One of the things I get clients to do more overtime is to cook at home. There are a lot of benefits. It’s less expensive, you can use the leftovers for lunch, you cook the food so you know what is in it, and there are usually less calories.
Learning to cook at home is an important skill to possess when trying to lose body fat. Most don’t realize how much food they consume when eating out. Not that eating out is a bad thing. It’s just that you would probably see better results if you didn’t do it as often.
Photo Credit: http://eatingindallas.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/mextopia/
In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug administration asked the Keystone Center, a nonprofit public policy and dispute resolution organization, to explore the role that foods play when they are consumed away from home. This project was designed to enlighten Americans about the growing trend of obesity.
One of the main things done during its time was research on meals eaten out. Here are some of the things they found:
- Eating out more was correlated with obesity, increased body fat, and increased BMI.
- Women who eat out more than 5 times per week, take in an average of 290 calories or more each day when compared to women who did not eat out as often.
- Eating fast food was associated with consuming more calories and less vegetables and fruit.
- More of a person’s budget is used to purchase foods away from home (26.3 % in 1970 vs. 46% in 2002).
- Restaurants have doubled in the last 10 years (491,000 in 1972 to 878,000 in 2004) making it more convenient to eat away from home.
- Portion sizes have increased in restaurants and home since the 1970s.
- It is normal to have a large (32 oz) soft drink when eating out. This adds 720 calories to a meal.
As you can see, eating out can be damaging to any weight loss journey. It is very easy to over-consume calories, and people are notorious for under-reporting calorie intake (2). And this all adds up over time.
So, if you eat out a lot it begs the question what you should do? Well, I’m going to give you a few tips to help you with just that.
1) Start cooking more.
I know, I know. You probably don’t like to cook or may not know how, but just hear me out. It doesn’t have to be some extravagant meal. All you need is a skillet. Say you are having steak, with some squash. Just take the skillet and sauté them. It will take you about 10 minutes.
This is how I started out cooking, and it is one of the easiest thing you can do. As you do this more and more you will get more confident with cooking, and I’m sure you will enjoy it more too. It will make you want to try new more complicated meals, and soon enough you won’t need to go out as much.
2) Eat out a little bit less each week.
If you eat out 5 days per week, try only doing it 3-4 times per week at first. This allows you to eat better meals right away (since you’ve learned to cook right?). Also this is an easy way to start breaking a habit. Once you begin to do it less, you will realize you do not miss it as much. This means you will be cooking your own food and seeing better results.
3) Plan your meals for the week.
If you plan, you will be less likely to eat out. This is like anything else in life. If you are struggling with something you need a plan of action. Without it, you won’t accomplish anything.
Planning your meals, means that you have a set schedule for the week. It will be hard to deviate from it once it is set. If you know that you have a pork roast planned for Monday when you get home, there is no way you will stop somewhere for dinner.
So, if you are struggling with losing body fat, your nutrition will definitely have something to do with it. Eating out too much may be your problem. All of these tips I gave are simple, yet can be highly effective.
The good news is cooking at home isn’t hard. No special tools are required other than a skillet to start, which most people have. As I mentioned earlier though, it can take 10 minutes to cook a meal. Most of us can spare that time.
It all comes down to you being willing to make the change. If you are trying something new, you have to be willing or it will not work. The pros of cooking at home outweigh the cons. It will definitely be cheaper and allow you to get results quicker. Those two alone are worth it.
If you are looking for a personal trainer in Savannah, contact me to set up a consultation.
And if you found any of this information helpful, or know of someone it could help please share with others!
References:
1) http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=2894
2) Block, J.P. et al. Consumers’ estimation of calorie content at fast food restaurants: cross sectional observational study. BMJ. 2013. 346.
