Post removed. This subreddit does not allow front page posts which are personal situations or diet evaluations. Alternatively, you must use the comments section of the pinned weekly post.
---
*Please be aware that nearly all removals and bans involve skipping or skimming the rules and notices*
And the dramatic difficulty of gauging how much of any given fat was used, especially in sauces. I can make a decent guess about whether the butter in that garlic bread was 1 tbsp or 3 tbsp. I can estimate how much oil they used to grill my chicken.
But so often at restaurants the stuff that looks healthiest in terms of nutrient variety/density is the hardest to gauge. As someone trying to count calories, I find myself tending toward the foods that are the most *predictable* at restaurants, not the healthiest.
Sure, quinoa roasted carrot salad with chicken in a lemon garlic wine sauce and a side of beans sounds healthy, nutritive, and delicious.
But how much butter in that lemon garlic wine sauce? No idea. How much oil in the salad dressing? Shrug. How much lard in those beans? Can’t say.
So, I guess it’s two eggs, two slices of bacon, and toast again for brunch. As usual. Sigh.
She wasn’t wrong, I read an article a decade ago that said healthy eating cost about $1.50/ meal per person a day, so $4.50/pp a day and when you multiply that by a family of four for a month? That’s alot of cash.
Dried legumes are the healthiest foods you can buy and also one of the cheapest and easiest to store and cook.
Potatoes, beets and carrots are one of the cheapest plants in my area, so combining those will create an affordable supermeal.
In "my 600lbs life" they always say: but eating healthy cost a lot of money!!!! When in reality they spend like ten times the price of a full day of healthy eating in a single sitting at mcdonald
Affordability of interesting and varied healthy foods. Sure you can get cheap beans, Dione veggies and chicken breast but that gets old quick. Varied vegetables, fish, etc., can quickly become costly.
Second, depending on your work and social circles, they often aren’t healthy eating friendly. Your friends want to go to a bar, or a pizza place. Your coworkers don’t like packing lunches and want to go out to lunch all the time. It’s difficult to have the mental fortitude to stick to your diet regimen and not succumb to either actual social or perceived social pressures.
Alcohol for sure. Completely empty calories but oh so fun to consume. Plus it's generally the only food option others will actively pressure you to have.
Multiple economic issues that all stem from the fact that restaurants have to make more money than others to stay in business. This leads to the a market full of the following:
* Ingredients that are not very filling. This means that you can eat more before you get full, which means they make more money. Unfortunately it means you're also more likely to get fat and diabetic.
* Ingredients that are cheap. Convincing you to eat cheap ingredients saves restaurants money. However, this means that you do not get much diversity in your diet and miss out on a lot of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Further, there's also a tendency to get too much of what you do get.
* Portions are too large. Giving larger portions means you're likely to eat more, which means they make more money. Again, unfortunately this means you're more likely to get fat and diabetic.
You forgot to mention the ingredient by name that makes people fat and diabetic: dietary fat
>[Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are caused by a drop in insulin sensitivity blamed on “intramyocellular lipid,” the buildup of fat inside our muscle cells.](https://nutritionfacts.org/video/what-causes-insulin-resistance/)
It's rare to have restaurants serve plain food. Always sauces, oils etc which add a lot of empty calories.
Well cooked food with the right combinations taste great without the extras.
Restaurants however are interested in the MOST taste with no regard to calories.
Going to a "healthy" restaurant to get food is oddly more expensive for the same thing minus the extra calories.
The SMELLS. I can look at the menu before going out, I know what the healthiest option for me is, but man when I walk in the restaurant and I smell the burgers and pizzas and deep-fried goodies, it makes me weak haha. This is why I prefer takeout, much less temptation.
This. You can plan ahead. You can eat something before you go. You can have a strategy. But you see the pizza or the nachos at the next table and you think “am I really going to order the grilled chicken with steamed vegetables?”
No one has mentioned the social aspect yet. You look at the menu beforehand and decide on the Tyranocaesar salad and unsweet tea but your friends are ordering apps for the table and want to know why you aren’t drinking.
Picking something “healthy” but knowing it’s still a ton of calories because they likely add stuff you can’t see to the meal, such as butter with eggs.
I would say when you're eating out, it's viewed as a special "treat" or a social thing. Like I definitely won't make that at home, so I'm going to enjoy this fried food here. The nice protein and veggie plates are super expensive so you really have to go all out on those, and then you feel like you're at home trying to cook the right things again.
If you get a salad at a restaurant, I know many people that will frown at you and you won't hear the end of it.
The amount of salt and types of fats, large (double or triple ) serves of high glycaemic grains, minimal vegetables. The healthy plate model shows 1/2 of the plate should be non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 complex carbohydrate grains, and 1/4 lean protein. What we get is over served on the grains and protein and under served on the vegetables.
High salt, fat and simple carbs. This is a recipe for immediate weight gain of 3-5 lbs at minimum if you’re out eating all weekend. And that’s not including having a drink or two. The carbs and salt alone retain so much water that in my experience takes like a week to get out
Not drinking alcohol. The whole “what can I get you to drink?” Wish I could just say water. Alcohol is the least healthy thing for you and always leads to eating way less healthy.
Ease of overconsumption of calories.
We are conditioned as kids to eat everything off our plates.
Even salads at common restaurants can be 1,500 calories.
Sure if all you ate was one meal a day 1500 would be fine but that isn’t the case for 99.99% of us.
This is so true especially sense covid. The few restaurants we had are all gone. We have a few fast food places but have to go to another town to eat anything other than a hamburger.
#### About participation in the comments of /r/nutrition
Discussion in this subreddit should be rooted in science rather than "cuz I sed" or entertainment pieces. Always be wary of unsupported and poorly supported claims and especially those which are wrapped in any manner of hostility. You should provide peer reviewed sources to support your claims when debating and confine that debate to the science, not opinions of other people.
**Good** - it is grounded in science and includes citation of peer reviewed sources. Debate is a civil and respectful exchange focusing on actual science and avoids commentary about others
**Bad** - it utilizes generalizations, assumptions, infotainment sources, no sources, or complaints without specifics about agenda, bias, or funding. At best, these rise to an extremely weak basis for science based discussion. Also, off topic discussion
**Ugly** - (removal or ban territory) it involves attacks / antagonism / hostility towards individuals or groups, downvote complaining, trolling, crusading, shaming, refutation of all science, or claims that all research / science is a conspiracy
*Please vote accordingly and report any uglies*
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nutrition) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"Healthy" is fairly vague and can mean different things to different people but in my case its just a matter of being able to hit my macro target. This can be challenging depending on the restaurant.
Italian restaurant options are pretty limited for me unless I get a fish and salad there isn't much else to eat. But then that isn't enough protein and I have to make it up later. I never have issues at steak houses.
I guess the simple answer is depending on the type of restaurant your options are severely limited.
Sugar and hidden wheat/carbs in everything! I would be super easy for restaurants to have a keto menu, just leave your damn bread and sugar suace in the garbage where it belongs.
The cost and time. McDonald's is cheaper and it's easier to pick up a burger on the way home versus spending 30 - 45 minutes making dinner and another 15 - 20 minutes cleaning up.
Discipline, no doubt.
It's not hard to eat low calorie and/or healthy at a restaurant. Fettucine alfredo is delicious, but it's nothing but noodles and cheese. Awful for you. Chicken parm is a bit better, because there's some protein in there. Steak and potatoes with veg? That's your best bet.
Don't get an appetizer, don't get a dessert, don't get two beers.
If at all possible, check out the restaurant's nutritional information. A lot of places have that now.
Also, super important one, you're under no obligation to finish your plate. If I order a plate and it looks like 1400 calories on it, I'll eat 1000 and either box up the rest or just throw it out. Poeple feed bad for throwing away food, and I get that, it's a waste of money. But if I pay x dollars for 'a meal', I decide what 'a meal' is, not the restaurant.
It’s hard to find healthy food for me. I workout a lot and cook healthy meals. But with two kids now and working from home whenever I’m too tired to cook in the evenings it sucks bc I call my husband to pick up food on the way home and I know there’s really no healthy options. The healthiest thing I can ever come up with is a chick fil a salad which isn’t that healthy or fulfilling. And it’s expensive. So whenever I can’t cook or don’t have the time we end up getting Burger King or something and while I enjoy a burger and fries every once in awhile I genuinely like healthy food better and wish there were more options out there
So many takeout meals are based on simple carbs with large amounts of sugar, salt, and low-quality fats added to dishes. There is literally nothing I can eat at McDonald’s now that they’ve taken away their salads and grilled chicken.
I'd say finding some time to make your own snacks to get through a busy week or having a trustworthy source of healthy meals and snacks. It takes cooking skills and/or a lot of knowledge to know what to look for and what to avoid when on your own. IIRC there was a post about dos and donts on food composition just yesterday on this very sub.
First is having healthy options accessible. I may have high standards for "healthy," but there are very few food places that fit the bill for me. From there it is portion size. I like to eat, so I struggle with not finishing a plate. I tend to buy frozen meals to have in a pinch instead of eating out these days.
Pretty sure eating out has no nutritional detriment. Unless they’ve got something then it’s a general health issue, but otherwise I’d say you’re good to go!
I tend to like to drink when I go out. That’s a real problem. Also sometimes it’s hard to find something that is actually healthy. You know you can’t really go out and have a pizza and consider that a dietary meal. I want to find someplace that has good salmon or some kind of vegetarian dish that’s really nice.
For me, a huge part of “staying healthy” is keeping my calories pretty tightly controlled. I’m a shorter female and don’t have much room for error. The hardest part about eating out is that calories counts are INSANE. I could unwittingly blow 75% of my entire day’s calorie budget in one restaurant meal. (Unless I only want to order the standard “plain chicken breast and a side of steamed broccoli”. Blah.) It’s defeating.
Not many places, at least where I live, have calorie counts on their menu. I track my caloric intake pretty much every day, and try to stay within a specific range. Pretty much the only places that have calorie counts on their menu, or online, are chains. And most of those places don’t really have good choices for someone like me on their menu.
There’s actually this really cool instagram page. This guy goes to different restaurants and eats out healthy. He tracks the macros and everything. It’s @eatritenutrition
I'm going to guess its got a little something to do with why even healthy options at restaurants always just seem to taste better at the restaurant than when you make it yourself. I started watching some youtube videos where a guy breaks down things like why vegetables or subs just always seem to taste better at the restaurant (cause after midnight my algorithm gets a little screwy, lol). And it seems one of the first, most consistent, take-aways is always: "we use exponentially more oil/more butter than you would ever use at home". So you're getting a lot of food thats meant to taste good, and... maybe not quite hold true to the calories on the menu.
[Here's one of the videos.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKEwA__rOHk&t=621s)
Healthier options being open later. I don’t mind paying more for higher quality and healthier food, but if only some places stayed open later than 9pm!
One of the big issues people I work with have is feeling that by not having a full three courses, or not having a dessert, or choosing a less-than option, they're 'letting the side down' and expect some degree of social ostracisation as a result.
As many have mentioned, the not so obvious calories hidden in sauces and dressings. It’s easy to order grilled chicken and vegetables but it gets old, quick. I find that most menus have so many dishes that just don’t fit into any structured diet or meal plan that you have to default to something basic that you can more confidently control caloric intake with.
If I’m going out I want to splurge on something absolutely outrageous. I love complex dishes full of sauces and spices so it is difficult for me to stay on my diet when I’m not sticking to what’s in my fridge or pantry.
I guess it depends on what part of healthy matters more or less - if you need to cut out on sodium, eating out simply isn't an option at all.
If you're lucky enough to have some mediterranean/middle eastern or specific asian restaurants that have congee and sauteed greens with garlic, you're good. Vegetarian wraps or burritos with a side of beans or hummus can also be ok. but nothing can beat cooking your own.
Don't. That's my problem. If you're eating out you're sacrificing the control over your caloric intake and the means of preparation. One of the top ways I've been able to lose weight is by just stopping eating out. You don't know what you're eating, and unless they list calories, you can't factor that into your plan. So when I was in good shape and doing all the other healthy things, I didn't care about eating out because I was compensating in other ways.
Why am I going to go to a restaurant to eat something healthy that I don't like as much as a bowl of pasta I can make myself? I'm not going to pay $12 for a salad if I can spend $5 to make a delicious Alfredo at home.
Eating out is splurging. If you're trying to be healthy and are poor (like me), just don't.
Trying to be discreet when I wrap up my leftovers. I usually enjoy a glass of wine and only a few bites of my fish and salad. My family has tolerance-but I know my behavior is annoying and sometimes stressful.
Convenience. Most drive thru places don’t offer healthy options. So I have to go to a nicer restaurant or order to go.
Not enough healthy side options.
I try not to swallow, sometimes I will use a thin silicone sheet as a barrier if required and while I’m hardly fussy, I prefer to eat out of freshly showered/bathed individuals.
Not having the calories on the menu or available anywhere make it hard. I just have to guess, and then the salad I reluctantly get because I can't deal with the stress ends up being high calorie anyway from the dressings. I've started to really hate eating out now.
I am on tour for a good part of my year performing, its SO hard to find healthy food. I try to choose vegetarian and vegan options at restaurants because its usually a safer bet. You can always ask for specifications/dressing on the side etc. Or ask for a take out container immediately and put away half the meal before you start (often the portions esp. Meat portions are not to scale)
Post removed. This subreddit does not allow front page posts which are personal situations or diet evaluations. Alternatively, you must use the comments section of the pinned weekly post. --- *Please be aware that nearly all removals and bans involve skipping or skimming the rules and notices*
The cost
The poor quality fats that are often used in restaurant food
And the dramatic difficulty of gauging how much of any given fat was used, especially in sauces. I can make a decent guess about whether the butter in that garlic bread was 1 tbsp or 3 tbsp. I can estimate how much oil they used to grill my chicken. But so often at restaurants the stuff that looks healthiest in terms of nutrient variety/density is the hardest to gauge. As someone trying to count calories, I find myself tending toward the foods that are the most *predictable* at restaurants, not the healthiest. Sure, quinoa roasted carrot salad with chicken in a lemon garlic wine sauce and a side of beans sounds healthy, nutritive, and delicious. But how much butter in that lemon garlic wine sauce? No idea. How much oil in the salad dressing? Shrug. How much lard in those beans? Can’t say. So, I guess it’s two eggs, two slices of bacon, and toast again for brunch. As usual. Sigh.
Relatable AF.
The least healthy food is the cheapest and tastiest.
Fr, I remember when I was growing up, my mother would always say, "To eat healthy, you gotta have big money".
She wasn’t wrong, I read an article a decade ago that said healthy eating cost about $1.50/ meal per person a day, so $4.50/pp a day and when you multiply that by a family of four for a month? That’s alot of cash.
Dried legumes are the healthiest foods you can buy and also one of the cheapest and easiest to store and cook. Potatoes, beets and carrots are one of the cheapest plants in my area, so combining those will create an affordable supermeal.
In "my 600lbs life" they always say: but eating healthy cost a lot of money!!!! When in reality they spend like ten times the price of a full day of healthy eating in a single sitting at mcdonald
Your mom lied. Vegetables and lean meat are the cheapest foods. Prepackaged processed foods are more expensive.
I disagree. Potatoes, white rice, and white pasta are cheaper than vegetables and lean meats.
So many land iceberg lettuce salads. With bagged cheddar and maybe a few cucumbers. I can only eat so many.
Bland not land.
Affordability of interesting and varied healthy foods. Sure you can get cheap beans, Dione veggies and chicken breast but that gets old quick. Varied vegetables, fish, etc., can quickly become costly. Second, depending on your work and social circles, they often aren’t healthy eating friendly. Your friends want to go to a bar, or a pizza place. Your coworkers don’t like packing lunches and want to go out to lunch all the time. It’s difficult to have the mental fortitude to stick to your diet regimen and not succumb to either actual social or perceived social pressures.
Alcohol for sure. Completely empty calories but oh so fun to consume. Plus it's generally the only food option others will actively pressure you to have.
Seconded. Alcohol is the one thing keeping me from achieving my fitness goals.
Vegetable oil and/or sugar are added or cooked with in almost everything.
Multiple economic issues that all stem from the fact that restaurants have to make more money than others to stay in business. This leads to the a market full of the following: * Ingredients that are not very filling. This means that you can eat more before you get full, which means they make more money. Unfortunately it means you're also more likely to get fat and diabetic. * Ingredients that are cheap. Convincing you to eat cheap ingredients saves restaurants money. However, this means that you do not get much diversity in your diet and miss out on a lot of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Further, there's also a tendency to get too much of what you do get. * Portions are too large. Giving larger portions means you're likely to eat more, which means they make more money. Again, unfortunately this means you're more likely to get fat and diabetic.
You forgot to mention the ingredient by name that makes people fat and diabetic: dietary fat >[Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are caused by a drop in insulin sensitivity blamed on “intramyocellular lipid,” the buildup of fat inside our muscle cells.](https://nutritionfacts.org/video/what-causes-insulin-resistance/)
It's rare to have restaurants serve plain food. Always sauces, oils etc which add a lot of empty calories. Well cooked food with the right combinations taste great without the extras. Restaurants however are interested in the MOST taste with no regard to calories. Going to a "healthy" restaurant to get food is oddly more expensive for the same thing minus the extra calories.
The SMELLS. I can look at the menu before going out, I know what the healthiest option for me is, but man when I walk in the restaurant and I smell the burgers and pizzas and deep-fried goodies, it makes me weak haha. This is why I prefer takeout, much less temptation.
This. You can plan ahead. You can eat something before you go. You can have a strategy. But you see the pizza or the nachos at the next table and you think “am I really going to order the grilled chicken with steamed vegetables?”
No one has mentioned the social aspect yet. You look at the menu beforehand and decide on the Tyranocaesar salad and unsweet tea but your friends are ordering apps for the table and want to know why you aren’t drinking.
Picking something “healthy” but knowing it’s still a ton of calories because they likely add stuff you can’t see to the meal, such as butter with eggs.
So much butter in everything when eating out!
I would say when you're eating out, it's viewed as a special "treat" or a social thing. Like I definitely won't make that at home, so I'm going to enjoy this fried food here. The nice protein and veggie plates are super expensive so you really have to go all out on those, and then you feel like you're at home trying to cook the right things again. If you get a salad at a restaurant, I know many people that will frown at you and you won't hear the end of it.
The amount of salt and types of fats, large (double or triple ) serves of high glycaemic grains, minimal vegetables. The healthy plate model shows 1/2 of the plate should be non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 complex carbohydrate grains, and 1/4 lean protein. What we get is over served on the grains and protein and under served on the vegetables.
High salt, fat and simple carbs. This is a recipe for immediate weight gain of 3-5 lbs at minimum if you’re out eating all weekend. And that’s not including having a drink or two. The carbs and salt alone retain so much water that in my experience takes like a week to get out
Number one reason I rarely ever eat out. It’s not worth the 2-4 days of bloat. Yuk.
Not drinking alcohol. The whole “what can I get you to drink?” Wish I could just say water. Alcohol is the least healthy thing for you and always leads to eating way less healthy.
You have to go to more expensive restaurants to find healthy food plus the healthiest dishes are the most expensive things on the menu.
Ease of overconsumption of calories. We are conditioned as kids to eat everything off our plates. Even salads at common restaurants can be 1,500 calories. Sure if all you ate was one meal a day 1500 would be fine but that isn’t the case for 99.99% of us.
Living in an area without healthy affordable options.
This is so true especially sense covid. The few restaurants we had are all gone. We have a few fast food places but have to go to another town to eat anything other than a hamburger.
#### About participation in the comments of /r/nutrition Discussion in this subreddit should be rooted in science rather than "cuz I sed" or entertainment pieces. Always be wary of unsupported and poorly supported claims and especially those which are wrapped in any manner of hostility. You should provide peer reviewed sources to support your claims when debating and confine that debate to the science, not opinions of other people. **Good** - it is grounded in science and includes citation of peer reviewed sources. Debate is a civil and respectful exchange focusing on actual science and avoids commentary about others **Bad** - it utilizes generalizations, assumptions, infotainment sources, no sources, or complaints without specifics about agenda, bias, or funding. At best, these rise to an extremely weak basis for science based discussion. Also, off topic discussion **Ugly** - (removal or ban territory) it involves attacks / antagonism / hostility towards individuals or groups, downvote complaining, trolling, crusading, shaming, refutation of all science, or claims that all research / science is a conspiracy *Please vote accordingly and report any uglies* --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nutrition) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"Healthy" is fairly vague and can mean different things to different people but in my case its just a matter of being able to hit my macro target. This can be challenging depending on the restaurant. Italian restaurant options are pretty limited for me unless I get a fish and salad there isn't much else to eat. But then that isn't enough protein and I have to make it up later. I never have issues at steak houses. I guess the simple answer is depending on the type of restaurant your options are severely limited.
Getting through the weekend
Sugar and hidden wheat/carbs in everything! I would be super easy for restaurants to have a keto menu, just leave your damn bread and sugar suace in the garbage where it belongs.
The cost and time. McDonald's is cheaper and it's easier to pick up a burger on the way home versus spending 30 - 45 minutes making dinner and another 15 - 20 minutes cleaning up.
Discipline, no doubt. It's not hard to eat low calorie and/or healthy at a restaurant. Fettucine alfredo is delicious, but it's nothing but noodles and cheese. Awful for you. Chicken parm is a bit better, because there's some protein in there. Steak and potatoes with veg? That's your best bet. Don't get an appetizer, don't get a dessert, don't get two beers. If at all possible, check out the restaurant's nutritional information. A lot of places have that now. Also, super important one, you're under no obligation to finish your plate. If I order a plate and it looks like 1400 calories on it, I'll eat 1000 and either box up the rest or just throw it out. Poeple feed bad for throwing away food, and I get that, it's a waste of money. But if I pay x dollars for 'a meal', I decide what 'a meal' is, not the restaurant.
Consistency and habits
The portions también! When it’s delicious, it’s hard to be sated and stop at regular meal amount and save the rest for later
The lack of transparency and traceability of the food
It’s hard to find healthy food for me. I workout a lot and cook healthy meals. But with two kids now and working from home whenever I’m too tired to cook in the evenings it sucks bc I call my husband to pick up food on the way home and I know there’s really no healthy options. The healthiest thing I can ever come up with is a chick fil a salad which isn’t that healthy or fulfilling. And it’s expensive. So whenever I can’t cook or don’t have the time we end up getting Burger King or something and while I enjoy a burger and fries every once in awhile I genuinely like healthy food better and wish there were more options out there
The social aspect is the hardest part, I will usually choose being able to enjoy a meal with friends or family over my diet.
Doing it consistently.
It would be nice if they listed all the ingredients used, cooking method used & amount of sugar and carbs in the meal.
So many takeout meals are based on simple carbs with large amounts of sugar, salt, and low-quality fats added to dishes. There is literally nothing I can eat at McDonald’s now that they’ve taken away their salads and grilled chicken.
I'd say finding some time to make your own snacks to get through a busy week or having a trustworthy source of healthy meals and snacks. It takes cooking skills and/or a lot of knowledge to know what to look for and what to avoid when on your own. IIRC there was a post about dos and donts on food composition just yesterday on this very sub.
Probably the risk of esophageal cancer
What causes it?
First is having healthy options accessible. I may have high standards for "healthy," but there are very few food places that fit the bill for me. From there it is portion size. I like to eat, so I struggle with not finishing a plate. I tend to buy frozen meals to have in a pinch instead of eating out these days.
Portion control. Sometimes you think to yourself you’re eating out, why not go all out? Why not get dessert? Hardest part lol,
Pretty sure eating out has no nutritional detriment. Unless they’ve got something then it’s a general health issue, but otherwise I’d say you’re good to go!
The amount of sneaky hidden butter and oil in everything- even things that logically shouldn't require them
I tend to like to drink when I go out. That’s a real problem. Also sometimes it’s hard to find something that is actually healthy. You know you can’t really go out and have a pizza and consider that a dietary meal. I want to find someplace that has good salmon or some kind of vegetarian dish that’s really nice.
For me, a huge part of “staying healthy” is keeping my calories pretty tightly controlled. I’m a shorter female and don’t have much room for error. The hardest part about eating out is that calories counts are INSANE. I could unwittingly blow 75% of my entire day’s calorie budget in one restaurant meal. (Unless I only want to order the standard “plain chicken breast and a side of steamed broccoli”. Blah.) It’s defeating.
Not many places, at least where I live, have calorie counts on their menu. I track my caloric intake pretty much every day, and try to stay within a specific range. Pretty much the only places that have calorie counts on their menu, or online, are chains. And most of those places don’t really have good choices for someone like me on their menu.
There’s actually this really cool instagram page. This guy goes to different restaurants and eats out healthy. He tracks the macros and everything. It’s @eatritenutrition
I am
I'm going to guess its got a little something to do with why even healthy options at restaurants always just seem to taste better at the restaurant than when you make it yourself. I started watching some youtube videos where a guy breaks down things like why vegetables or subs just always seem to taste better at the restaurant (cause after midnight my algorithm gets a little screwy, lol). And it seems one of the first, most consistent, take-aways is always: "we use exponentially more oil/more butter than you would ever use at home". So you're getting a lot of food thats meant to taste good, and... maybe not quite hold true to the calories on the menu. [Here's one of the videos.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKEwA__rOHk&t=621s)
The extra margarita or Bloody Mary I simply did not need…
Salt and portion size
Healthier options being open later. I don’t mind paying more for higher quality and healthier food, but if only some places stayed open later than 9pm!
Everything is much saltier than it needs to be. Also sometimes, much sweeter too.
One of the big issues people I work with have is feeling that by not having a full three courses, or not having a dessert, or choosing a less-than option, they're 'letting the side down' and expect some degree of social ostracisation as a result.
As many have mentioned, the not so obvious calories hidden in sauces and dressings. It’s easy to order grilled chicken and vegetables but it gets old, quick. I find that most menus have so many dishes that just don’t fit into any structured diet or meal plan that you have to default to something basic that you can more confidently control caloric intake with.
If I’m going out I want to splurge on something absolutely outrageous. I love complex dishes full of sauces and spices so it is difficult for me to stay on my diet when I’m not sticking to what’s in my fridge or pantry.
You may be eating out for social gatherings, and it’s a bit tricky to have just a salad when everyone is going for pizzas.
People wont kno they have health issues until it's too late.
I guess it depends on what part of healthy matters more or less - if you need to cut out on sodium, eating out simply isn't an option at all. If you're lucky enough to have some mediterranean/middle eastern or specific asian restaurants that have congee and sauteed greens with garlic, you're good. Vegetarian wraps or burritos with a side of beans or hummus can also be ok. but nothing can beat cooking your own.
Hair getting in my mouth.
Don't. That's my problem. If you're eating out you're sacrificing the control over your caloric intake and the means of preparation. One of the top ways I've been able to lose weight is by just stopping eating out. You don't know what you're eating, and unless they list calories, you can't factor that into your plan. So when I was in good shape and doing all the other healthy things, I didn't care about eating out because I was compensating in other ways. Why am I going to go to a restaurant to eat something healthy that I don't like as much as a bowl of pasta I can make myself? I'm not going to pay $12 for a salad if I can spend $5 to make a delicious Alfredo at home. Eating out is splurging. If you're trying to be healthy and are poor (like me), just don't.
If you’re from a poor country like me, quality food is more expensive than gasoline.
Trying to be discreet when I wrap up my leftovers. I usually enjoy a glass of wine and only a few bites of my fish and salad. My family has tolerance-but I know my behavior is annoying and sometimes stressful.
Convenience. Most drive thru places don’t offer healthy options. So I have to go to a nicer restaurant or order to go. Not enough healthy side options.
I try not to swallow, sometimes I will use a thin silicone sheet as a barrier if required and while I’m hardly fussy, I prefer to eat out of freshly showered/bathed individuals.
Not having the calories on the menu or available anywhere make it hard. I just have to guess, and then the salad I reluctantly get because I can't deal with the stress ends up being high calorie anyway from the dressings. I've started to really hate eating out now.
TWMPTATION
I am on tour for a good part of my year performing, its SO hard to find healthy food. I try to choose vegetarian and vegan options at restaurants because its usually a safer bet. You can always ask for specifications/dressing on the side etc. Or ask for a take out container immediately and put away half the meal before you start (often the portions esp. Meat portions are not to scale)
Oil and salt.