There are dozens of weight loss methods that are known of today. You have the keto diet, the paleo diet, and even intermittent fasting. These all involve cutting out certain types of food or restricting your intake. As long as you’re eating a healthy amount of food and not overdoing it, then these types of weight loss methods are fine. However, the most basic form of weight loss is calories in, calories out. It’s easy enough to do if you’re planning your own meals, but if you’re eating out at Tampa restaurants, it gets a little bit trickier.
Remember that everything that is used in the creation of your meal will be accounted for in terms of calories. The oil that was used to fry your food in, the dressing used in your food, and even the garlic and onions. It’s hard to identify what ingredients are used in a restaurant dish, which makes counting calories difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. Here are some ways that you can still count calories while eating out at Tampa restaurants.
Research ahead of time
Of course, the easiest way to figure out how much you’re consuming for dinner is by doing a little research ahead of time before heading out to dinner. A lot of Tampa restaurants are aware that diners are more calorie conscious now, and plenty of them now include a caloric breakdown of their menu items.
Do a little digging online and you should be able to see which meals fit in well with your calorie allowance. However, it’s true that not all restaurants do this, which brings us to our next point:
Portion control
It’s not a guarantee that all restaurants post the number of calories that are in their meals. When this happens, you’re going to have to rely on good old-fashioned portion control. If you’ve done calorie counting for a while, it’s fairly easy to eyeball how much you should be eating. But when in doubt, portion control is the key.
Eat only half of your meal if it’s heavy with protein and carbohydrates. Even if you’re eating a salad, ask for the dressing to be on the side so that you can control how much you put in. no matter how tempting it may be to eat the whole thing, save the extra portion and take it home with you. At least you’re going to have a great meal the next day.
Record your calories
If you have a pretty good idea of what ingredients are in the meal or if you’re eating at a well-known restaurant, you can record the calories that you’re eating through various applications.
There are apps that you can download onto your phone that help you keep track of how many calories you’re eating. All you have to do is search the food, and it’ll show you a rough estimate of how many calories are in it.