Gained back the weight I lost last week. (pounds, lose weight, exercise)

[SandyCo]

Well, this was an interesting experiment. Apparently, even though I still exercised a lot, that didn't make up for my three restaurant dinners and one McDonald's trip! Luckily, it's only 8/10 of a pound. Guess I just learned that I can't go out to restaurants at night more than once or twice a week, and still expect to lose weight.

It's good to know my limits, but I wish those limits were a little more elastic!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled "eating healthy for life" plan...

[Charles]

0.8 pounds is in the noise. (A cup of coffee is a half a pound.)

Three restaurant dinners? That's a lot of bucks. Mr. Cheap eats three restaurant dinners A YEAR.

[Padgett2]

Just to make you feel a little better, some scales are affected by the barometric pressure of the day. So, those few ounces either up or down can come and go without any effort on your part.

[SandyCo]

It did get pretty expensive, but I didn't pay at all for one dinner. And honestly, I don't usually eat out that often! A friend invited me to dinner on Friday, another friend invited me to dinner on Saturday, and I went to a birthday dinner on Sunday.

[AnonChick]

Consider -what- you ate, when you ate out those three times (and happy birthday!).

Being in a restaurant isn't what makes you gain weight.

There are ways you can tweak a restaurant meal to make it satisfying, worth the money you spent on it, and maybe only have to exercise a little more that week than you did the week before. Broiled vs. roasted, steamed vs. fried, you know the usual tricks. But also - a baked potato is delicious if cooked properly, with absolutely nothing on it. It's sweet and nutty. A filet mignon will give you more bang for your buck than a T-bone. Skip anything with a cream sauce, in favor of a lemon/garlic/oil combo. ONE PIECE OF BREAD - or none at all (I know that's cruel but really - you just gotta do it).

Skip dessert entirely, and skip the fru-fru drinks. Water with lemon is delish - just ask them for extra lemon and squeeze it good.

[Luckyd609]

My husband and I go out to eat once a week. We split an appetizer and we split an entree. No desert, but always a bottle of wine.

[jasper12]

I feel the pain. I was travelling last week, maybe that is what made me go off the "healthy" cliff? You can go out. But eat healthy...I think it is supposed to get easier. I am not really there yet though.

[SandyCo]

Thanks very much for the b-day wishes, AnonChick, but it was someone else's birthday we were celebrating. Mine is in October. Good thing, because I want to be at my goal weight by my birthday! At my current snail's pace, it will take at least that long! I have another 12-15 lbs to lose.

You're right about all of the restaurant food choices! Bread is always a terrible temptation for me. I'm usually too full to order dessert, so that has never been an issue. Yes, any alcoholic beverage is nothing but empty calories. (But a cold beer just tastes so good sometimes! )

[jasper12]

Bread. Pasta. All wheat products. I seriously believe that "wheat addiction". I can eat bread, get full,, and there is almost a euphoria while eating bread, because it is so delicious, then, a "nod", because I want a nap after eating a meal with wheat products. Just like heroin, my body literally craves it. Bread "fix".

[springfieldva]

Some of your weight gain might be from salt - restaurants really seem to pour that into the food. Salt will make you retain water and weigh heavy, as will certain times of the month...

Weight that you put on fast like that tends to come off pretty fast, too, once you get your diet back on track.