You Stay too Late at Work
When you work later, you also eat later and go to sleep later, both of which lead to unwanted pounds. A study in the journal Nutrition Research found that those whose last meal was closest to bedtime took in more calories during the day. If you typically log late nights at the office, you could be diminishing the quality of your sleep and increasing your odds of weight gain.
Every time that we turn around, there’s a new diet plan telling us what and what not to eat for weight loss. Some diets will limit you to just lemon juice and peppers, while others are very specific and require a whole lot of discipline and tracking. Yes, sometimes they are just not practical, and it can be hard to watch every single calorie. But you don’t have to starve or count food calories. If you just avoid certain fat boosting foods and cooking methods, then you can stay thin. Here are some of the worst…
WHAT NOT TO EAT? FRIED FOOD
There’s no way around this one, folks: you can’t eat fried food if you want to stay lean and mean. Why? Because it generally contains some of the fattiest ingredients that you can ingest, including canola oil, white flour, and corn meal. Besides the fatty content, frying food removes nutrients. For instance, when you fry potatoes, which in their natural state are actually quite healthful, they lose any nutritional value. Fried foods also usually contain Trans fats, which is a major instigator of heart disease. Sorry, but eating that fried chicken just won’t do if you want to stay thin.
WHAT NOT TO EAT? PROCESSED FOOD
Processed food, in simple terms, is any food that has been altered from its natural state. Think of this way: if the caveman didn’t eat it that way, then it’s probably been processed. This includes foods that are canned, frozen, dried, and dehydrated. So why is this a no-no when watching your weight? Well, for starters, when manufacturers take something out or otherwise change a naturally occurring food, then they need to add something else back in, to make it taste better. These additives can be large quantities of sugar, salt and/or artificial flavors. All of this ‘nutritional engineering’ makes for a lot of empty calories that aren’t going to be so easy to burn off.
WHAT NOT TO EAT? ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
Ok, sugar’s bad for us, we get it, but what about those sugar substitutes? Nope, not those either! Most of those colorful little blue and pink packets that you’ve always thought were the smarter choice? Well, it turns out that they’re probably no better (and might even be worse) than the original evil white dust. While most artificial sweeteners are lower in calories than regular sugar, some studies show that they can actually lead to weight gain. Besides that, they are essentially chemically produced, and have been linked to some types of cancer. Natural alternatives like agave nectar, honey and cane juice are better.
WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT
While there may be a lot of foods on the “what not to eat” list when trying to slim down, especially when you commit to fad diets, the good news is that there are actually many that you can and should eat for weight control. These foods include fruits and vegetables, lean meats, fish and poultry, farm fresh eggs, raw nuts and seeds – all the things that we were meant to eat. Oh, and don’t forget to drink water; it contains 0 calories, helps to flush harmful toxins from system, and curbs appetite.