Let's face it - there is not a whole lot of low calorie foods when you visit a restaurant.
Typically, you'll see items that are smothered with cheese, fried in oil, come in enormous portions, and are going to be quite destructible when it comes to your diet program and weight loss progress.
Luckily, if you know some simple tricks on how to choose low calorie foods w hen you eat out, you can maintain a weight loss even when eating out.
Here are the three things that you absolutely need to keep your eye out and avoid at all costs:

• Any food item that has the word 'fried', 'battered', or 'breaded'.
  This will essentially be the chef's way of saying, 'loaded with fat and calories'.
  
• Any menu item that has a sweet and sour or teriyaki sauce.
  The reason for this being that very often, these come with half a cup of more sauce loaded on and these sauces are incredibly high in sugar.
  If you do opt for such a meal, ask to have the sauce on the side and use a modest amount.
  
• Beverages such as soda, juice, 'fruit smoothies', or other blended mixtures.
  Restaurants are famous for piling so many calories into your beverage that it could count as an entire meal itself!

Once you've bypassed these diet problems, then you're already doing fairly well.
Next up is the bread.
Most restaurants will deliver a large bread basket before the meal even arrives.
Avoid this.
While it's tempting to have something to eat until your food gets there, it likely is not going to do much for your weight loss.
Plus, those carbs will just make you hungrier, causing you to potentially eat even more calories once your meal does arrive.
Also be very careful of pasta dishes as this is usually where portion sizes come into play.
Keep in mind that one cup is a typical pasta portion and most restaurants are serving up two to three cups or more.
This same principle goes for rice dishes, or those that are baked in between tortilla shells.
If you ask your server nicely, most restaurants will not have a problem substituting vegetables in for the pasta, but be sure to hold the butter or other sauces that may be on them.
Keep in mind too that French fries are not vegetables! Keep in mind too that you can certainly order a chicken sandwich (or burger - depending on how it's worded) and simply not eat the bun.
Just leave it on the plate and you'll likely save yourself a good two hundred calories right there.
Instead, ask for extra lettuce on the side and transform it into a chicken salad instead.
Now, as one last final piece of advice, if you are going out and know that you are going to be eating a big meal, particularly one that is carbohydrate dense, try and make it your post-workout meal.
At this point you actually need those carbs, so they will work nicely with the body, rather than getting stored as body fat.
So, next time you're eating out, be sure you keep these important tips in mind.
If you don't watch what you order at restaurants, it definitely can put a big dent in your weight loss progress.