#79 Eating Out , Fat-Loss Friend or Foe ?

Eating out can feel like the moment your calorie tracking falls apart: no labels, bigger portions, hidden oils, and that split-second “sure I’ll just get whatever” decision. We’re not buying the idea that meals out are automatically out of your control. Larry Doyle and Daniel break down how to keep your nutrition, macros, and weight loss goals moving forward while still saying yes to dinners, coffee dates, takeaways, and spontaneous plans.

We get practical fast. If you know where you’re going, we explain how checking the menu early helps you beat decision fatigue and social pressure, so you don’t end up ordering on impulse. If it’s last minute, we talk through the levers you still have: smart swaps, keeping sauces on the side, choosing grilled over fried, and even simply slowing down so you don’t eat past satisfaction. You’ll hear real examples, from burrito orders that save hundreds of calories to a McDonald’s stop that still hits protein targets without turning into a supersize blowout.

We also chat about “controlled guesstimates” and why being slightly wrong is miles better than not logging at all. Plus, we share a simple way to use ChatGPT to estimate calories when you’ve no reliable numbers, helping you stay consistent without turning social life into stress. If you found meal tracking hard on the go, this one gives you a calmer, more realistic approach. Subscribe, share it with a mate who struggles on weekends, and leave a review, what food situation throws you off most when you’re out?

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Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Mission

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, you're listening to the Gen Pop Podcast with me, your host, Larry Doyle. Each week, I'm gonna bring in friends, guests, and experts to help enhance your health, fitness, and wellness journeys. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversations.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

You are welcome to another episode of the Gen Pop Podcast, where this week, co-host Daniel and I, we're gonna dive into one of the biggest frustrations that people have when it comes to getting in shape. And that's how to track meals when you're on the go, when you're out. The meals that are out of your control, out of your hands, someone else is preparing them to them to you, someone else is handing them to you, you're ordering, you're dining out, you're socializing, you're at events, you're at functions, you're doing whatever. Those are the meals that one will either you're gonna wildly guesstimate them and get them wildly wrong, or two, just not bother your ass to track them and now all of a sudden you're off plan, off track, and it's off-piece to all of a sudden. Daniel, how do you navigate this with people? Because it's something we see a lot.

Pre-Choosing Your Order Reduces Slip-Ups

Swaps Portions And Slower Eating

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yeah, and I I I don't particularly like when people say that like they can't control or they couldn't control, because there's still like a lot of control you can have in these situations. But I guess I kind of start off with talking about a scenario of you know beforehand that you will be, say, going out for dinner at the weekend, for example. Like there's a few different approaches you can take there. The first is if you know where you're going, then most spaces likely will have the menu online. Now, I'm not saying that so that you can go on and try and find the calories for that meal because again, you're kind of working off an estimate, but at least it gives you kind of an understanding before you go into the restaurant or the cafe of what you will pick. Because I think a lot of people kind of fall for like decision fatigue when they get to the restaurant or cafe that like they're not really sure what to pick, so they'll just go for what they're usually comfortable with or what they usually have, or even if everyone is there ordering like burgers and chips, but they wanted to maybe get the salad to make a bit more of a sensible choice for a change, they're gonna feel more inclined to go for that burger and chips because they'll feel kind of pressured into doing it. So if you can beforehand kind of like pick up what you're gonna get from the restaurant, that kind of reduces that decision fatigue, and then that kind of starts the process. Then if you kind of like roughly estimating, right, how many calories I think might be in that meal. Again, you're never going to be 100% accurate, but at least it gives you kind of a ballpark that you can maybe look at recipes online or even other restaurants to have like say a picture and kind of work off of that as a kind of a gauge that allows you then to kind of create a buffer, you know, Monday to Friday or whatever it is in the week. And then alongside that, if it's kind of a situation where it's like a last-minute um thing where you hadn't the opportunity to kind of like create a buffer throughout the week that you know it's just a spur of the moment thing, you still have a lot more control than you you probably think because you still have a control over what you order, then you still have control over like if you want to kind of modify it to a degree, you have a uh an element of control of how much of it you actually eat. So like you have control over what you order off the minium, number one, as I said. Number two, you have control over like if you know it comes with a dressing on it, you could ask for the dressing on the side, or if it comes like say deep fried chicken, for example, you could ask, say, like, as you want that can have, like, say grilled chicken or boiled chicken, or like is there an alternative that you can swap out instead of that? So you can still modify things on the menu, and then alongside that, you can just actually slow down her eating. And if you actually do just something as simple as slowing down your eating and actually chewing your food, you probably will find that you will actually reach satisfaction a lot earlier than actually finishing the entire meal. Because a lot of people, again, they just feel that because the food is there, I need to finish it. And if you then alongside that have this, you know, anxiety around eating out, you'll kind of feel like, well, I've fucked the whole thing, so I might as well just finish the whole thing and then get back to it tomorrow or get back to it on Monday. So you kind of like force feed yourself just because like this is like my last meal that I get to enjoy before I get back into my usual routine. So um I said a lot there, but I think that's kind of like my overall kind of outlook when it comes to like eating meals out.

Burrito Choices That Cut Calories

McDonald's Example High Protein Options

ChatGPT Estimates And Controlled Guesstimates

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah. And I think if it's one meal in isolation, it's cool. Just write it. Like you don't need to go pulling it back that much. But if you're eating out multiple times per week, that's where we need to be a little bit more mindful. Because if you're out by 20% on one meal, big deal. But if you're out by 20%, 30% on 10 meals, now that's really going to start to mount up and add up. And now there's an awful lot more calories potentially been stacked up where we can make a more informed choice. I'm going to give an example of okay, let's say myself and Daniel are going out for a burrito. All of a sudden we're walking down to Dublin, and all of a sudden we say, fuck it, let's get a burrito. I'm hungry. But Daniel's dieting and he wants to keep his calories in check that little bit more. We can still go into the burrito joint. I can get the fully loaded one. I don't really give a fuck what Daniel gets because I'm more focused on what I'm getting myself anyway. So let's say I don't care and I'm gaining, but Daniel's dieting. He can make a choice where, okay, I'm getting the fully loaded beef barbacoa with guacamole and sour cream and cheese and fully loaded up and the wrap is bulging. Extra large. I've supersized it. Daniel can make a choice. We're still eating there. He's gonna get a burrito bowl, perhaps. He might even skip the rice. He might go without the sour cream, the guacamole. He's gonna skip the wrap because it's in the bowl. He's gonna choose maybe some chicken. I'm not making your choices here if you can fucking choose for yourself, Daniel. I don't care. But like, I'm just giving you an option here of how people can potentially pull back calories. They're still in the joint, they're still having the meal with the person, they're still taking control themselves, and they pull back literally hundreds and hundreds of calories while still doing the same thing. So you have a massive amount of options there. I'll give another real-world example. Myself and Ava went swimming the other day, and I wanted to bring Ava for a coffee date. We always go for a coffee date after going for a swim. It's one of the things we really enjoy doing. We went to two cafes, both of them were shut. Now all of a sudden, I got another option that was just across the road and it was McDonald's. And we had been out for a good bit of the day, we didn't have any food with us, and we wanted to get some food. Ava wanted a hot chocolate, so we got her a hot chocolate. I went through the menu, and instead of saying, well, fucking at McDonald's now, I'm going to supersi everything, I was able to go down through the menu. I was able to get a grilled chicken wrap. It had 29 grams of protein in it, and it had 300 and uh 280 calories actually in the wrap. And then I paired that up with a not a certain fried chicken, but a crispy chicken salad as well, too. That had another 28 grams of protein and I had 320 calories. So now all of a sudden, I got my little hit of what I needed with some calories, some volume, without blowing my load and having to go supersize it as well, too. Just because you're in that place doesn't mean you have to do the thing everyone else is doing. And I know there's that joke about okay, that's like going to McDonald's for a salad and whatever, but it's like at the same point, you can still keep full caloric control there within that, still hit some protein targets, still do all the things. Or you can blow it out. That's completely your choice. But I reserve the right to retain control and to be able to utilize that and lean into it and save a lot more calories. I felt better after the meal instead of just eating shite for the sake of eating shite, and now all of a sudden everything was good. There was no problem with that whatsoever. So, despite what you may feel or think, there is always options on menus for the most part, regardless of where you are, particularly in the likes of McDonald's or Supermax or any of those, because they've all got their calories online. Again, you go to Milanos for Pizzas, whatever it might be, Domino's for people, you can see the calories everywhere that it's going to be. So you get a really good gauge. And if it's something similar you're eating out in another fast food joint or a takeaway, that you'll be able to look that up online and actually have a really good insight into what's potentially there. But I think the ability to actually control that is super key. Something else I mentioned on the podcast, and I think it's really good to lean into this, is also using ChatGPT. If you don't have a clue what the calories are in it, put in what you're having into ChatGPT. I've had a palm-sized portion of southern fried chicken, two palms worth of lean string cut fucking chips, fries with it, whatever it might be, and a diet coke. What's the calories in this? It's going to give you something that's pretty damn accurate. Now all of a sudden you've made the choice of tracking it, you can log it, and again, you're going to retain full control as opposed to saying, fuck it, I don't know what's in that. I'm just going to have whatever I want now based off that and let's go supersi it and YOLO for the rest of the weekend. You're maintaining and retaining control as much as physically possible. That's really, really key. And that stops the whole thing of getting out to fix a slow leak in the tire and slashing it at three. It just doesn't make sense, right, in the approach. So if you're looking to maintain control, if you're looking to have that little bit more caloric control and ultimately dietary control as well, too, um, and keeping weekends in check, it's a really good shout just to pay a little bit of attention to when you're eating out that little bit more and been able to track it mindfully. Um any other top tips, Daniel, that we can administer for people here, kind of give a little bit of insight to how we help clients retaining control across the board with it all.

Make The Meal About People

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, I think like there's a few things I could say that I think you've kind of touched on already, but like like when you give the example of going out for like a coffee day with Ava, is like I actually spoke with a client about this yesterday because the Easter holidays are coming up and you know there's gonna be like a week where she's gonna be spending time with her daughter, and I was saying she was asking for advice, and I was like, plan social meals with your daughter, make it a thing, make it a habit where you actually feel more comfortable going out and eating out with your daughter because a lot of the time people will freak out about these things because they make the food the main, you know, topic of that event. Whereas like you're going out to eat, first of all, because you're meeting somebody or you're meeting a group of people. Like we get together at Christmas like as a celebration. It's not that we get together to celebrate eating, it's that we're celebrating family, we're spending time with each other. Like a birthday celebration is ultimately a celebration of that person, it's not because there is a birthday cake present. So, like, food is just secondary to the actual occasion or to the uh celebration itself. So look at the the food more of like kind of like a cherry on top of the iced cake. Like you have to kind of look at the people you're there with first of all, engage in conversation, kind of take in your surroundings. Um, but if you make food, if you make that whole thing the the main you know part of the actual experience, you're gonna find it a huge, huge struggle because you're going to you know kind of feel like it is an all or nothing type approach. And I always say to people, like, if you were to use like your example of putting it into Chat GPT and they'll say, like, but that's not accurate. It's like, but if that is 200 calories off and it still is 200 calories above what it actually is, that's still going to beat you saying, fuck it, being 600 calories over now all of a sudden, and then just continuing the rest of your day in that manner. And now instead of being 200 calories over, you're 2000 calories over. So, like when you weigh up the pros and cons to that, like chat GPT, or even just estimate it your vested ability, and then getting back into control with the rest of your meals is going to win every single day of the week.

Keep Control Over The Weekend

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Yeah, I think that's huge, and there's so much value in that as well, too. And it's like it's understanding there is control there, and once you exercise that ability to maintain control, when you put the primary focus on it's an event that's there for socializing as opposed to purely being comfort with food and whatever, as well too. It's breaking that association that it's all about the food, it's actually about the occasion, it's about the people that are there. It's creating a mindful approach around it as opposed to a mindless approach. Again, allows people to retain control and realize that it's not that big of a deal, it's not that big of a fuck up if they go over a little bit, but they're actually exercising that ability to maintain control. That's a really key factor when it comes to eating out. So a controlled gestimmation, a logging of the food is really key. It's not admitting to your sins, but it's just containing a level of control there as well, too, and that allows that to bleed into the following days as opposed to the opposite, turning it into a negative as well and removing the tracking, getting back onto it the following Monday, whatever it might be. So again, when you can put in that level of control around it all, um, it allows you to keep the ball in your court, which is ultimately the thing that we want to do. Daniel, I think there's been a short, rapid turnaround with this one. It's been nice and fast as it should be. We shouldn't be dwelling on eating out all that much, but I think there's been a lot of tools here that we can give people to maintain the ability to keep some high-level control in as well, too, and allow it not to bleed over into an ongoing event with eating out over the weekend and getting carried away. Um, obviously, there can be more issues around food with people, and obviously, we're not just saying this and crack on and forget about it. It's okay. If there is, make sure that you're diving into that and understanding it a little bit deeper. But for those who are eating out, there is always the ability to maintain control. It is in your hands far more than you may consider with it all. Daniel, it's been a really useful episode. Until the next one.