Healthy Living in Austin, Texas

Sometimes it seems that you are doing everything right. Choosing the salad for lunch, low-fat versions of everything, yet the pounds still aren’t coming off. There are a few secret foods that are designed to help us lose weight that could actually be having the opposite effect. A lot of the time, the problem can be traced back to portion control. I found this list on Yahoo Health today and I wanted to share it with my readers.

1. Pre-measured packages – We have all tried buying the “100 calorie packages” the help keep our portion control in check. As it turns out, these may not be the best tool to fight off weight loss. They have made them for all types of foods ranging from Almonds, to Cheez-its, to Chip Ahoy cookies. It has been reported that these packages may actually do more harm than good because consumers eat a package, and don’t feel full causing them reach for another package. Researchers say a trick to combatting this is leaving the empty package in plain sight. If you are able to see how much you have already eaten, you will be less likely to eat another package.
2. “Diet” snacks – Just because a snack boasts “sugar-free” or “fat-free” on the package does not mean that it is low-calorie. In fact, a reduced-fat product may have just a few fewer calories than the real thing. It is also common for people who are eating these reduced-fat snacks to eat twice as much as they would if they were eating a regular version. It is more sensible to go for the regular version and limit your calorie intake.
3. Liquid Calories – High calorie drinks are another secret source of extra calories and fat. A simple sweetener addition can add up to 150 extra calories to your tea or coffee drink. Substituting this sweetener for a zero-calorie alternative such as Splenda can cut these extras out.
4. Super-snacks – While eating multiple small meals during the day can be an effective way to lose weight, it can be easy to accidentally take in too many calories while using this form of weight-loss. You should limit yourself to two snacks per day of about 150 calories or less each. A good rule-of-thumb is to consider any energy bar over 200 calories a meal instead of a snack.
5. Rich proteins – It is important to stick with lean proteins such as turkey, chicken, fish, and beans because they usually have about half as many calories and a considerable amount less saturated fat.
6. Fat-free salad dressings – These can be bad for you because often the fat is replaced with sugar, leaving the dressing loaded with calories. It is smartest to use small amounts of oil-based salad dressings to get the good-for-you fats instead of the saturated fats that come with creamy dressings.
7. Baked Potato Chips- While baked chips are better for you than regular chips, they are still high in calories, low in nutrients, and low in fiber making them terrible at filling you up. Popcorn is a good alternative that will also fill you up and give you fiber.

Hopefully these seven tips and trick will help you reach your goal of healthy living. If you would like more information on these foods, read the full article here.

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