1. Ordering High-Calorie/ Fattening Apps or Sides
Choosing a balanced and nutrient-rich entree is key, our sources say, and your weight loss goals can easily be hindered by pairing your meal with less healthy appetizers or sides. “High calorie appetizers are basically a meal themselves in terms of calories, but do not really fill a person up,” Hunnes says. She adds that items like “blooming onions or deep fat-fried shrimp” can sabotage an otherwise healthy entree. Avoiding refined carbohydrates in the form of sides and fillers, (like complimentary bread) Richards says, is a quick and easy way to make your meals healthier. “Choose vegetables over starch-based sides like white rice and pasta,” Richards stresses.
2. Assuming Every Salad Is Healthy
While a salad seems like the perfect appetizer, it’s still important to examine its ingredients before ordering. Hunnes says one mistake she’s seen people make involves ordering a salad that comes with a “very high calorie dressing” and/or a “large” portion. “This can sometimes add 300, 400, or 500 calories to an otherwise very healthy salad,” she says, which can “definitely thwart weight-loss goals.” Another helpful tip when thinking about salad contents is to choose grilled foods over fried, Richards says. This will “reduce the amount of saturated fat consumed” and opting for “lean meats like fish or chicken over beef” will also make your meal healthier, she notes.
3. Choosing High-Cal Drinks
Like with appetizers and sides in the first example, if you choose a healthy dinner but a high-calorie beverage, this may deter your efforts to lose weight. “The easiest and most overlooked way to cut out excess calories and sugar when dining out is to pass on sugar-sweetened beverages,” Richards says. She advises to “opt for water instead, which will keep you from drinking your calories and cutting out unnecessary carbs in the form of sugar.” Hunnes agrees, and adds that ordering drinks such as shakes, can “add 400 or 500 calories to a meal from the shake alone,” but won’t even “make you feel full because it’s a beverage.” This, she concludes, can lead you to “eating far more calories than you might have expected you would eat at that meal.”