Losing weight can be tough. You want to slim down, but unless you have the stamina to dedicate the next few months to your body its going to be a struggle. Lets face it you’ll also want to maintain a social life, which means cocktails after work and an occasional slice of pizza late at night.There will be days when things don’t go as planned and a cupcake is consumed or a run is skipped.
You may try different diets, calorie counting, or increasing your workouts, but sometimes the lack of weight loss could be due to a hang up you’re not even aware of. Certain food and drinks may be low in calories or fat but aren’t providing any nutrients or energy
These foods sustain you for a moment, before leaving you hungry and looking for something else to consume. When you’re trying to shed weight with long-term results, it’s important to eat real, whole foods. To start, cut the following empty calorie items out of your diet.
1. Diet Soda
Dieters may be apt to slurp down diet soda, and why not? It has zero calories and the carbonation-lovers argue that the carbonation can make you feel full. Turns out that the country’s most obese people actually prefer diet soda and some report that the more diet sodas a person drinks the more weight they’ll gain. Why? The artificial sweeteners that keep diet soda calorie free actually confuse your body since the sweetener is unknown and artificial. When your body doesn’t know how many calories you’ve consumed, it will respond by craving more high-calorie foods.
2. Coffee Creamers
Flavored coffee creamers! Most coffee creamers seem so innocent because they are added to our coffee in small amounts. What we usually don’t realize is that the majority of coffee creamers contain hydrogenated oils, which are trans fats that can actually harm our heart health by lowering our good cholesterol and increasing our bad cholesterol—while providing additional, empty calories. Since this is likely a daily habit, with multiple cups of coffee, the small amounts can add up to a big health risk. Skip the creamer and drink your coffee black to make your diet healthier today.
Salad Dressings make a good nutritious dish just as dangerous as a big mac. I see a lot of people ruin a perfectly good meal by slathering on heaps of dressing. Most salad dressings are made with cream or sugars which really escalate the calorie content. When ordering out at a restaurant ask for the dressing on the side and sprinkle it on for taste. If you’re at home try out a healthy recipe with olive oil as the base and save yourself hundreds of empty meaningless calories.
