients

When you make a healthy meal, like lean cut of steak and steamed vegetables at home, you are buying the best meat and ensuring that all fat has been trimmed. Sadly, this is not the case with food you will be served at a restaurant. It’s the same rule whether you order poultry or boneless meat dishes—the fat and calorie content will always be higher.

Food Cooked In Grease

Ok, so you thought you made the smart choice by ordering fish and steamed vegetables. That must be healthy, right? Not always. The steamed vegetables will come drizzled with melted butter and the fish will be cooked in grease (as opposed to healthy olive oil) to add to its yummy flavors, and will probably also come drenched in some rich cream based sauce. And that’s how your healthy fish and veggies meal becomes really high in fat content.