If you've decided to start taking better care of your body and improving your physique, you may have been thinking about mistakes or setbacks that you don't pay attention to, or that you don't know about yet. We'll try to help you with that and show you some of the foods, drinks and snacks that you may be including in your diet and not estimating their calorie content correctly. You may also think that a certain food fits into your diet, but this may not be true.
1. Too many smoothies
The smoothie, a mixture of vegetables and fruit, has become a trendy drink. However, be careful what and how much you put in it, as fruit contains more sugar and fibre than vegetables. So if you make a smoothie with just fruit and fats, you can create a huge calorie bomb that is delicious and filling but won't help you lose weight.
2. Granola or cereal for breakfast
Nowadays, granola or cereal are very trendy, especially for breakfast. However, the amount of the dried fruits, nuts and peanuts increases the total calorie content of these foods. These are nutritious, fibre-rich foods, but have a high calorie content in the form of oilseeds, peanut butters or added sugar... Smaller amounts of these are not a calorie bomb, but you need to be careful what you add to them so that you don't inadvertently increase your daily intake.
3. Consumption of "low-fat" products
With low-fat foods, beware of the ingredients, as they may contain high levels of sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or other high-calorie sweeteners. At the same time, remember that a balanced diet is important, so you need to get fat into your body too!
4. Dressings
Salad is part of almost every diet, as it is a high-fibre food and low in calories. What many people don't think about, however, is that these ready-made dressings often contain sugar and fat, which can even exceed your target calorie intake for that meal. It's best to make the dressing by yourself from ingredients that you know for sure meet your dietary requirements. The easiest solution is to just drizzle the salad with balsamic vinegar or lemon, which adds no calories to the meal.
5. Soft drinks, juices and lemonades
Especially during the summer heat, it's nice to have a cold drink, whether it's a soft drink or a lemonade from a café. However, remember that most of these drinks contain sugar. If you want to avoid it, you should cut them out of your daily consumption. Besides the various sweetened drinks, beware of juices as well. It's okay to have a glass of orange juice for breakfast, but consuming it regularly can significantly increase your calorie intake.
6. Consumption of wholemeal and seeded baked goods
Choosing this type of baked goods sounds good, as it is actually considered healthier than the white flour version but remember that they are approximately the same in terms of calories. Due to their composition, carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly and will keep you fuller for longer, but simply swapping white bread for wholemeal won't help you lose weight. You still need to keep the right amount of it.
7. Avocado
Because of its high fat content, avocados should not be consumed unlimitedly. The optimal intake for a 50-60 kg woman is around 60-80 g of fat per day. So, one avocado represents about 40 g.
Anyway, avocados are the only fruit that is low in sugars and high in vegetable fats. The fats contained in avocados raise good cholesterol, which helps maintain lipid balance.
CONCLUSION
When creating your diet plan, it is always important to make sure that you are consuming the right amount of calories for your current goal. The second, no less important aspect is their sensible distribution in the macronutrients provided. "Bad foods" may not harm your figure in reasonable amounts, and at the same time "healthy fit foods" in the wrong amounts may increase your daily intake more than you think, which may negate the effort and energy you are putting into the whole process. Next time, we'll have an article that will take a closer look at metabolism, how to speed it up and also give you some tips on foods that, in reasonable amounts, help with fat burning.
