How to Eat at Nando's and Still Lose Weight

• Grilled chicken and plain sides keep Nando's a solid, sensible meal out.

• Avoid the extras — halloumi, extra sauce, sides — they add up fast.

• One Nando's trip will not wreck your progress if you order with your head.

Nando's is not the problem. Grilled chicken is one of the better things you can order when you're trying to lose weight. The issue is almost never the chicken — it's the peri-peri chips, the garlic bread, the extra halloumi, and the two refill drinks you had because the queue took twenty minutes. The baseline meal at Nando's is genuinely fine. A chicken breast or thigh fillet, grilled, with a simple side, is a high-protein, reasonably balanced plate. You are not being virtuous by eating it, and you are not being reckless. You are just having lunch. The goal of this guide is to help you make a decision you feel good about tomorrow morning, not to turn a chicken restaurant into a maths exam.

Start with the chicken. A butterfly chicken breast or a half chicken is your best move — plenty of protein, grilled not fried, and filling enough that you won't be starving again by four o'clock. The thigh fillet is fine too. Avoid the boneless thighs in the wrap or pitta if you're watching portion size — the bread adds a lot without adding much fullness. For sides, the macho peas or the corn on the cob are your friends. The mixed leaf salad works if you don't drown it in dressing. The peri-peri chips are genuinely good, and a small portion once in a while is not going to end your progress — but they are easy to share or swap out if you're trying to be consistent right now. Skip the garlic bread. It's not worth it. The sauces at the table are low-calorie on their own, so use them freely. The creamy extras — the perinaise especially — are the ones to be careful with.

The refill drinks. This is the one most people don't clock. If you're having two or three glasses of Coke or Fanta over a long Nando's sit-down, that's a significant amount of sugar, and it doesn't register as food in the way that the chicken does. Swap to water, sparkling water, or a diet option. Nobody is watching you. The starters are the other trap. Halloumi sticks, spicy mixed olives, bottomless frozen yogurt — they're all small on their own and large when you add them up. If you're going with family or colleagues and everyone orders starters, you don't have to be the one who refuses. Just don't order your own, and have a couple of bites from the table. That's a reasonable middle ground. The puddings at Nando's are a treat, not a habit. The frozen yogurt bottomless option, in particular, is the kind of thing that sounds healthy and isn't. Have it occasionally if you enjoy it, but don't tell yourself it's the sensible choice.

Nando's is a useful restaurant to have in your regular rotation because it's predictable. The menu doesn't change much. You can decide what you're having before you even get there, which removes the moment of weakness when you're tired and hungry and the chips smell amazing. If you're trying to build consistent habits, restaurants that are easy to navigate are genuinely helpful. You're less likely to have a night where you throw everything out of the window because you had a decent plan. One practical thing: if you're going after a long shift or after the school run and you're properly hungry, eat something small before you go. A piece of fruit, a handful of nuts, anything. Walking into Nando's starving is when the garlic bread appears in your hand without you quite knowing how. Motivaite is built around this kind of decision — not perfection, just consistency. One good choice at a time. Nando's can be one of those good choices, most weeks, without any guilt attached to it.

Grilled chicken is one of the better options you'll find on a high street. The base meal — chicken, a plain side, water — is genuinely solid. Where it goes wrong is the extras: the garlic bread, the creamy sauces, the refill drinks. People convince themselves those are free because the chicken was 'healthy'. They're not free. Order the chicken well, keep the sides simple, and Nando's holds up fine as a regular meal out.

You don't have to make it a thing. Order what works for you, eat it, enjoy the company. Nobody at the table is paying that much attention to what's on your plate. If there are shared starters, have a bit and move on. The goal is to not feel like you've ruined everything when you get home — and one sensible main with a couple of bites of someone else's halloumi is nowhere near ruining anything.

Yes. The chips at Nando's are good and a portion of them alongside your chicken is a normal meal. If you're at a stage where you're being consistent and trying to build momentum, swapping them for macho peas or corn saves you something. But if the chips are the reason you're happy to go and you'd resent skipping them, have the chips. Resentment is bad for consistency. One portion of chips with grilled chicken is not the reason progress stalls.