Saving your calories for dessert - is it worth it?

Have you ever uttered those same words?

"I'm going to save my calories for dessert!"

Said at a restaurant, at Aunt Sally's for Thanksgiving dinner, at home when you just want dessert. Really bad. You decide to not eat much of your dinner, if any at all, and splurge your calories on a dessert. This was illustrated last week on The Biggest Loser when one of the contestants, in a nutrition-eating challenge, chose to do the exact same thing. So, it is worth it? More specifically, what does it do to your body and your efforts to lose weight?

Let's look at it more closely. Let's pretend we are going to O'Charleys for dinner. We order:

1. House salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing
2. Cedar plank salmon with asparagus
3. Ultimate chocolate cake

Here's the breakdown for those:

1. House salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing - 270 calories, 15g fat, 19g carb, 10g protein
2. Cedar plank salmon with asparagus - 610 calories, 38g fat, 6g carb, 59g protein
3. Ultimate chocolate cake - 1080 calories, 59g fat, 151g carb, 12g protein

Total for this meal: 1960 calories, 112g fat, 176g carb, 81g protein

Kind of high, huh? Let's make it lower by just eating 1/2 of the meal:

980 calories, 56g fat, 88g carb, 40g protein

Now, let's take 2 scenarios: One with just salad and entree [eating 1/2 and taking the rest home], and one with just salad and dessert.

1. Salad and entree: 440 calories, 26g fat, 12g carb, 34g protein
2. Salad and dessert: 675 calories, 37g fat, 85g carb, 11g protein

Okay, a couple of red flags:

• Calories increase from 440 to 675
• Fat grams increase from 26 to 37
• Carb grams increase from 12 to 85, big jump
• Protein grams decrease from 34 to 11, big jump

Now, first of all, and please listen when I say this - I DO NOT expect you to count calories and fat and protein and carb grams when you eat out. Really, I don't. It is too time-consuming and too much like Weight Watchers, designed to take your emphasis off the FOOD and put it on a NUMBER. I am simply showing you the differences here so you can compare.

One of the concepts I teach in my Healthy Shopping 101 classes is that it is NOT always about the calories or the grams, but it is about the ingredients as well. What do you think the ingredients are for the salad? Mixed greens, balsalmic dressing. What about the entree? Salmon, asparagus. What about the dessert? Chocolate and sugar and a little bit more sugar. About 114g of sugar - daily recommended amount is 32g.

You cannot just look at the calories, but look at the food. How do you think your body is going to process the first choice? What about the second one? So, did the Biggest Loser contestant make the right choice? Do you make the right choice by skipping entree and saving your calories for dessert?

No. 

It's not the same.

And it's not all about the calories.

I know you want the dessert. You crave it. But, if you are trying to lose weight, it is not the best option for you. Please visit my Facebook fanpage for healthy recipes in the "Notes" section - especially the recipes designed to help your sweet tooth.

It is possible to eat healthy when you eat out! Good luck, friends!