Are you dining out, or dining in? No matter where you choose to eat, don’t let hidden calories ruin your attempt at losing weight. Everyone knows that a bucket of fried chicken is not the best choice when they’re trying to achieve a healthy weight…however, would you suspect a dish called "Crispy Calamari & Veggies"? Likely not. Seafood has a reputation for being ‘better for you’ than something like beef, and hey, it said ‘veggies’ right? It’s time to take a second look at choices which may seem healthy but are really calorie-loaded.

This isn’t some article that just talks about the problem either, if you’re trying to lose weight you know there already IS a problem. What you want are solutions and EASY KEYS to help you detect which dish may be a hidden calorie bomb waiting to strike at your thighs. You can’t tell ‘just by reading’ the dish name either, even professional dietitians will still choose the wrong dish if they’re shown the name…and sometimes even the photo too!

First, you need to know the baseline of calories for your day. For an average adult, that’s about 2,000. That’ll keep you energetic, running smoothly, and not gaining weight or losing it. Some people may need more, and others may need less. Only a doctor can tell you the exact right amount for you. You burn energy all day long in your usual activities and that needs fuel no matter what. The recommended amount of fat is around 70 grams. There are some foods on some menus which may give you over 2/3 of your daily calories in just one appetizer! (and that’s not counting drinks or the main meal—what if you wanted dessert too?)

It isn’t about only eating salads or ‘nasty bland foods’ either. You don’t have to stop eating at your favorite restaurants. There are many super tasting choices out there waiting to be discovered. Some surprisingly low calorie dishes may even be on your list of likes already. First, let’s take a look at some calorie loaded dishes that hide behind healthy names:

Chicken Ranch Taco Salad – 960 calories with 57 grams of fat

That’s over half your daily fat requirement, and nearly half your day’s calories all in 1 little salad

Crispy Calamari & Veggies – 1,520 calories with 98 grams of fat

That’s over your daily fat requirement in just 1 appetizer and well over half your calories for the day

A triple whopper at Burger King only has 1130 calories…

Southern Fried Chicken Salad- 1,100 calories and 68 grams of fat

Better not eat any more fat grams that day…

You might be tempted to select one of them by its name, instead of something else which you might prefer…but that has a bad rap. What about these foods with the bad reputation then, let’s see how they stack up against the list above.

Full rack baby-back ribs in sauce – 700 calories and 37 grams of fat

Deep fried mozzarella cheese sticks appetizer – 340 calories and 20 grams of fat

6 inch roast beef sub – 310 calories and 4.5 grams of fat

See how tricky that is? You would think a salad would be better than a whole rack of ribs, but calorie wise, it’s really not. Even deep fried cheese can’t out-do the calorie count of supposedly healthy sea-food.

Now that you know what kinds of foods extra calories can hide in, what are some give-aways that you can look for to spot these before you decide to eat?

Cream Sauce – Usually found on Italian style dishes like chicken, noodles and sometimes seafood. It’s packed with calories and fat. It can "wreck" the healthiness of even lean meats or seafood when dumped all over the dish.

Breaded/Fried – The cheese sticks are an exception to the rule. Even if it says ‘salad’ if it’s covered in fried anything, it’s usually not a good idea. This includes things with bacon, bacon sauce, and other bacon-derived food items.

Creamy Dressing – Sneaks calories into salads. Don’t want to go with a ‘lite’ dressing? See the tip in the very next paragraph for your tasty solution!

Milk-based items – Macchiato coffees, milk shakes, ice-cream based ‘frosties’. A lot of times, high-fat milk must be used to achieve the flavor everyone craves. Couple that with high doses of sugar and you’ve got a problem. One regular coffee could have 220 calories, and a 21 oz. Milk shake could have 770.

Cheese sauce—If it needs cheese all over it, you might want to skip it. Even if it’s broccoli! Broccoli may be healthy, but smothering it in cheese still raises the calories. A slice of cheese or a cheese stick may not be too bad but sauces are often mixed with high fat milk, or even fatty oils to keep them liquid.

Odd little culprits – Whole dates, raisins (the fruit, dried) dishes with loads of nuts, such as pecan pies. Some nuts in a day provide healthy fats but it’s possible to over-do it. Ricotta cheese: if you’re dining out they’ll never use the ‘lite’ version and this cheese can creep into many dishes without you knowing its throwing fat around.

Soft Drinks & Smoothies – You don’t think about drinking your calories, but they’re in these delicious beverages. Any fruit smoothie has ALL OF the calories of the original fruits that went into it. Blenders don’t remove calories, but this fact is often overlooked. Soft drinks (sodas, ‘fruit’ juices from concentrate etc) are usually high in sugar and are a sneaky way to get in more calories.

Armed with this list, you’ll know some of what to look out for at home when selecting food to prepare, and while dining out. But what if you’d still like to have some of the things on the list? There’s a great way to use some items in moderation, without losing out on the flavor you love. After all, it’s better to have some, then to allow a craving to build up into a pig-out. Plus, when the amount looks and tastes like how much you want it’s no real loss—except for the calories.

If you enjoy the flavor of creamy dressings for example, there’s no need to go with the less-tasty ‘lite’ versions when you use chia seeds. What are chia seeds? They’re a tiny seed with no flavor. Each seed is full of nutrients, but it also has a very unique property. When exposed to water or other liquids they form a gel. This gel has the ability to distribute (never dilute) the flavor of other foods.

How can you put them to work for you?

With chia gel on hand, if you mix it into higher-calorie sauces like certain BBQ sauce, creamy salad dressings, and even smoothies…they TASTE the same, but you only need HALF as much! It cuts the calories in half because you’re essentially cutting with water (water is 0 calorie) but the tasteless seeds are giving the flavors a boost so you don’t miss out. Try them in anything you want to cut down on, but not miss out on.

Even more benefits?

Absolutely. Fruit smoothies are healthy, but will pack in calories if you drink too much. When you add chia you don’t change the taste of the smoothie, but it fills you up faster so you won’t want as much. That’s because the body treats chia gel like a solid piece of food. Chia fools the stomach into thinking it’s full, when really the gel is just water. It works so well because every seed absorbs 9x its own weight in water and turns it into gel.

The seeds themselves are packed with health benefits for you too, like fiber, omega-3 oil, vitamins, minerals and even complete protein. (complete protein is what you find in meat) So not only can you get full faster on less food, but you can boost the nutrition of almost any food when you add chia seeds or chia gel to it.

With this information on your side you’ll know more of what to stay away from when trying to cut calories, and you can also see your way around dishes with tricky titles that may be hiding the fat behind a healthy name. Plus, when you want to enjoy food but get full on less, you can always reach for the chia seeds.