5 restaurant menu swaps for easy weight loss

Even if you try your hardest to eat well while dining out, the cards can be stacked against you. Portion sizes have ballooned in the past thirty years, and restaurants use every trick in the book to sell you seemingly “healthy” foods that just don’t live up to the hype. The brand new, up-to-date "Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide" will help you navigate the country’s most popular restaurants and fast food chains, making your New Year’s weight loss goal so easy — with no dieting necessary!

For a quick peek at what’s lining the pages of this must-have book, check out these five mega meals from some of your favorite restaurants — and the equally delicious and much lower-calorie alternatives that you should choose instead. Make swaps like these every day, and you’ll be shedding pounds in no time!

Mega-Meal #1:Applebee’s Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl
1880 calories
13 g saturated fat
4250 mg sodium

Restaurant survival rule of thumb: Lunch bowls tend to run way too deep. Case in point: This Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl from Applebee’s. There are as many calories in this simple lunch bowl as you’ll find in 8 slices of hand-tossed pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut, and it comes with nearly twice your daily allowance of sodium. Much of the blame goes to the chicken itself: “Crispy orange” indicates fried chicken bathed in a super-sweetened, high-calorie sauce. If it’s a chicken lunch you’re looking for, choose the Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich instead, and save over a day’s worth of sodium and 1,350 calories.

Eat This Instead: Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich
530 calories
3.5 G saturated fat
1,500 mg sodium
  
Mega-Meal #2:Cheesecake Factory Grilled Chicken and Avocado Club
1,752 calories
28 g saturated fat
2,309 mg sodium

The Cheesecake Factory is home to a jaw-dropping number of dishes that serve up well over 1,000 calories in one sitting. They argue that their meals are meant to be split between multiple people, but how many people really split their sandwiches? This sub comes packed with two of the healthiest sources of protein you can eat: Grilled Chicken and Avocado. Unfortunately, it’s bursting with fatty sauces and a hulk of carbohydrate-heavy bread, meaning that it’s packing as much sodium as 5 Volcano Tacos from Taco Bell, and nearly a full day’s worth of calories. In this case, stick with a burger — the Factory Burger is a Cheesecake Factory classic, and deserving of that status.
  
Eat This Instead: Factory Burger
737 calories
16 g saturated fat
1018 mg sodium

Mega-Meal #3: IHOP Garden Omelette
1030 calories
20.5 g saturated fat
1230 mg sodium

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, and eggs tend to be your smartest choice. But just because this omelette says it’s from a “garden” does not mean it’s good for you. It gobbles up half a day’s worth of calories — about the amount you’d get from eating 11 scoops of IHOP ice cream! When dining at IHOP, choose items from the “For Me” menu. They’re specially crafted to taste just as good as the rest of the menu items, but they ring in at a mere fraction the caloric cost.

Eat This Instead: IHOP Spinach, Mushroom and Tomato Omelette
330 calories
3 g fat
660 mg sodium
  
Mega-Meal #4: Ruby Tuesday’s Avocado Turkey Burger
1130 calories
67 g fat
61 g carbs 10 cities with the most cellulite

Once again, this avocado and turkey creation show that a handful of healthy ingredients do not make a healthy dish. There are as many calories in this beastly burger as you’d eat in 4 Old-Fashioned Cake Donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. If you’re hungry for turkey burger, you’re in luck: Choose the Turkey Burger Wrap over the regular Avocado Turkey Burger, and save over 500 calories!
  
Eat This Instead: Turkey Burger Wrap
551 Calories
19 g fat
44 g carbs
  

Mega-Meal #5: Olive Garden Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli
960 calories
41 g fat (18 g saturated)
2,180 mg sodium

Broccoli is great for you, but not when it comes with this much salt. Too much sodium in your diet can cause your blood pressure to soar — if you’re already at risk of high blood pressure, you’ll want to skip this brackish meal. There is as much sodium in this dish as you’ll find in 10 orders of Large Fries from Five Guys! Don’t skip the chicken at Olive Garden altogether, though. The Venetian Apricot Chicken is a much healthier alternative, with about a third the calories and a tenth the fat.

Eat This Instead: Venetian Apricot Chicken
380 calories
4 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
1420 mg sodium