Theres not a day that goes by where someone doesnt come to us asking for diet advice confused as to why theyre NOT losing weight even though they dont eat a lot...and even if theyre eating healthy. The truth is that while quantity does matter, its possible to still overconsume calories if choosing the wrong foods. Some foods, even though theyre considered very healthy, carry loads of calories in a very small amount of food. We call these calorically dense foods and if your diet is comprised of a bunch of them, you can easily gain weight even without eating a lot of food. Here are some healthy examples of calorically dense foods: 1. Granola - granola, especially the varieties mixed with nuts can pack as many as 500 cals per cup! 2. Pasta - a moderate 1 and 1/2 cups of most pastas yield more than 60 grams of carbs and almost 350 calories 3. Avocado - avocado is awesome and a great source of monounsaturated fat, but one single avocado is over 300 calories and 30 grams of fat 4. Nuts and Nut Butters - nuts are super healthy, but one of the most calorically dense foods around. A few ounces could mean 400+ calories 5. Fruit Juice and Smoothies - all fruit juices are loaded with sugar and so are most smoothie shop smoothies (make your own with whole fruit) 6. Dried Fruit - dried fruits remove the water content which dramatically decreases volume...whats left is high in sugar and very calorically dense 7. Whole Wheat Breads - even the 100% whole wheat variety can pack a mean calorie punch if youre eating a lot of grains as part of your diet 8. Whole Grain Bagels - a large deli bagel is loaded with carbs and calories, many times over 400 cals in a single bagel While some of the foods above are only thought to be healthy (fruit juice, whole grain bagels, etc), stuff like nuts, nut butters, and avocado are foods that Id recommend in just about everyones diet and they are indeed great choices. That said, these calorically dense foods require that you monitor your intake of them closely. A few ounces of nuts, a couple tablespoons of nut butter, and an avocado is NOT a lot of food, but if you ate all of these every day, youd be getting close to 1000 calories just right there. Now, before we go we also want to make sure youre aware of one particular carb that you literally should NEVER eat. You see, this extremely common carb wreaks havoc on your fat-storing hormones in a MAJOR way, and has even been shown to hamper memory, slow brain activity, and increase your risk of Alzheimer’s. Even worse, the money-hungry food industry is conspiring to sneak this nightmare carb into just about everything. ==> NEVER eat this carb (literally, never)
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 22:29:40 +0000