Social swaps ….

Social swaps …. 🍕

If you’re trying to lose fat/weight or just improve your nutrition then social meals out can be tricky to navigate. It’s really important to find ways to incorporate social events and all the foods you enjoy but to find ways to do this that still fit within your lifestyle and goals.

Nutrition and fat loss is always a game of trade offs. Rather than being all or nothing about it try to go for a trade off instead. Meals out, such as Pizza in this example, tend to have a high degree of taste appeal, and calorie density, whilst also often being low in fibre. That means it’s easy to eat a lot, and in doing so, a consume a lot of calories. This is amplified further by the environment – when you’re socialising you’re often relaxing and an indulgent atmosphere is fostered – this also means there’s a tendency to overeat.

No pizza is going to be low calorie per se – they’re usually fairly large, they’re bread based, with cheese, veg and often meat on top so you’re always going to be looking at a fair few hundred cals. However many are well over 1000 cals. If you’re trying to lose weight and tracking calories then it’s hard to accommodate that many calories for one meal. So instead of going for a pizza to yourself consider either sharing or having half a pizza and a side salad, or if they do it go for the ‘skinny’ options some chain restaurants offer which include salad with a smaller amount of pizza. You’re still going to be looking at 700 plus cals for many flavours – but that’s still a calorie saving, without massively impacting taste or enjoyment! And as a bonus it won’t leave you feeling over stuffed.

By making small swaps and compromises your social occasions can easily fit into your lifestyle long term. I guarantee you’ll feel just as satisfied and you’ll probably feel a lot less guilty the day after (not that I’m suggesting you should ever subject yourself to guilt for what you eat but the reality is most of us do feel that way). So if you’re trying to lose weight just consider looking for some of these lower calorie options of your favourites!

Enjoy!

🤗

Xx