Eating Yourself Slim? It’s Easier Than You Think!

Many people think that dieting and losing weight is all about getting enough exercise. While it’s an important part of your weight loss routine, it’s also important to keep an eye on what you’re eating. Your food and drink choices have a huge impact on your weight, and if you’re not careful then you’ll keep putting on weight despite working out and trying to keep the calories down.

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Count those calories

People don’t realise how many calories they actually take in until they start counting. Use a simple smartphone app or an online website to track your calories so you can monitor how much you’re actually eating. You’ll find that certain snacks and foods, such as soda and biscuits, contain a lot of calories but very little nutrients. In fact, many of these foods are known as empty calories because they contribute to your weight gain but don’t contribute to your health. It’s been said many times, but cutting out these types of foods is important, and the only way to realise how big of an effect they have on your health is to count calories and learn it the hard way.

Let’s take an example to really show how bad these calories are. A bowl of cereal is roughly 300 calories. A bowl of oatmeal with a banana is about 350 calories. A baked potato with some sour cream and salsa is around 300 calories. These are all fantastic lunch and breakfast options, but now let’s compare them to common snacks. A 500ml bottle of coke contains roughly 210 calories and regular Snickers bar has almost 230 calories. As you can see, these sweet snacks and drinks have so many calories that they could account for an entire meal, yet they are less filling and don’t pack the nutrients that a proper meal does.

Choosing the right foods to eat

One of the best ways to get the right foods is to look at diet plans such as the HCG diet, Mediterranean diet and Atkins diet. These diets are perfect for beginners because they are well-known, have plenty of research backing them and there are many websites that give out sample meal plans. This makes these diets easy to follow. Assuming you’ve got the discipline to follow them, you’ll find that they’re great for controlling your calories.

The aim of the game is to eat foods that are good for you and low in calories. This is how you “eat yourself slim”—by replacing bad foods with better ones that are equally as filling. Here are a couple of examples of good foods that are low in calories and packed with nutrients:

• Celery - At 16 calories per cup, celery is a delicious and crunchy snack, but it’s not for everyone.
• Kale - Kale is around 5 calories per cup and is packed full of nutrients that can keep us healthy.
• Cucumbers - Cucumbers sit at roughly 15 calories per cup. They are mainly made up of water and are delicious and refreshing in salads and even drinks.
• Broccoli - 31 calories per cup and packed full of fibre, minerals and vitamins.

These are just some of the important foods you should be thinking about when losing weight. They’re all low in calories, packed full of good nutrients and are cheap as well.