Tavernas, the festive season and eating out. How to fit them into your week

When you eat out, you don’t know how much oil, cheese and bread is in the dish. Over the festive season, meals like these pile up within a few days. The numbers that follow show what holds true and where you need to take care.

How many calories a meal out has

In the US, restaurant meals have been measured in the laboratory. In the UK, the studies used the calories that chains state on their menus.

In the study on starters and desserts, drinks were not counted. We found no published measurements for Greek tavernas, so we don’t know whether their meals are bigger or smaller. In the app, when you log a meal out without any other information, we estimate 1,000 to 1,500 kcal. This is an estimate based on the measurements above.

Studies that follow people for years show that people who eat out often tend to weigh more. In a 2012 review, 7 of the 8 studies of this kind found this link. It is an association, and it does not prove that eating out is to blame.

Taverna dishes in numbers

The table shows dishes from the app that resemble taverna orders. They are our own recipes, with measured oil and grilled rather than fried food, so the same dish in a taverna may have more calories. There are no measurements to confirm this.

Horiatiki is often seen as a light option. With 50 g of feta, 2 teaspoons of oil and 2 slices of bread, it reaches 465 kcal. It also has 2.2 g of salt, almost half of the 5 g recommended for the whole day. The fish with greens and the fava have similar calories with much less salt.

The small things that add up

In a taverna, calories go up mainly through what is put on the table for everyone.

• Olive oil: each tablespoon has about 124 kcal. A salad with three tablespoons of oil instead of two teaspoons has about 290 kcal more.
• Bread: a 30 g slice of white bread has about 86 kcal. A basket with 4 slices, for example, is about 340.
• Feta: 50 g has 142 kcal. A large 100 g piece on top of a salad, for example, has 284.
• Souvlaki pitta: about 212 kcal each.
• Tzatziki: two tablespoons have about 56 kcal.
• Fried food: chips have 258 kcal per 100 g and fried squid 173, according to the Ciqual database. Boiled potatoes have 81.

A 2015 Cochrane review found that larger portions, packages and plates make people eat more. The finding is fairly certain. In a taverna, this means that the platters in the middle of the table and the constant ‘have some of this too’ count. The same goes for drinks. In experiments, people who drank alcohol with their food ate slightly more (see the article on alcohol).

How much weight we gain over the festive season

• In a US study in 2000, 195 adults gained on average 0.37 kg from mid-November to mid-January. By spring they had not lost it.
• Reviews give an average of 0.4 to 0.9 kg over the festive period. People who already carry extra weight usually gain more.
• In a European study of more than 1,000 people who were trying to maintain their weight, weight rose by 1.35% at Christmas and did not fully come down in the following months.

The festive kilo is small, but it often stays and adds to the next one. The evidence is fairly certain, because many studies find the same.

Weighing yourself the morning after a big meal

If you weigh yourself the morning after a big meal and see 1.5 kg more, most of it is water, salt and carbohydrate stored in your muscles. One kilo of fat takes about 7,700 kcal more than you use. Even a 2,000 kcal meal is about a quarter of that. That is why the app shows the 7-day average as the main number. More in the article on plateaus and weighing.

What helps

Weighing and a plan before the festive season. In a randomised study in the UK in 2018, 272 adults were split into two groups before Christmas. One group weighed themselves regularly, recorded their weight and received tips for the festive season. The other group received only a leaflet. At the end of the festive season, the weight change in the first group was on average half a kilo smaller than in the second. It is one study and it lasted a few weeks, so the result is of low certainty.

‘If… then…’ plans. You decide in advance what you will do at a specific moment. For example, ‘If chips arrive for everyone, then I put a few on my plate and eat the salad first.’ In an analysis of 23 studies, these plans helped a little with eating more healthily. The finding is of low certainty. They helped more with adding something good than with cutting something out.

Calories on the menu. Where the menu shows calories, people may choose about 47 kcal less per meal. The finding is of low certainty. If the menu does not show calories, the numbers in the table above help you make an estimate.

A few ideas for the table, based on the numbers in this article:

• Choose one main dish with protein, such as fish, skewers or pulses, and put the meze on your plate once.
• Ask for the salad with little oil, or add the oil yourself.
• Decide in advance how many slices of bread you will eat.
• If you are going to drink, count the drinks in your plan too.

The next day

Carry on with your normal plan. Don’t ‘skip’ meals to make up for it. The UK study helped through weighing and planning, without deprivation. In MesogeaFit you can set one free meal a week, on any day you like, and talk it through with your advisor before or after.

Take extra care if your doctor has told you to cut down on salt. Dishes like horiatiki and octopus in vinegar with bread give about half the day’s salt in one meal, or more. If you have or have had an eating disorder, talk to your doctor or psychologist about how to handle festive meals.