Weight Loss Made Easy

You see them everywhere. They’re listed as healthy alternatives to the snacks you really enjoy. But are they really? Reading the labels is more important than ever with all these snack foods out there trying to fool you. Just because they’re listed as low fat or low sugar, it doesn’t mean they’re low calorie, and it certainly doesn’t mean they’re any healthier for you than the original.

Next time you’re at the grocery store pick up a box of Oreos and a box of fat free Oreos and compare. You’ll find that although the fat free version has less fat it has more sugar. The savings in calories is negligible. Try comparing other items that you like to buy and see if the same holds true.

For years companies  have been replacing fat for sugar and sugar for fat. Low fat ends up meaning high sugar and low sugar often means higher fat. There are exceptions. Items made with sugar substitutes like Splenda will be low calorie. Items make with fat substitutes may also have less calories. You decide.

I love fruit, especially peaches, nectarines and apricots. The great part about fruit is that it’s only about 60-80 calories per piece. That’s a really low calorie snack, and completely fat free. If you have 2 pieces of fruit for a snack you’ll feel satisfied too. Fruit fills you up even though it’s small because it’s filled with water.

If you combine a piece of fruit with a small piece of cheese, you’ll feel fuller longer. That’s because of the protein and fat in the cheese.  Fruit also has all kinds of vitamins and minerals that make you feel good and can help to keep your sugar levels stable.

Around 3pm I get hungry and need to have a snack to hold me over until dinner. I don’t want to add on a lot more calories though. Here are some low calorie ways you can still have that 3pm snack, Each of these snacks has less than 150 calories.

1. Need a Chocolate Fix? - This is me! Try CocoaVia. It’s only 100 calories per snack pack.

2. Really Hungry? - Air popped popcorn will fill you up. With only 60 calories for every 2 cups, this is the perfect snack for when you’re famished.

3. Need Something Crunchy? - Have some raw veggies. Carrots, celery and broccoli are good for this. Eat them with two tablespoons of hummas and you still only have an 80 calorie snack.

4. Want Something Healthy? - Try an apple. Add to that an ounce of low fat cheese and you have a small 130 calorie, satisfying snack.

Here’s a little trick to make your body think that it’s had a big dessert when it hasn’t. If you’re like me you eat a piece of cake and then you want another. So instead of having two pieces you just cut one big one. When you’re finished your body still wants another piece. Here’s what you can do instead.

Cut yourself a small piece of cake. Eat is slowly, one bite at a time. Savor every morsel. Then when your body is ready for that second piece, cut another small piece. Your body still thinks it’s  had two pieces and is satisfied. It doesn’t know how big the pieces are.

By doing this you can still indulge in your favorite dessert once in a while, but you’ll be satisfies with less calories. Just don’t make a habit of eating high calorie desserts. One a week should be your maximum. Other nights you should have something low calorie, like fruit.

Yogurt has carbs, protein and fat, the three building blocks of food, all in one little package. It also has calcium which, some studies have shown, helps burn fat. If you eat fat free yogurt your cutting out the fat and calories cut you’re still keeping the protein and calcium, which you need to help you lose fat and burn calories faster.

A study published in the April 2005 International Journal of Obesity took two groups of people and put them on a diet. Both diets had everyone cut 500 calories a day from their diets. One group had to eat one yogurt a day, the other group had to eat three yogurts a day. The three a day group lost 22% more weight, 61% more body fat, and 81% more stomach fat than the other group.

If that doesn’t convince you that yogurt is good for weight loss than nothing will. Give it a try, have at least one yogurt a day as a snack. If nothing else, it makes you feel full longer and that’s a good thing too.

Some weight loss bars or diet drinks are low in calories but also low in everything else. Then you’re hungry again in an hour, what good is that? When choosing weight loss bars, drinks or meals look for something with substance. Read the label.

Does that weight loss product have fiber in it? How about protein? Fiber and protein are two things that help you feel full longer. You don’t want a weight loss product that has a lot of carbs but nothing else.

If you’re going to use the weight loss product to replace a meal then it’s even more important that it have fiber and protein in it. Look for meal replacement products to have a minimum of 10g of protein and 3g of fiber, more if possible. Otherwise you’ll just be hungry again and want to eat more.

They say that if you want to loose weight, you should eat salad. It’s true, to a point. Lettuce, any kind, is extremely low in calories, almost non-existent. Some say that green veggies like lettuce have negative calories, that means that your body used more calories to burn it then it actually has. That sounds good, right?

Imagine this though. You take your lettuce and your ready to turn it into a healthy salad. What are you going to do next?

You want it to taste good so you add grated cheese, bacon bits, croutons, chopped eggs and some nice rich Thousand Island dressing to top it off. Do you know what you just did? You created a meal, not a low calorie salad. Your salad now weighs in at about 300 calories. That’s not going to help you lose weight.

Let’s try again. How about adding some grated carrots, tomato, sunflower seeds, sliced onion, peppers, slivered almonds, celery, walnuts and top it with a low calorie dressing. Now you have a healthy, low calorie salad and you’ve saved yourself a couple hundred calories. You’ll be full and satisfied, believe me.

Have you ever had a fruit smoothie? They’re super sweet and really good for you. They’re also really easy to make yourself, and probably healthier than buying one at the mall. You only need a few ingredients and a blender to make yourself the sweetest healthy desert ever.

The main thing you’re going to need to make yourself a fruit smoothie is… fruit. Frozen fruit that is. Just pick up a bag at the grocery store. Any kind you like. Strawberries, raspberries, peaches or something else. If you want you can even use a combination of fruits in your smoothie.

Then you’ll need something liquid or semi liquid. Orange juice, or another kind of fruit juice is good for that. Pour your fruit into the blender, then pour in a little juice. Press it down with a spatula, put the lid on and blend. You many need to press is down more or try the pulse button to get it started, or you may need a little more juice.

If you want to add some protein to your smoothie you can use low fat vanilla yogurt, peanut butter or soft tofu.

Tell yourself that you’re not going to eat sweets for 3 days, then reward yourself with something you really like. Then go 3 more days with no sweets and reward yourself again. If you eat sweets in between, then you need to start over.

The idea is that if you crave chocolate cupcakes and you eat 2 every day then you’re adding an extra 300 calories to your diet each day. If you skip them for 3 days, you just decreased your calories by 900 calories every 4 days. You’ll still get your sweets, but you’ll lose weight doing it.

When you get a craving. Replace it with fresh baby carrots, a salad with light dressing or fruit.

Remember when we talked about MUFAs last week? Nuts and seeds are MUFAs. This means you can add a handful of them to a meal to help you lose weight. You can also use them as a snack in between meals to help you make it through until the next meal.

Nuts and seeds provide you with protein and fiber, which means they’ll help keep you full longer. They’re also a good source of monounsaturated fat, that’s the healthy kind. They also have vitamins and minerals that help to keep you healthy.

The downside to eating nuts and seeds is that they’re high in calories. Eat them in moderation and they’re a good part of a weight loss diet.

You may eat less fruit than you think you do. Time to step it up. You need to average at least four servings of fruit a day for your health. Fruit has vitamins and fiber in it that your body needs to function properly. It’s good for your skin, your hair, your eyes and many other things. It’s important so make it a priority.

There are many ways you can get the recommended four servings of fruit a day. If you can’t eat an orange where you are during the day, because they’re too messy, try an apple instead. If that’s out too, try dried fruit. Dried fruit is an easy snack because you can put it in a baggy in your pocket or purse and snack on it without anyone else knowing about it. Drink fruit juice, just make sure it’s real fruit juice, not the sugary stuff. Go with low calorie juice to keep the calories down if you can.

Fruit is good for weight loss for many reasons. Most importantly, it’s a low calorie snack. One orange only has about 60 calories in it. Have two and you’ve had a filling snack. Fruit’s sweet taste makes it great to eat when you really need something sweet to eat, pretend that it’s your favorite candy and go for it.

I know what you’re thinking. Peanut butter is full of fat and has tons of calories. But listen, this really works. Peanut butter has been proven to help people lose weight. Because of the fat and the protein in the peanut butter this little snack will stay with you for hours, if you eat it right. I’m not saying you should gobble down a jar of peanut butter in one sitting. A little goes a long way.

This is what you should do when your starving but still have a while until meal time. Take a teaspoon and dip it into the peanut butter jar. Scoop up the peanut butter making a round ball with it. Now instead of putting the whole thing in your mouth and not being able to open your mouth again for the rest of the day, you’re going to eat is slowly. The spoon should never enter your mouth at any time.

Pretend that it’s and ice cream cone and lick it. The more you enjoy the flavor and the texture the better. Savor the peanut butter until it’s all gone. Now you won’t be hungry again for at least an hour, maybe longer.

I know that single servings of anything cost more than if you just bought the item, cut it up and packaged it yourself, but will you actually do it. Most of us are busy, too busy to buy a block of cheese, cut it up into one ounce blocks and package it tight. Then you’ll need to do the same thing with the dried fruit, the popcorn, the yogurt and anything else you buy in bulk. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do with my time.

All of my low calorie snacks are bought in single serving packs. Then they’re stored in a separate place from the kid’s snacks. That way when I’m hungry I can open my own snack cabinet and choose something. Most single serving snacks are less than 100 calories so I can have a snack without ruining my weight.

Another good reason to buy single serving snacks rather then doing it yourself is that they’ll last longer. Most of the single serving snacks are vaccuum sealed or at least sealed tight. That means they can sit in your cabinet or fridge even longer, this lets you have a bigger variety so you don’t get bored with the same old thing every day.

Here are some low calorie snacks that you can try when those cravings really have you.

Dried Fruit - Personally I like to get the little individual snack packs made by Welch’s. They’re really tasty and low calorie and face it, you can’t go wrong with fruit.

Yogurt - My favorite low calorie yogurt is Dannon Light and Fit. It comes in regular yogurt, with bits of fruit in it, or in a drinkable smoothie form. They’re both really good.

Cheese - Again I like to buy the individual low calorie cheese snacks. Either Polly-O string cheese or Cracker Barrel sharp cheddar for me.

Yogurt Raisins - Little boxes of Sun-Maid yogurt covered raisins are a great snack and sweet as can be.

Fruit, any kind - Everyone knows fruit is a good snack, any kind. Just keep in mind that larger fruit like bananas and grapefruit have twice the calorie as small fruit like oranges.

Popcorn - Air popped, no butter. Butter flaver is alright, but not butter.