Hidden Calories
If you are trying to lose weight, then you may be shocked to hear that foods we consider to be healthy can be high in calories, leading to unexpected weight gain.
Often we THINK we are eating better than we are!
There are a lot of different things that can contribute towards this. One of the main culprits is HIDDEN CALORIES.
What does this mean?!
Take your morning toast with jam as an example. How much butter/spread do you use? Do you know how many calories are in that amount? (Go and google how many Kcals in a teaspoon of spread/…butter)
You might surprise yourself at just how much you slather on without even thinking about it! What about the jam? How much of that do you put on...a teaspoon, a tablespoon? But what is a tablespoon?! We don’t weigh our jam onto our toast everyday do we?! Probably not (unless you’re tracking), BUT it can be useful to do this every now and again to make sure we are AWARE of how much we are having and how much this contributes to our daily calories.
Peanut butter...again, do you have a teaspoon or a heaped teaspoon? One person’s perception of a teaspoon can be totally different from another’s! With things like butter/spread and peanut butters etc the Kcal’s can really add up!
Now I’m not saying you can’t enjoy your jam and toast in the morning without stressing about the Calories, but just being MINDFUL can go a long way. Maybe eat your jam on toast without spread if you’re trying to eat in a calorie deficit.
If we’re aware of how many Calories are in our breakfast, it can help us to stay on track with those goals.
This leads me onto Oil. Who cooks with oil? Yes, most of us!
Just 1 tablespoon of Olive oil has 120 Kcals. So think about how much you are cooking with and how many portions are going to come from that dish. If you’re making a meal for 1, you don’t want to be adding 120Kcals in just oil do you?! I’m not saying oil is BAD, but 120Kcals a day for a week adds up to 840Kcals, for most people that’s a whole meal at least...in just oil!
My two top tips are:
• MAKE YOURSELF AWARE - Weigh your food every now and again, check how many calories are in the oil/butter/dressing you just added.
• BE MINDFUL - A cereal bar that is branded as ‘high protein’ doesn’t necessarily mean it is healthy.
More often than not it will have a lot of added sugars, preservatives and oils. Try making homemade instead!
A few other things to think about:
Do you have sugar in your tea or coffee (Use sweetener or wean off sugar completely)
Do you drink full fat fizzy drinks? (Try diet)
How much milk you have in your hot drinks? (if you’re having 3 lattes a day, that’s going to amount to a LOAD extra Calories)