How To Eat At Social Events Still Lose Weight
Follow these simple rules to eat what you want at social events.
Social events are a major pitfall of losing weight. Work events, family parties, anniversaries, family trips, and sports gatherings are just a few of the social gatherings people participate in regularly. When planning our health and fitness goals, spending time with other people is a part of our lives that we cannot ignore.
Why?
Because many, if not most, social events have food. Think of how we incorporate food into these events: potlucks, bbq’s, pizza nights, Superbowl snacks, and the list goes on.
We love food and we also love to share it and experience it with others. It’s a fact of life you should accept unless you want to be the person that brings there own food to a party. No judgement if you do, but 99.9% of people don’t do this and won’t do this long term.
So how do you eat at social events and not get fat?
Follow these simple steps:
Table of Contents
1. Portion Control
Eat what you want, but portion control the meal. If you find yourself going back for seconds, stop and ask yourself if you are actually hungry. It’s easy to overeat when you’re enjoying delicious food, but try your best to contain the urge to keep eating. Just because the food is there doesn’t mean you have to eat it.
Portion control is a tried and true method to dial in your food intake. It can be used not only at social events but also while in the comfort of your own home, with your own food, without the party.
2. More Volume Less Calories
When choosing the foods to fill your plate, still pick the foods you love but make this one small tweak: Fill your plate with higher volume foods. This is going to make a huge difference in the nutritional outcome of your meal. When you eat foods that are higher in volume (aka foods that physically take up a lot of space but are lower in calories), you naturally reduce the number of calories you consume without the sacrifice.
Eating healthier isn’t about sticking to salads for every meal, but about find the right balance of foods that gets results.
3. Hydrate First
Depending on the party you might have a plethora of different drinks: sodas, lemonade, iced tea, beer, hard liquor, etc. If you enjoy a drink with some flavor, go for it!
But follow this one rule: HYDRATE FIRST.
Before “quenching your thirst,” actually quench your thirst by drinking a couple glasses a water. Drinking your calories is an extremely easy way to gain weight, but you can help curb that outcome by hydrating your body. The only reason we need to drink fluids is to hydrate, so fulfill what the body needs. Then feel free to drink for enjoyment.
When you put what you need in front of what you want, good things happen.
If these tips were helpful in navigating social events, you’ll get a ton of value from our Nutrition Coaching. It’s our nutrition program designed to help you build the body you want with a sustainable way of eating.
