Order food at home? These 5 tips will help you lose weight

Food delivery services via apps have grown vital because to social distancing and the home office. We may be tempted to order cuisine that, while delicious, may not be the healthiest.

How can we make sensible choices and avoid cravings?

While ordering meals at home is absolutely doable, Dr. David Victor, program director for Metabolic Liver Diseases at Houston Methodist Hospital, says it is probably easier to order a bad meal than a good one. These applications don’t include calorie or nutritional information, making it impossible to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy options.

Related: 5 Easy Tips to Avoid Gaining Weight

Try these Houston Methodist Hospital healthy eating tips next time you purchase meals via an app:

1. Choose grilled over fried

Dr. Victor says it’s crucial to resist the impulse to eat fried foods while they’re available. Foods that are fried have more calories, carbs, and fat. In addition to adding extra calories to your diet, eating fried meals adds unhealthy fat to your diet. And if it’s frying oil, which is prevalent in restaurants, it may contain trans fats, which aren’t good.

2. Replace the garnishes

We know it’s difficult, but if you want to order healthy, avoid the delectable mashed potatoes or French fries.

“Instead of fries, choose a non-starchy vegetable like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, or a salad. When in doubt, ask for more veggies. To feel satisfied, you need more plenty and variety,” Dr. Victor explains.

3. There are salads to salads

Salads are a great illustration of how to make a healthy menu item less healthy. Healthy vegetables and lean protein may quickly become a creamy, calorie-dense supper.

It is vital to check a salad’s ingredients. “Dressings can easily add calories,” noted the Houston Methodist expert.

Related: 10 Summer Wellness Ideas for a Healthy Lifestyle

4. The healthy and the unhealthy

Sometimes you just want to let the algorithms do the thinking for you. A “healthy” filter on certain food delivery apps that looks to eliminate obvious unhealthy selections can be deceiving.

Poke dishes, for example, are a mainstay in many healthy home delivery applications. In fact, a single poke dish can easily contain over 1,000 calories.

5. Resist the urge to eat straight from the container

Using a delivery service maintains the same harmful problem as dining out – large servings that exceed your needs.

“Most restaurant servings are for two. To avoid this, remove the meal from the delivery container and place it on a 9-inch dish. “Half of your plate should be vegetables and/or fruits, a quarter protein, and carbs should be around the size of your fist,” said Dr. Victor.