Losing Weight at Nando's: What to Order

• Chicken is the right call — it's the sides and sauces that cause damage.

• Swap chips for corn or a salad and you've already made a solid choice.

• A half chicken with two sensible sides is a genuinely decent meal out.

Order grilled chicken, pick two sensible sides, and go easy on the extras. That's it. Nando's is actually one of the more straightforward restaurants to navigate when you're trying to lose weight, because the main event — peri-peri chicken — is grilled, high in protein, and not drowning in a cream sauce. The problem is never the chicken. It's the bottomless frozen yogurt, the halloumi starter, the garlic bread, and the second portion of chips that someone on the table orders and suddenly you're sharing. The food itself is fine. The occasion is where things slide.

A butterfly chicken breast or a half chicken are both solid choices. Thighs and wings are fine too — don't overthink the cut. For sides, corn on the cob and a garden salad are the ones that won't quietly double your meal. Macho peas are decent. The rainbow slaw is reasonable in a small portion. Avoid the chips and the spicy rice if you're trying to keep the meal lighter — not because carbs are the enemy, but because both portions are generous and they stack up fast alongside a full chicken. The peri-peri drizzle and the sauces on the table are low-calorie condiments used in small amounts, so don't panic about a bit of sauce. It's the garlic bread and the side of halloumi on top of everything else that push a manageable meal into a blow-out. If you want one indulgent side, have it — just pick one, not three.

The frozen yogurt machine. That's the one people forget to mention. It feels virtuous because it says yogurt, but most people fill the cup, top it with everything on the counter, and go back twice. If you're going, either skip it or treat it as your one treat and don't pretend it's a free food. The starters are the other trap. Halloumi, chicken livers, and the garlic bread are all fine foods — but you're eating them before a full chicken main, not instead of one. A starter plus a main plus a frozen yogurt is a much bigger meal than it feels like in a noisy restaurant with your friends. The other thing worth knowing: the sauces vary a lot. Lemon and herb is lighter. Extra hot is still just a chilli sauce. Neither is the issue. The issue is the garlic butter basting they offer on the chicken — worth skipping if you're paying attention.

You're probably there with people who aren't thinking about this at all, which is how it should be. You don't need to announce anything or make it awkward. Just order what you've decided before you sit down — if you already know you're having a butterfly chicken, corn, and a salad, there's nothing to deliberate over when everyone else is ordering garlic bread. The menu is online. Look at it beforehand. That thirty seconds of planning removes the pressure of making a good decision while someone is talking across you and the waiter is waiting. If someone orders chips for the table, have a few and move on. Rigidity isn't the goal here. A Nando's with your mates is one meal. What you do the rest of the week matters far more than whether you had four chips off someone else's plate. The point is to go, enjoy it, and not feel like you've thrown everything away — because with a decent order, you haven't.

Grilled chicken is a high-protein, relatively lean main course. The peri-peri marinade is mostly chilli, vinegar, and spices — it's not a heavy sauce. So yes, as restaurant meals go, it's a reasonable choice. What you add around it determines how the overall meal stacks up.

If you're eating well most of the time and you order sensibly when you go, there's no reason Nando's has to be a problem. No single meal decides your progress. The issue is treating every meal out as an exception, because exceptions that happen three times a week aren't exceptions any more.

You don't have to explain yourself or make a thing of it. Order what you want, eat it, join in the conversation. Nobody is watching what's on your plate as closely as you think they are. If it comes up, 'I'm just not that hungry tonight' ends the topic without a seminar.