Have You Been Unknowingly Undermining Your Diet?

By Dennis Wright


We all understand that the best foods for our diet plans are lean meats, whole grains and healthy fats. These are the foods that will give us the energy and protein we need. They keep our bodies balanced nutritionally but don't stuff us full of empty calories that may later have to be burned off at the gym. Are you aware, however, that a few of the foods you've been thinking are good for your diet plan could actually be making you retain weight? They could be even adding unhealthy calories to your body! Here are a few of the foods that may be undermining your diet efforts.

Sports Drinks are not helping you at all. You have most likely been told that the sports drink is the fastest way to replenish your body's electrolyte levels after a workout. Many doctors agree, however, that if your exercise routine is fewer than ninety minutes, water is a fine way to do this. Sports drinks are full of sugar and calories and a lot of other things you don't need such as artificial flavors and colors which defeat any attempts at eating only natural products. Try having some chocolate milk as a substitute. The sugar in chocolate may help your muscles begin to repair themselves and the calcium in the milk will strengthen your bones.

Skip the protein shakes. Lots of individuals think that ingesting a protein shake is a good way to curb cravings between meals. The truth is that if you are already eating a balanced diet all the protein shake really does is overload your system with protein. Contrary to popular belief, protein does not get saved as muscle, it gets stored as fat. This means that if you have already taken in too much protein that day, your system will merely store what it doesn't need in your fat cells and that doesn't help you lose weight or inches of your waist line at all.



Pre-packaged deli meat isn't nearly as good for you as you might believe that it is. You may possibly think that a sandwich made of whole wheat bread and pre-packaged lean deli meat makes for a good lunch. Actually, pre-packaged deli meat has much too many preservatives as well as sodium (one portion contains about a third of the amount of sodium you should eat in a day). This might be specifically problematic if you are prone to heart disease. Rather than getting pre-packaged deli meat, choose some home cooked poultry or the deli meats that is newly sliced at your deli counter. Yes you will pay more money for these choices but you will be healthier if you choose them.

There are a lot of things that we think will help us lose weight like eating a whole wheat bagel each morning but the truth is that eating a bowl of oatmeal sprinkled with cinnamon is a lot better for our health and waist lines. Ask a medical professional which foods are best for you and then consume those. If you are mindful about what exactly you ingest and treat your body well, losing weight should not be that big of an issue for you!




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