If you have decided to go on a diet, you should make a menu of foods to eat. This way you make sure you get all the necessary nutrients and vitamins, and not much calories. However, there are some products you should not eat at all, as they might lead to an instant weight gain. What are these and why are they so bad? Let us find out!
Foods to Avoid When Losing Weight
The main rule of a good diet – the less calories, the better. However, a process of losing weight is not that simple. Many other factors may lead to weight gain. In the list below, we have indicated the most harmful for weight foods. It is not only about their calorie content, but about some specific reasons too.
Read more:
15 Foods to Eat to Lose Weight
French Fries and Potato Chips
Potato is a nice health-beneficial vegetable. There are many ways of cooking it, such as boiling or baking. However, French fries and chips are really harmful and lead to weight gain. The thing is most useful substances are gone in the process of frying and there are only fats left.
Roasted and fried potatoes may even contain acrylamides – cancer-causing substances.
Moreover, both fries and chips require a lot of oil, which is a pure fat. That is why it is recommended to eat only boiled or mashed potatoes.
Read more:
Calories in potato
Hamburgers and Hotdogs
It is known that any fast food leads to weight gain. However, you may not realize how harmful it is. The thing is most manufacturers add enormous amounts of sugar to their hamburgers and hotdogs. This way the food becomes really tasty, and it makes you happy. So, you always want another bite. With all the calories and cholesterol of flour and meat used in cooking fast food, added sugar makes it ten times worse. Refuse eating any fast food if you want to lose weight.
Sweet Beverages
There are way too much calories in drinks like cola and soda. In addition, they are not healthy at all. However, the main problem about such food is that it is liquid.
Your brain does not register drinking as calories gain; as a result, you still feel hungry.
At the end of the day, you end up gaining a lot more calories than you should have. Therefore, exclude any sweet drinks from your ration.
White Bread
The flour used in cooking white bread contains a lot of added sugar, which is much more harmful than a regular one. Therefore, the glycemic index of white bread is high, so all the sugar goes straight to blood, which is bad for both general health and weight. It is a good idea to eat cornbread or almond flour bread instead. Both are cooked with beneficial and natural ingredients.
Chocolate Bars
It is known that any candies are forbidden to eat when losing weight. They contain many carbohydrates that are transformed into fat immediately.
However, there are also many added oils and refined flour in chocolate bars.
They are made to be stored for years, so such bars simply cannot contain much useful stuff. You might think that one small bar will not affect anything, but it actually will, as there are 300-400 calories in it.
Cakes and Cookies
These things are delicious and everybody loves them. However, there are not much healthy things in any cake or cookie. Just as bars do, they contain added sugar and refined flour. Moreover, there are also some artificial trans fats that are very hard to digest. Therefore, the whole digestive process is slowed down. On the other hand, cakes and cookies are not satisfying, so you will get hungry soon.
Alcohol
Alcohol can be harmful for weight, but only in big amounts, as there are approximately 7 calories per 1 g of a drink. A glass of wine or brandy will not lead to weight gain of course. However, beer may do, as hop and other ingredients, alongside with sugar, make it a caloric bomb.
Pizza
Everybody loves pizza. Perhaps, it is the most recognizable and enjoyable food worldwide. However, with all the ingredients used in making pizza, it contains a lot of fats, carbs and cholesterol. Moreover, the crust is also full of calories and hard to digest. There are some vegetarian pizzas nowadays, in which only vegetables are used. However, even such alternative is harmful for you figure.
Coffee Drinks
Coffee itself has many beneficial properties. It is even good for weight loss, as caffeine increases metabolism, therefore, fat burning.
However, most coffee drinks, such as cappuccino or latte, are prepared with a lot of cream, milk and sugar. You may not pay attention to it, but drinking a cup of such coffee is harmful for weight loss.
Of course, it is not as bad as a can of coke, but most people drink coffee regularly, so it does have a strong influence. If you are on a diet, drink only espresso or Americano with as low sugar as possible.
Margarine
Butter is not advised to eat when trying to lose weight. However, margarine is much worse. There are almost no useful substances, but many trans fats and cholesterol. That is why any food with even a small amount of margarine is bad for your figure. The best thing you can do is use olive oil instead. It is really beneficial for health and does not contain harmful fats at all.
High Calorie Foods You Should Avoid When Losing Weight
When trying to lose weight, you should make a strict diet. It is important to eat only healthy food. Even a small bite of a harmful product can make a huge difference. Therefore, it is a good idea to have some healthy snacks at hand, so that you will not need to buy a hamburger or a can of coke.