No need to stop eating out to lose weight
When it comes to diet plans, most people imagine that cutting out the trips to restaurants is necessary to make any concerted effort to lose weight.However, new research, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, suggests that individuals can successfully lose weight while still eating out as part of an active social life.
Research from the US looked at 35 healthy premenopausal women aged 40 to 59 who regularly ate out.
They took part in a educational programme, which aims to show people how to manage calorific and fat content when eating out. The aim was to prevent weight gain from eating at restaurants, rather than encouraging weight loss.
However, after six weeks, the average participant had lost 1.7kg.
Dr Gayle Timmerman, lead author of the study, said: "Based on what we learned from this study, for those individuals who eat out frequently, developing the skills needed to eat out without gaining weight from the excess calories typically consumed at restaurants may be essential to long-term health."
