Healthy eating is an important part of the weight loss puzzle. What you eat will pretty much determine how much you weigh. Poor food choices will only lead to weight gain. With that in mind, here are the top 10 foods to avoid during weight loss programs.
1. Carbonated Drinks
Carbonated drinks like sodas and energy drinks are not good for weight loss. They contain a high amount of sugar, which only increases your caloric intake. In addition, it is easy to drink too many sugary drinks because they increase your cravings for a drink.
Water is a good alternative to soft drinks because it will keep you hydrated and quenches your thirst without increasing calorie intake.
2. Say No to Processed Foods
Eating packaged and tinned foods is counterproductive during a weight loss regimen. These processed foods usually contain high amounts of fat and sugar. What’s more, other foods may have harmful preservatives and chemicals.
Choose fresh produce instead so that you can reduce your calorie intake and boost weight loss.
3. Avoid too Much Sugar
Processed sugar contains empty calories, and too much of it is stored as fat in the body. Instead of adding sugar to coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, use honey instead. Honey not only has a lower calorie count than refined sugar, but it also provides additional health benefits.
To avoid cravings for sweets, jam, cakes, and other sugary foods, take natural sugars from fruits, as these are nutritious and do not contain a high number of calories.
4. Do Not Drink Alcohol
Alcohol contains a high number of calories. Those that drink frequently will therefore find a hard time when trying to reduce weight.
Alcohol also leads to other health complications over time. With this in mind, stop drinking alcohol if you want to lose weight and stay healthy.
5. Avoid Fried Foods
Fried pork, chicken, fish, potatoes, curries, and doughnuts have a high amount of fat. These foods are not good for someone trying to lose weight.
Saturated fats also increase cholesterol levels in the body, which increases the chances of heart disease and strokes. So avoid fried foods at all costs when trying to lose weight.
6. No More White Flour
White flour contains empty calories and important nutrients are stripped off during the refining process. Some examples of white flour foods include pasta, noodles, white bread, pancakes, waffles, and croissants, to name a few.
Wheat products made from whole-grain flour are more nutritious and contain fewer calories than white refined flour.
7. Say no to Fast Foods
You should learn how to avoid fast foods during your weight loss program. Fast foods like hot dogs, fries, pizza, and burgers have a high amount of calories and low nutritional value.
Replace these foods with healthy homemade foods. In addition, carry your own packed lunch instead of eating at fast-food joints.
8. Avoid Desserts
Desserts, like ice cream, chocolate, and other sweetened side dishes may be tasty, but they hurt weight loss efforts. These deserts have high sugar content, cream, and fat, hence leading to weight gain.
A better alternative for those that have a sweet tooth is fresh fruits when it comes to desserts.
9. Roasted Meat
Roasted meat contains high-fat content. So instead of taking grilled lamb chops or beef steak, take lean meats like chicken fish, and prawns.
Prepare lean meats with low fat as a way of reducing calorie intake.
10. Pastries
Baked foods like tarts, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, pies, scones, etc are known to have simple carbohydrates. Therefore, they increase calorie intake and make weight loss harder.
If you choose to eat pastries, choose options with low sugar content and those made with nutritious whole wheat.
Keep in mind that eating right is important for weight loss. By knowing these top 10 foods to avoid during weight loss, you can develop healthy eating habits that will help you reduce body fat and keep it off.