Restaurant Dinner Diet Secrets

RWhen you eat dinner at a restaurant, it's easy to eat more than 1,500 or 2,000 calories at one sitting. Yikes! That's a full day's worth of calories.

Pre-dinner bread & butter: 200 calories
Pre-dinner cocktail: 150 calories

Appetizer: potentially a 500-1,500 calorie bomb

Steak: 300-500 calories
Potato: 150-300 calories
Vegetable: 100 calories
Beverage: 150 calories

Dessert: 300-750 calories
After-dinner drink: 150 calories

And that's only if you control yourself. If you go on a feeding frenzy, you could be looking at 2,500 or even 3,000 calories. Those numbers are scary.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid this dietary nightmare while dining out. Here are five guidelines for cutting 1,000 calories from your restaurant meals...

1. Plan ahead and avoid restaurants that serve huge portions. (Cheesecake Factory and Outback Steakhouse, for example.)

2. Skip the bread. Eating it won't stop you from eating your full meal too, so just send it back.

3. Don't order booze or liquid calories of any type.

4. Avoid potatoes. Stick to your protein and your vegetables.

5. Reward yourself with only the tiniest bit of dessert, if any.

It's all about taking responsibility for your choices.