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Let’s discuss five ways to remove empty calories from the diet to lose weight. Empty calorie foods are foods or drinks that do not provide nutrition to the body, such as vitamins, minerals, or fiber. Therefore, keeping them at a minimum will allow you to maximize the calories you consume as nutritious calories.
Replace store-bought juice with real fruit.
I can’t tell you how many isles in the grocery store we entirely skip due to the sugary, processed fruit juices. Now, the exception to this is making juice at home with a juicer or consuming high quality pressed juices from a juice bar. In that case, create or choose one with mostly vegetables for added nutrition without a ton of sugar from fruit. Newly squeezed or pressed juice has tons of health benefits. Unfortunately, freshly squeezed juice’s health benefits start to decline 24-48 hours after being pressed. So those juices at the grocery store won’t work. Instead, replace it with whole, real fruit that will provide fiber and nutrients to the body.
Replace soda and diet soda with sparkling water.
Tough love, right? Soda and diet soda have no place in a healthy diet plan because they provide no nutrition, and they contain potentially dangerous chemicals. Sparkling water has a fizz to it that will give you the sensation of consuming soda. Also, add a fresh squeeze of lemon or lime juice for added benefits and taste.
Use Stevia if you need to add a bit of sweetness instead of other artificial sweeteners.
Avoid fake sugars like sweet and low or Splenda. The truth is these replacements need to be better studied for us to understand the long term effects. On the other hand, Stevia is derived from plants. Therefore, only use Stevia when necessary and in small amounts.
Snacks like chips, cookies, cakes, and sugary cereals should be on occasion only.
Did you know that the US averages 126g of sugar/day? It’s more than any other country. The recommended daily sugar intake is 11g/day! You may be reading food labels already, but are you reading the ingredients lists as well? Start to check the top three to five on packages for sugar or sugar-like ingredients. Foods primarily made of sugar should be eliminated or cut back substantially, especially if you’re trying to lose weight.
Mind your coffee.
One of the first things I discuss with health coaching clients is coffee intake. It’s common not to realize how many additional calories are consumed just from coffee drinks. For example, Starbucks frappuccinos have over 500 calories in them! Check out my blog post here on keto and low-calorie Starbucks drinks.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you find this list overwhelming, start with one of the five for the first week and add on each week. Small changes will lead to significant results! One pound of body weight equals 3500 calories. Therefore, to lose a pound a week that’s cutting back 500 calories/day. You may be surprised if you do the five things above, how easy that is to cut out!
I hope you enjoyed reading the five ways to remove empty calories from the diet to lose weight. You may also enjoy my free pdf that includes a healthy grocery list and meal plan guide!
Till next time,ย
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