It doesn’t take much to gain weight, fast. All you need to do is to succumb to all the delicious snack options we can find in abundance in our local supermarket aisles, or visit our favourite fast-food chains daily for our meals. Losing weight, on the other hand, isn’t so easy!
Sometimes, it may seem that everything that is delicious to eat only conspires to add empty calories and extra weight to our bodies. However, if you think you need to lose weight, by a little or a significant amount, there are some foods and ingredients that you should absolutely avoid and limit.
We all know the list of food and drinks that are fattening, contain extra calories and bad for our health, but here is a complete list for you as a reminder.
- Sugary Drinks
All caffeinated and sugary drinks, like the ones we love with our meals every day, are one of the unhealthiest food that can pass your lips. The more you drink these sodas, the more weight you’ll gain over time. Not just that, these sugary drinks can have a disastrous effect on your health, increase your chances of Type-II diabetes, hypertension and heart problems.
All kinds of sodas and soft drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit concentrations, powder drinks, packaged fruit juices – these are all examples of sugary drinks that you should completely stop drinking. Limiting them to one or two servings per day isn’t enough if you want to lose weight; you’ll have to completely stop drinking them.
- Candy, Chocolate, Energy and Protein Bars
Chocolate bars and candies should be next on the list of food you should avoid, as well as certain protein and energy bars. They are just a large amount of sugar, refined flour and saturated oils that only adds extra calories to your day and not much nutrition.
The average size of the chocolate bar contains more than 300 calories in them; if you have the habit of eating chocolates regularly, that’s a lot of empty calories to put inside your body. Even protein bars and energy bars we get in supermarkets have added sugar in them, much more fattening than if you make them at home.
- Processed Fruit Juices
While fruits and fruit juices are good for you, the ones we buy from supermarkets are filled with sugar and oils. These fruit juices might feel like a good, quick breakfast option for you, but a liquid meal only adds to your calories. Drinking a glass of juice doesn’t stop you from eating an additional meal, which means you are simply drinking extra calories.
Besides, with fruit juices, you only get the flavour and the sugar, not the fibre. It is much better to eat whole fruit and drink water or use the fruit in chewable smoothies.
- Cakes, Cookies and Baked Items
Two of the main ingredients of all baked confectionaries are white flour and sugar – both items you need to avoid to lose weight. While you can occasionally indulge yourself in one serving of your favourite pastry, it is a good idea to eliminate baked items, confectioneries, cakes and cookies from your diet. The more you include them in our daily meals, the more empty calories you are putting in your body, and the more weight you are gaining.
- White Flour, White Rice and White Pasta
Everything that’s processed, refined and white in colour – rice, flour, and pasta, are carbohydrates that are high in both glucose and starch. They spike your blood sugar levels suddenly, giving you a burst of energy; however, this spike in energy is temporary and you will actually end up feeling worse after a while.
People who eat some sort of refined carbohydrates (two pieces of toast, white rice at lunch, pasta or pizza at least five times a week) every day have an increased chance of being obese.
- Potatoes
Potatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables you can use in your recipes, but they are also extremely fattening. French fries, potato chips, mashed potatoes, jacket potatoes, baked potatoes, roasted or fried potatoes, hash browns, curried potatoes – these are foods that you should limit or completely avoid.
Potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and starch, and will add extra calories to your meals. Especially French Fries and potato chips are the most harmful kinds of food, as they contain a large amount of saturated fat, oils, and sodium.
- Certain Alcoholic Drinks
Some alcohols, especially beer, are high in calories. Alcoholic drinks are mainly carbohydrates and proteins, and too many drinks every day will make you gain weight. In fact, a person who drinks at least two cans of beer every day has a higher chance of becoming overweight and obese than a person who only drinks occasionally or socially. Heavy drinking is also directly related to weight gain, even when a person doesn’t eat much.
Beer, especially, is high in calories; a single 12-ounce can of beer contains more than 153 calories and a 12-ounce can of light beer contains more than 103 calories. If you drink several cans of beer every day, you are actually adding a lot of liquid calories into your body, and nothing that’s nutritious.
- Frozen Meals
All the frozen meals we can buy from supermarket freezers have high traces of sodium, saturated oils, preservatives, and fat.
A high amount of saturated fat is added to these frozen meals to preserve them for a long time, which becomes liquid oil when we heat the meals in the oven. Although they are easy options for a meal that doesn’t take a lot of time to heat, these frozen meals are almost never a healthy option for food.
- Candied and Dried Fruits
The best way to enjoy fruits is to eat them whole and raw; this is the only way you can get all the fibre, minerals, vitamins and water from fruits. On the other hand, dried and candied fruits may have all the nutrients and fibres of fruits, but they are also filled with added sugar and preservatives.
At the same time, dried and candied fruits have all the natural sugar of fresh fruits but in a concentrated form. You get more sugar from these snacks that you would have gotten from whole fruit.
- Flavoured and Sweetened Yogurt
Yogurts are one of the best snacks for weight loss, and an excellent source of calcium. However, that is only if you choose plain Greek yogurt for your snacks or meals. Flavoured and sweetened yogurt usually has sugar added to them, or honey to make them sweet. If you are eating these store-bought yogurts, you are putting unnecessary sugar into your bod.
It is better to naturally sweeten your plain yogurt with fresh berries with honey, sugar or artificial sweetener.
- Processed Meat and Fish
All kind of meat and fish that has been processed, smoked, preserved, dried, fermented or canned are high in sodium as they have salt added to them. You don’t get the necessary nutrients from processed meat or fish, but all the added salt can make you feel bloated and dehydrated. It is better to use fresh protein sources like poultry, lean beef, fresh fish and seafood in your meals instead of bacon, hot dogs, ham, sausage, jerky, and salami.
- Ice cream
We all know ice cream is fattening, but that seldom stops us from helping ourselves to a serving. Any kind of is high in calories and sugar. Even store-bought and artisan ice creams are fattening, and it is better not to indulge in more than a single serving every once in a while.
- Special Coffee Drinks
Caffeine in coffee is actually good for burning fat and boost our metabolism, but only on a small amount. However, if you add whole milk, sugar, additional flavours and artificial cream to your coffee, you are only adding extra calories to your drink. The best way to drink coffee is black, without any added sugar, milk or cream.
- Breakfast Cereals
Most breakfast cereals we buy from the supermarket are high in added sugar and flavour, designed to give you a temporary spike in your blood pressure. Instead of these flavoured breakfast cereals that are more empty calories than nutrition.
- Pizza and Pasta
These two foods are actually on the top of most people’s favourite food list, but they can be extremely fattening, too. Most restaurants make pizzas from refined flour and the pasta we find in the supermarkets are also made from refined flour. Besides, these recipes use too much-processed meat, salami, cheese and pizza sauce – everything that’s fattening and full of calories.
Pizza, pasta and similar food should be thoroughly limited if you want to lose weight, and not eat more than once or twice in a month.
A lot of what we eat and drink every day is actually extremely fattening and full of calories, and we are not even aware of it. If you want to lose weight, it is very important that you know exactly what foods to avoid, not just to become thinner and slimmer, but also to stay fit and healthy.
