How cooking at home can help you lose weight

Successfully losing weight while often eating food from restaurants is possible, but it can definitely make things a bit trickier. That’s because “home-cooked meals tend to be lower in calories, added sugar, and sodium compared to restaurant meals,” says Julie Upton, R.D., a registered dietitian and co-founder of the nutrition news company Appetite for Health in San Francisco. Here’s how cooking at home can be better for your health and budget.

We know restaurants tend to serve big portions — and seeing that on your plate subtly influences you to eat more than you intend. Meanwhile, “when you cook at home, you can portion out your food ahead of time,” says Elizabeth Shaw, RDN, a registered dietitian based in San Diego and author of the Air Fryer Cookbook for Dummies.

After finishing your plate and waiting a few minutes, if you’re truly still hungry, you can always go back for a little more, and you’re likely still eating less (and more mindfully) than if you get a huge portion and automatically clean your plate.

One of the main reasons restaurant meals and packaged foods are so delicious is that they often contain far more salt than the same food made from scratch, which can negatively impact heart health and blood pressure. (An order of Ma Po Tofu from a national chain has 2,700 milligrams sodium, which is nearly double the American Heart Association’s ideal daily sodium limit for most adults, especially for those with high blood pressure.) To cut down on salt but punch up the flavor, WW’s head of recipe and food content Sherry Rujikarn has a few tips:

• Squeeze on citrus juice or grate the zest. Limes are great in southeast Asian and Mexican cuisines, while lemons can go with more European flavors.

• Liven it up with vinegar. It brings brightness and depth of flavor to roasted meat, cooked veggies, and grains.

• Sprinkle on a little spice. “Cumin works on anything Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, or South American; oregano is great for Greek and Italian food; and garlic powder is good on everything,” says Rujikarn.

By changing the way a favorite restaurant dish is typically prepared, you can get similar flavor with much less fat. For example, compared to normal deep-fat frying, which uses a vat of oil to heat foods, “an air fryer gets that restaurant-quality fried food texture for nearly 70% less fat,” says Shaw. Or if you don’t have an air fryer, try grilling, pressure cooking in an Instant Pot, roasting at high heat in the oven, or sauteeing, roasting, or searing in a cast iron pan — all of which can offer great taste and texture without a lot of fat.

Learn more about healthy vs. unhealthy fats

“If you order something at a restaurant, you may only have one or two vegetables in your sandwich, omelet, or burrito. But if you make the same dish at home, you could add lots more vegetables,” says Roxana Ehsani, M.S., R.D., a registered dietitian in Miami and a national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Other easy swaps to boost the nutritional value of a meal when you’re cooking at home include:

• Use whole grain bread and pasta to increase fiber

• Rather than fatty meats, start with lean protein sources like chicken breast and black beans to keep calories and saturated fat in check

• For desserts, try recipes that don’t contain a large amount of sugar and use applesauce, pumpkin purée, or bananas instead for natural sweetness.

Learn more about easy ways to eat more vegetables

Takeout and restaurant meals can be expensive. And while grocery bills keep climbing, the more meals you make at home, the easier it becomes to embrace cost-cutting strategies. Buy foods in bulk to stock up on long-lasting, affordable staples such as nuts and grains, and frozen or canned produce. They are just as nutritious as fresh — if not more, since they’re preserved at peak ripeness; when meats you like are on sale, stock up and freeze them.