Eating out: make the right choices

For your main course, select a grilled meat instead of a curry, and you will avoid the calorie-rich sauce, especially if it's a cream based one. An average portion of chicken tikka, for example, has 15g fat compared with chicken dhansak which has 30g. The added bonus is that a grilled dish usually also comes with a salad, which means you'll boost your fibre intake and help notch up your daily vegetable intake slightly.

Don't forget that sharing your dishes with friends or making a conscious effort not to polish off everything on your plate is an easy way to reduce your fat and calorie intake.

A meal containing crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, sweet and sour pork and egg fried rice will set you back a whopping 87g fat and 1708 calories. Making some clever swaps, such as having beef with green peppers, boiled rice and chicken and sweetcorn soup, will again help you reduce your fat and calorie intake to as little as 25g fat and 740 calories. This is because lean beef is lower in fat than duck, which has been deep fried, and the soup, also low in fat, will fill you up.

Next page: Mexican, Thai and Italian meals