Weight Loss: Suicide What To Avoid When Eating Out

This is your nutritional coach Michael Hunter from General Sciences, one of my favorite (healthy) restaurants is PF Chang’s. It’s only “healthy” however if you know what you’re doing because the truth that matter is that most of their dishes are loaded with fat and refined carbs and it’s up to you to make them healthy.

Mongolian beef has over 1000 calories, over 40 grams of fat and 90 grams of carbohydrates certainly not the perfect meal if you’re looking to lose the weight and keep it off is it? If you simply added an appetizer and dessert you could easily be at over 2000 calories and the truth in a matter it’s not a really large meal but it does account for a fairly large calorie intake.  And even worse, is that a lot of the carbohydrates are very refined in turn causing a blood sugar spike and then a resistance to insulin which as you know is a fat storing hormone.

With just a little knowledge you can turn this meal into half the overall calories and well over half of the fat and refined carbohydrates.

Substitute white rice for brown rice doesn’t reduce overall calories by much but is certainly increases the complexity in the carbohydrates thus less of a spike of blood sugar. The additional fiber will also do wonders in reducing the overall glycemic index of the food.

In addition request that your food be cooked in a chicken, beef or vegetable broth instead of oil and cornstarch that makes up part of their sauce that simple tip will cut the overall calorie intake by over half.

Summary:

1) avoid/limit sauces at restaurants (or make substitutions as suggested above)

2) Watch out when ordering salads, the salad dressing is loaded with simple refined carbohydrates and fats substitute low acid vinegars (balsamic, rice wine, apple cider) with as little olive oil as possible.

3) Avoid cream sauces on pasta substitute a tomato sauce preferably not cooked very long (the longer any vegetables cooked the more refined carbohydrate becomes)

4) Remove the fats (oils) and refined carbohydrates (sugar, high fructose corn syrup) from sauces substitute chicken, beef, vegetable broth with a low-calorie sauce such as soy sauce.

5) Add as much lemon to your foods, low calorie, lots of flavor, some evidence that lemon helps with hydration, most important substituting lemon for butter/oil can lower overall calorie and fat intake by well over 50%.

These simple tips could easily make up for 20 pounds in calories a year and if done properly you will hardly notice the difference when you eat but you will notice a difference when you look at yourself in the mirror or the next time you’re wearing that hot bathing suit on the beach.

Your nutritional head coach,

Health happiness always,

Michael Hunter