Sticking with the plan when eating out. Easier said than done, but these are my go-to strategies:
High/ low days: For those who eat out regularly at the weekend or prefer more flexibility on certain days high/low calorie strategy can be more enjoyable.
There are no metabolic advantages to high/ low days, they are purely to help with dietary adherence.
Simply decide/ calculate where you would like your calorie deficit to be, work out total calories for the week, then split these over the 7 days.
Loosely this can translate to having one or two higher calorie days (higher than the calorie deficit you decided upon), and 5-6 lower calorie days (lower than the calorie deficit) that average out to the deficit you decided upon over the course of the week.
I don’t think high/low days are appropriate for those with a history of or troubled relationship with food or binge eating.
Pre-meal snack: useful for those on a set daily calorie budget. Choosing to have a satiating snack before going out that’s high in protein and fibre will likely lead to eating less when out at the restaurant.
Similar meal comp. to goals: Aiming to choose a meal out that has a similar macro composition to the daily goals you are aiming for can be helpful. A bit of experience with macro tracking and learning what foods are made up of will be needed to do this.
Choosing more simple meals can be a help here, or opting for similar things to what you would usually eat at home.
Research & estimate: Most restaurants share their menu online so you can plan ahead, choose what you’d like to have then work your daily macros around that meal. Chain restaurant meal info can often be found in the myfitnesspal app.
Alternatively with some practice it’s possible to estimate the calories and macros of the portion sizes you are given at a restaurant as track these via generic food items in the app.
Hope you found these useful.