Foods & calories

You can spend an awful lot of time thinking about the foods you eat When you are trying to lose weight. You not only have to watch what you eat, you also have to think about what you're not eating.

In addition to watching portion sizes, it's also important to think abut the total nutritional balance of a diet - restrictive diets can often leave you short of important nutrients. Two areas it's important to think about carefully when slimming are restaurant food and fats. Both can sabotage even the most well-meaning dieter.

Restaurant foods are a minefield for someone trying to control their weight, but there are strategies you can follow to enable you to eat out without going badly off diet.

• Pick the restaurant - if you have any control over where you're going, try to choose somewhere that will fit your diet better. For example, if you're eating low carb, a steak house would be a good choice (order steak and salad), whereas a pizza restaurant would be difficult for you.
• Salads are a good option - but watch for calorie laden dressings.
• Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. Most places will be amenable to special orders so long as they're within reason.
• Avoid the known "troublemakers" - order salad or vegetables instead of chips or potatoes.
• Avoid all fried foods.
  
  

Fats are the biggest problem when eating out. It's not that our body doesn't need fat - it does - but the modern diet contains way too much, and many restaurant foods are simply loaded with fat.

Unless you are on a really restrictive diet, you'll get enough fat - it's in healthy food like fish, even wheat germ. But at 9 calories per gram, as opposed to the 4 per gram of carbohydrate and protein, excess fat can pack on the pounds quicker than anything else.