Losing weight requires a mix of eating nutritious food, cutting calories, and being physically active, but if your kitchen is stacked with diet-sabotaging junk food, it makes it that much harder for you to shrink your waistline.
The food items listed seem innocuous, but many of them have empty calories and slow down your metabolism, making it harder for you to lose weight.
Here’s a list of food that you should avoid:
Soda
Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages contain 100% added sugar which means they pack a lot of calories into a liquid form. Additionally, liquid calories don’t quite fill you up the same way solid food will.
Candy
Most candies, gummies, hard candies, etc pack a lot of energy into a small package with little to no nutrition. These sweet treats are harmful to health.
Dessert
Desserts contain a lot of calories which will increase weight rather than lose weight. The occasional after-dinner treat won’t hurt, but if you’re finding that you can’t quite end a meal without some ice cream, cookies, or other baked goods, you are probably racking up a lot of extra calories that won’t help your progress.
White pasta and bread
White pasta or bread that people make using refined wheat flour is typically high in calories and carbohydrates but low in fibre, protein, and other nutrients. These generally contain more fiber and nutrients than white varieties, which can make them more filling and healthful.
Processed meat
Processed meat includes meat that manufacturers have either:
- dried
- smoked
- fermented
- canned
- otherwise processed and preserved
These types of meat are often high in salt and low in nutrients. They also tend to be calorie-dense compared with lean protein sources, such as poultry, fish, and beans.
Alcohol
Alcohol is the king of empty calories. Moreover, drinking a lot of alcohol can mess with your metabolism, zap your willpower, and cause unwanted cravings.