3 Surprising Things to Stop Eating Now If You Want to Lose Weight

This is not a sponsored post but does contain affiliate links.

If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re already aware that your food choices have a major impact on your weight loss efforts. While certain foods can help promote weight loss, others can cause you to gain extra pounds. Some foods seem healthy but have hidden and unnecessary calories. Here are 3 surprising things to stop eating if you want to lose weight.

Gluten-free prepackaged foods.

Whether you’re allergic to gluten or you have an allergy to gluten, you may have turned to gluten-free breads, pastas, snacks, and more. Especially with all the healthy hype, people sometimes confuse “gluten free” for “healthy”. Unfortunately, these foods could be wreaking havoc on your dieting efforts, as they’re generally higher in sugar and carbohydrates. Opting for foods that are naturally gluten free is a much better choice for your waistline.

TIP: Chia seeds and flax seeds are super healthy and are naturally gluten free so add them to your low fat, gluten free recipes.

Coffee.

While coffee in itself won’t cause weight gain, the things that you’re adding to your coffee may. Creamers tend to be high in fat, carbohydrates, and sugar. If you opt for a drink that is flavored with dairy, syrups and drizzled with sugary sauce, you may be taking in a ton more calories than you realize. Always look up the calories and other nutritional information of drinks online so you can make the best choices. If you really want to lose weight, try drinking your coffee mostly black and using almond milk in place of creamer. Starbucks is awesome for having a menu of drinks under 200 calories!

TIP: Flavored coffee beans and grounds have no significant increase in calories, so drinking flavored varieties may satisfy your cravings while you are decreasing your cream and sugar!

Salad.

Many people assume that salad couldn’t possibly be linked to weight gain, but it can. Certain dressings, especially “cream” dressing such as Ranch and French, pack on a lot of additional extra calories, sugar, and fat. That’s not even to mention if you add croutons, nuts or cheese to your salad. Consider switching to a low-fat, oil-based dressing, such as Italian, and only including vegetables, lean meats, and fruits in your salad. Avoid unnecessary toppings like crackers and tortilla chips whenever possible. Chickpeas and shelled edamame my favorite healthy and delicious protein topping for salad.

TIP: To add flavor to salad without the calories add a few shakes of hot sauce. As well, sometimes a spray of olive oil to hold the salt and pepper are all it takes to not miss the dressing.

These are just a few of the things to stop eating if you want to lose weight. Be sure to check labels for calorie, sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates before deciding what foods to include in your diet.