Losing Weight without starving yourself – Part 3
WHAT TO EAT
If you are trying to lose weight, choose food based on their weight-to-calorie ratio. You want to eat food that weighs a lot but has few calories and avoid food that is light in weight but hefty in calories.
Fruits and vegetables are the big winners in the heavy weight-low calorie department, according to Tufts University. They weigh a lot because of their fiber and water content and yet do not have many calories. For example, one cup of cantaloupe or ‘melon’ weighs 5.5 ounces but only has 56 calories. A cup of cooked spinach weighs six ounces but only has 42 calories.
Now, compare that to six cups of buttered popcorn that only weighs three ounces and contains 420 calories or, even worse, one ounce of potato chips that has 152 calories (if you ate four ounces, you would be inviting 608 calories to feel at home in your fat cells). That’s what I call “small but terrible”.
Most snack food doesn’t weigh much but sure have a lot of calories. This means you can eat a lot of them without feeling full and without realizing it take in many excess calories that you don’t need.
Most cookies weigh ½ ounce and contain 50 calories. Eat six cookies and you only have three ounces of weight but you’ve racked up 300 calories. 1.5 ounces of a chocolate bar contain 220 calories. A small croissant only weighs two ounces but has 230 calories.
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Losing Weight without starving yourself – Part 2
WHAT ABOUT THOSE DIET COMPANIES AND FAD DIETS?
We’ll start out here by saying unequivocally that we think that many of these companies such as Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have their definite positive aspects. They give people a way to lose weight in a healthy manner by providing foods you can eat that will meet recommended caloric intakes. They also give support and advice along the way as you lose weight.
Their downfall is that they can be quite expensive to join when you factor in the cost of membership along with the food. Many of these companies require you to buy their own pre-packaged food for all meals, and that can get quite costly. They are a good option for those of you who can well afford their plans and can stick to them.
There are also many, many fad diets that have popped up over the years that promise rapid weight loss as long as you stick to their recommendations. Some of these fad diets, however, can be dangerous, and they should be carefully evaluated before they are undertaken.
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