0 Responses to Eat out and gain weight

1. Hi KB.

   Look who’s here? I’m back. I’ve been incredibly busy but I haven’t forgot about e4T and what it has meant to me.

   What you say about eating out is exactly right. We do go the extra mile at a couple of our high end restaurants and ask the chef for special low or no fat dinners. But, you’re right. It’s still not like cooking at home for yourself. And it’s a lot of hassle no matter how accomodating they try to be. So that is reserved for VERY special occasions only.

   You’ve made a bunch of changes here at e4T and it looks great. Keep up the good work. I’ll be back from time to time.

2. {{Puget4}} I’m so glad to see you again!! I always like your thoughtful comments.

   That’s cool that you make special requests at restaurants. But I don’t think that would work for me. I get too tempted for the stuff as it is on the menu. I’m not sure I could really resist a good Alfredo sauce if I had to face it too many times. . . .

3. It’s a real hassle and I nearly (not quite) need a drool cup under my chin when I read the menu. LOL. It’s astonishing how few “safe” items are listed on a menu. The only critter food I eat is fish (no shell fish) so if the restaurant does not have a fish dish or a vegetarian dish, I’m out of luck, so we move on to another location. Gooserock has been faithfully following this diet also which helps tremendously.

   I lost my 37 pounds between October 2005 and March 2006 and so far have kept all but 4 pounds off. I feel great.

   Somehow, I don’t think asking for special dishes from McDonald’s would work. LOL Can’t even trust salads out now.

4. I eat out maybe once a fortnight, if that even. I guess home food and not being so into fast food leaves is the reason. Sure, it’s tasty, but it’s not as healthy for the most part eating out.

5. TechZ, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not so sure it’s more tasty. I’ve gotten pretty particular about how I want my food cooked. And we do it ourselves at home.

   Also, I’ve always questioned the cleanliness of those kids who work in restaurants. I think a lot of tummy-flu is really restaurant sickness.

6. I used to be like you. Eating out made me gain weight. Everytime. Until I developed a stragegy. I will share my strategy with you.

   My strategy is as follows. There are no limitations on how rich or indulgent my choice can be. The only criteria for my choice is that it must be countable. This usually means a meal where the food items are seperate and recognizable. For example, one of my favorites is a BLT sandwich. You can easily calculate the calories by peeking at the number of bacon slices. Add the calories for two slices of toast, however many slices of bacon, however many slices of tomato, and a few calories foe lettuce, and voila, you know exactly what you ate.

   Another good choice for example, would be ordering fried eggs rather than ordering an omlette. They are both equally delectable and indulgent, but if you choose fried eggs, you can count the calories for each egg (plus calories for about a tablespoon of oil for frying). However if you were to choose an omlette you would not know how many eggs went into its construction and would be unable to calculate its calories.

   This strategy can work for so many indulgent dishes, so long as you order meals whose component parts are seperate – for example, an eight ounce steak, two fried eggs and toast. It’s calculable!!

   There is one last thing which will help maximize this strategy. Eat your restaurant meal for brunch or lunch on a weekend, rather for dinner. This way, you can calculate your calories at home later on. This accomplishes three things. Firstly, you will get a more accurate calculation if you can look up foods online. Secondly, you will not feel like a freak counting calories out in public. And thirdly, most importantly, you can manage your dinner to ensure that you don’t go over your limit for the day – which would be impossible if your restaurant meal had been dinner!

   I give you my stragegy in hopes that you will employ it and truly enjoy your restauarant meals. It is really important to me to be able to enjoy and indulge without going overboard, and to cut restaurants out forever is so sad and would eventually drive one insane, I think. Please try my advice! I am a veteran hacker’s dieter with a slow metabolism and a crummy eat watch but I have a hot skinny bod as proof that restauarnt my strategy works.

   Anon

7. Wow.

   I’m so sorry that you’re Anonymous — this comment is a fantastic resource on “how to safely eat at a restaurant”.

   Thank you very much for sharing it!

8. Dear Katie Bird,

   It wasn’t until reading your response to my previous post (yes, I was the Anonymous poster) that I was hit with the stunning realization that my hard-won victory means that I have the expertise to contribute something worthwhile in this realm.

   My entire life to date has been a case study in overcoming statistics (“Chewy, NEVER tell me the statistics!”). I am one of the few who has managed to lose a large amount of weight and keep it off, permanently. Despite the fact that I now appear both attractive and thin, the battle is not over. Thanks to a slow metabolism, a useless eat watch and a host of other cultural factors, my struggle is a beast whose nature can only be tamed by incorporating it into every single day of the rest of my life. This is the most valuable thing I have learned so far: that fat, like risk, should be managed rather than feared.

   Because there happens to be a more attractive than average person underneath my previous layer of fat, I have faced two of the most brutal forms of irrational cultural hatred and discrimination – the special brand of disgust reserved for fat people and the unique combination of jealously, assumptions about promiscuity and sexual harassment reserved for those “cursed” with a relatively high attractiveness level.

   I happen to be glad for this experience. Here is why. It has trained me to be extremely perceptive when it comes to the behavior of others. I can tell in an instant when someone is judging me by my appearance rather than listening to what I have to say. I can assess in an instant whether someone is a phony, or a straight shooter. This is a rather valuable business skill.

   In my profession, looks matter despite the fact that looks are not actually needed to complete the necessary work. I don’t want anyone in my workplace to know about my history. Hence I have been secretive about my battle with weight, which I undertook alone without any support whatsoever.

   My anonymous post last night was the first time I have ever participated in a support system in any capacity whatsoever. I just could not bear the thought of you believing yourself unable to eat in a restaurant again, even though I don’t know you.

   Here is why.

   The ability to be indulgent is crucial to lifelong weight maintenance. The current cultural paradigm is structured to have us believe that if we are fat (or even two pounds above our goal weight) we are unworthy of any form of indulgence or enjoyment. And yet the reality is that without small indulgences and forgiving ourselves for any indulgences that might have been too large, lifelong weight maintenance is impossible.

   This is because the idea of living life forever without daily small indulgences is enough to drive one to desperation, which leads to all sorts of destructive behaviors – my personal favorites once having been binging and fasting. I’ve now learned mastery over those behaviors and part of that mastery includes loving life itself and loving small indulgences.

   I only discovered the Hacker’s Diet recently, but I have used it to determine a valuable piece of information which I never had before: the fact that I burn 1675 calories per day just by existing, and 1475 per day if I do not exercise! This is much lower than normal but it has helped shed light on why I have struggled with my weight. The average person burns 2,000 calories per day and the entire food universe is geared towards that person, not towards me. Armed with this information, I am currently battling an extra twenty pounds (six more to go) that have crept up ten years after my initial weight loss of sixty pounds. I realize that sixty pounds may not seem much to a man or large boned woman but for me it was a huge amount (pun intended). I’m also confident this rather valuable information will allow me to remain at my ideal weight forever.

   I’ve really enjoyed your blog and cavalier attitude toward weight loss. I especially liked your previous restaurant post about snotty health articles on how to minimize calories at fast food restaurants by eating those disgusting packaged salads and their disgusting low-cal salad dressing counterparts. As if. For me the thought of eating one of those salads is enough to induce homicidal rage against the machine.

   In light of this, I recommend reading Jennifer Sanders “The Martini Diet,” a book about how to incorporate indulgences into your life without damaging yourself. According to Sanders’ philosophy, it is better to eat a small portion of something you truly enjoy than a large portion of nasty packaged salad. As a warning, I wouldn’t recommend following her advice without calorie counting. I made this mistake, which is part of what led to my weight creeping back up. But her various advice, when combined with calorie counting, is highly valuable. My favorite piece of advice is her “Cinnabon avoidance technique” – when offered a desert she eats only the frosting and one or two bites of the dessert and then gives it to her husband or has the waiter take it away. Since the frosting is the best part, she had triumphed by managing to both truly enjoy herself but not damage herself by gaining weight.

   I’m glad to have discovered your blog. I’m also thrilled have officially come “out of the closet” here and now. I plan on having the courage to post again in the future.

9. Battle-scarred Bombshell, I’m very glad you came (and gave us a nickname for conversation sake)

   This is a fantastic comment with loads of information that I want to discuss. But, first I have to correct a couple of misunderstandings.

   First that Fast Food post was contributed by another author, DuctapeFatwa (sadly, it’s been several months since he’s visited here.) — not me. He shared some fantastic rants with us and I miss his presence here everyday. It’s the nature of groups like this, however, that some people come and go as they require (or not) conversation about these issues.

   Second, I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t plan to ever eat out. I do — in fact, I met my sister-in-law for lunch just last Friday at The Nelson Art Gallery.

   What I meant was that I can’t indulge in a regular habit of eating out. Doing it once or twice a month as a special event is probably OK. But doing it 2 or 3 times a week is out. At least for me.

   As I described in my post, my will breaks down when I look at a menu. And I just can’t put myself at risk on a regular business.

   Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experiences. You’ve given us a lot to think about.

10. Katie Bird, thanks for your kind comments.

    I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the ideas contained within the above post.

    Also, my apologies for scrolling past the author’s name on the other post and not noticing that it wasn’t you! In any case, the compliments to your blog still apply.

    Of course, what is right for one person is not always right for the next. But I’d still like to share a few more pieces of my strategy with you for eating out.

    I never thought this would be possible, but I’ve managed to incorporate a restauarant meal once a week while still losing weight steadily. After seeing these results, I am convinced that if I had the money, I’d could eat out every other day and still suceed at weight loss.

    So at the risk of beating a dead horse, here are three more parts of my strategy that I didn’t mention.

    Firstly, I fall prey to the same menu-induced trauma that you do. This is why I NEVER LOOK AT THE MENU. Even my fantastical, food-loving imagination cannot match the insanely caloric items on many menus. So I remain ignorant, I think intently about what I want, and I ask for it. Whatever I think of (providing that I’m going with my recognizable parts and pieces strategy) could never be as caloric as the worst items on the menu, which I won’t be tempted by.

    Secondly, I strategically select the type of restaurant. For example, I would select a diner over an Italian restaurant. A diner has a wider selection of food and a higher probability of calculable meals, whereas I know that an Italian restaurant serves dishes that are likely drowning in cheese and complied in a non-seperable parts fashion.

    Thirdly (and this is a necesary evil), I want NO SURPRISES. Therefore, I always ask the waiter: “What else comes with this?” If the answer is not a vegetable or a pickle, I say to the waiter very emphatically: “Please bring it WITHOUT the [fill in the blank] that it is normally served with.” That [fill in the blank] usually consists of home fries, french fries, cole slaw, breadsticks and any number of disasterous unexpected curveballs which, had they not been pre-emptively dealt with, would be nasty little surprises which would add to the general trauma and indecision that used to accompany eating out.

    I hope these three additional points will help enable you and allow you to enjoy more restaurant meals at whatever frequency you feel would be ideal.

11. Hi, BsB (for some reason your comments and my replies have been getting caught in the Spam filter — I don’t know why. Usually the only thing I see there is actually spam. And I don’t see anything that would trigger it in your posts.)

    I think your extended advice about eating out is fantastic. Thank you very much for taking the time to explain it so well.

12. Here are a list of some my favorite alternatives should the idea of going to a restaurant be too scary…

    Bombshell’s Top Ten Best-Tasting Low Calorie Foods

    No Vegetables Allowed! No Prep-time Allowed!

    1. Sharon’s raspberry sorbet, 80 calories per half cup (tastes richer than Hagen Daas sorbet, which is 140 per half cup!)

    2. Edy’s Whole Fruit popsicles, 80 calories each (tastier and more filling than any other popsicles on earth)

    3. Amy’s Organic Asian Noodle Dinner, 290 calories (as good as microwaving will ever get)

    4. Amy’s Organic Rice and Vegetable dinner, 260 calories (as good as microwaving will ever get)

    5. Ezekiel sprouted grain bread, toasted 80 calories per slices WAY tastier and more filling than regular bread because it is a complete protein

    6. Starbucks tall soy latte, 160 calories, lower calorie than a regular latte, but richer, tastier and more filling than a skim latte, which is vile + pretentious!

    7. Oatmeal-raisin-walnut Clif Bar, 240 calories (as good a a portable bar will ever get), it actually has chunks of recognizable oats, raisins and walnuts!

    8. Good-Slice soy cheese, 45 calories per slice. Tastes exactly like American cheese.

    9. Green Mountain Gringo Salsa, 10 calories per tablespoon.

    10. Green & Blacks Maya Gold mini chocolate bar, 190 calories, note, pick the MINI bar! This is the BEST chocolate on earth, it is dark chocolate with cinnamon and other spices in it. The small size makes it perfect!