Which foods make you gain weight? Is it really just about amount of calories?

One of ways how to shed excess kilos is to start with healthier diet. If you know from which foods you gain weight easily and quickly, you know what to avoid. Weight loss is of course complex phenomenon, but if following foods won't be regular component of your menu, it will go easier.

1. Frozen meals

You don't manage or don't have energy to cook hearty dinner, but feel strong hunger and would eat anything just so your stomach is finally satisfied. Your self-preservation instincts warn you that your salvation lies in freezer in form of "almost ready" pizza or lasagna. Super! Or actually, not really.

First. Try to find answer to whether it is okay to let your body starve to this extent. Well and secondly, think about what all such frozen meals must contain to last in freezer so long. We will tell you. Sodium and preservatives. Yes, exactly that sodium which causes feelings of bloated belly and heavy stomach.

Besides physiological aspects, when consuming frozen meals another, hidden one has strong influence on you, which you might not even realize. It is package size. Most pre-prepared portioned ready meals are sold in small portions. So while large doses of food manipulate our brain to achieve feeling of satiety faster, in case of these miniature frozen boxes it is exactly opposite, despite fact that they are properly stuffed with calories.

If frozen meals are your frequent salvations after hard day, then make your own. When you cook next time, prepare bit more food than usual. Let it cool down, divide into boxes and store in freezer. It will last you there month to half year. You will have perfect overview of its composition, prevent risk of overeating and even save money.

Read also article about influence of thermal processing of meals on vitamins.

2. Sweetened drinks

All your favorite flavored drinks, yes, even those "for athletes" and juices "full of vitamins" should get stop sign during diet. What you find in them is large amount of added sugar, and conversely, they contain very few nutrients. It means that drinking these beverages adds calories, but without feeling of satiety. To produce just single glass of 100% orange juice several pieces of fruit are used, so if you drink it, you receive calories from sugar, but without natural fiber which would give you feeling of being full. Do you know term "empty calories"? We just explained its meaning to you.

It sounds maybe unbelievable, but if your main source of fluid during day are sweetened drinks, it is likely that through them you receive large part of amount of calories you need for whole day. And meanwhile, of course, you must eat too. Some nutritional advisors hold opinion that people should limit calories from added sugars to no more than 10% of their total daily intake.

3. Bars with high fiber content

Of course, we all need fiber. It helps us maintain feeling of satiety for longer time even in regime of lower calorie intake. Recommended daily intake shouldn't be supplied to body at once, in single meal, in this case in single bar. Fiber consumption should be consistent throughout day. Only then it really prevents hunger, improves digestive system health and doesn't cause stomach irritation.

Instead of all unhealthy quick solutions include natural source of fiber in your menu - fruit and vegetables.

4. Alcohol

We are sorry, but practically it is impossible to find any healthy diet expert who would recommend alcohol as means for weight loss. Similarly as in case of sweetened drinks, here too we talk about empty calories. With difference however that if in juices for example you can find some minimal nutritional value, alcohol fulfills no such function. So if you want to lose weight, with summer cocktails and large glasses of beer it will go only hard. If you really cannot forgive yourself some evening drink, we recommend choosing for example gin, vodka or champagne, which have demonstrably fewest calories. Conversely, very bad are for example cider, margarita, pina colada or rum with cola.

5. Fries

Sorry to sadden you. This popular snack, just like all fried foods, have high calorie content, contain excessive amount of salt and unhealthy fats. This rule applies mainly when preparing in fryer. In this process lot of oil is used, from which arises that tasty crispy layer which is essence of these foods. But at same time exactly this way number of calories hidden in them increases too. Fries contain no fiber or proteins, and so don't help at all for person to feel full for long time after consuming them. Can't resist them? So remember how they affect your skin...

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