Summer Barbecue Choices For Your Weight Loss Success

Meat, salad and veggies are the most common barbecue ingredients. What’s unhealthy about that?

Well, not a lot really, but they’re not the issue for most folks at a barbecue – it’s all those add-ons that turn a barbecue from pretty much the perfect weight loss meal into a veritable feast of calorie-laden goodies that can wreck weeks of progress and leave you feeling bloated and sluggish, not to mention really guilty, for days on end.

First things first, let’s identify those sneaky BBQ foods that are the main culprits in turning your calorie intake at a barbecue from a nice healthy number to something that rivals the combined IQ of the members of Mensa.

Summer Barbecues – The Worst Offenders

Bread

Despite what you may have heard from the Paleolithic dieters, or the anti-wheat crowd, bread isn’t all bad. It might make you feel a little bloated, in which case you should probably avoid it, but bread itself isn’t the sole cause of the obesity epidemic. It’s relatively low in calories, contains protein and fiber if you go for wholewheat or wholegrain, and isn’t all bad.

The trouble is the amount you eat at a barbecue.

You get there and there’s bread on offer, so you take a few slices. Sitting at the table you help yourself to a couple more. Along comes the meat, and there's of course a bun to accompany your burger, a roll for your hotdog and maybe some more bread to snack on while waiting for dessert.

All of a sudden, you’ve consumed three days worth of carbs just from bread! Bread is good. A lot of bread is very bad.

Pasta and Potato Salads

Salads = good.

Pasta and potatoes = not so much.

Like bread, we can’t demonize these individual foods, but adding a starchy carb like pasta or potatoes to a salad really cranks up the calorie content.

Dressings

Dressings are a big issue, as there’s so much variation in what you can choose, and something seemingly healthy can turn out to be a really bad choice.

Anything particularly sweet, such as ketchup, honey mustard, sticky meat glazes, sweet chilli sauce and dipping sauces are generally no-go condiments. They are rammed full of sugar and let’s face it, you never have just a small serving of sauce.

If you simply live for sauces and dressings, there's an easy answer. Make your own. The commercially made ones are packed full of calories and unhealthy ingredients. The ones you make yourself can, if you do it right, be healthier, lower in calories, tastier, and cheaper all in one. Not sure how? Don't just experiment. Google it.

And if there’s some left over, along comes another piece of bread to mop it up.

You also want to avoid meat cooked in any sugary sauces.

Desserts

It probably goes without saying, but most desserts are pretty bad choices when losing weight.

Weight loss does come down to calories in versus calories out at a basic level, so there is an argument for including small portions of dessert in your daily diet, which you can’t argue with. But it again comes down to portion sizes and what you’ve eaten the rest of the meal.

If you’ve been fairly restrained in your food choices and can stop at just one serving of dessert or piece of cake and fit them in to your daily calorie, carb and fat allowance, more power to you. Unfortunately though, most folks just don’t have the willpower to do this, so you’re best off giving the high-sugar, high-fat desserts a miss.

Barbecues – The Best Choices

You now know what to avoid. Pretty simple really – anything high in calories, or packing in the fat, sugar and carbs is a pretty poor option. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying summer barbecues; there are still plenty of fantastically healthy options that aren’t even just a case of damage limitation foods, but will actually be beneficial in your weight loss quest.

Meat

Meat gets a bad rap, mostly due to its fat content, but it’s not all doom and gloom.

Avoid really fatty meats like lamb, cheap sausages or prime rib, and opt instead for lean steak, good quality beef sausages and chicken or turkey. Rather than chomping away at one tough piece of meat after another, marinate your meat in a weight loss-friendly way.

Place a few pieces in a large Ziploc bag and pour in a little Worcester sauce, hot chilli sauce, soy sauce of tomato paste a few hours before cooking and leave it to wait for the flavors to infuse. When you’re good to grill, take the meat out and whack it on the barbecue and you’ll have moist, tasty meat without needing to add hundreds of calories from additive-ridden, sugar-laced sauces.

Fish

Meat might be king at a barbecue, but fish can sometimes take center stage.

Meatier fish such as swordfish, salmon and tuna steaks work best for barbecuing, and you can either place them straight on the grill, or wrap them in foil. When doing this, add some spices, lemon juice and various veggies so you get a whole package of great tasting protein and vegetables.

One huge advantage fish has is that you get the heart-healthy omega-3 fats that it contains as well as a powerful protein punch. Plus, the calorie content tends to be lower.

Vegetables

Barbecued veggies might sound mad, but they really do work!

Obviously not every type of vegetable is going to taste good on a grill, but corn on the cob, sliced zucchini, egg plant, mushrooms, asparagus and sliced onion all taste amazing. So do tomatoes, grilled for just a short while.

Rub the veggies you choose with a little olive oil or spray with a light cooking spray to stop them from burning and keep an eye on them while they cook to make sure you don’t overdo them and let them go mushy. Add some spices if you must. Onions with some garam masala can, for instance, add a nice Indian accent to your BBQ experience.

Baked potatoes and sweet potatoes are a little carbier, but are a better choice than bread. Do these in foil, the same way as the fish parcels. Sweet potatoes can be served savory or sweet as well. If you go for the sweet version, add some sweetener, cinnamon or a tiny drizzle of real maple syrup while they’re cooking.

Salad

Anything green or brightly colored should be on the top of your list here. High in vitamins, minerals, nutrients and fiber, but low in sugar and calories, salad, plus the above barbecued veggies are your BBQ secret to staying full and not gorging on those foods you know you’re better off avoiding.

Desserts

Yep, desserts can be healthy. Barbecued bananas and pineapple with real Greek yogurt is simply awesome. Throw a little desiccated coconut into the mix and you’re on to a winner.

There you have it – this summer’s winners and losers at the barbecue awards.