We all know to avoid deep fried foods, creamy desserts, and cuts of meat with thick fat. However, besides the most obvious, people have a hard time figuring out which foods make us fat. Even worse, people don’t understand the basics of nutrition and quit their diets and gym subscriptions because they don’t see immediate results.
Let’s talk a bit about nutrition and then list the top 5 foods that are making you fat!
Eating Actual Fat Won’t Make You Fat
We can lose weight on an all-fat diet! No, I’m not a liar. Weight is based on calories, not fat, so to lose weight all you need to do is eat less calories than you consume. And, if you eat only fat, but less than the amount your body uses every day, then you will lose weight. Presto!
Now, an all fat diet is not the healthiest, and I wouldn’t recommend it, but it shows you people’s misconceptions about fat loss.
There are three types of food: fats, carbohydrates, and protein. Each one has a certain number of calories. Carbs and proteins each have 4 calories per gram, and fats have 9 per gram. That is the major difference between the three. When you add up all the food you eat everyday and convert them to calories, as long as you eat less than your body uses, you will lose weight.
Your body is an amazing machine. It uses carbohydrates for quick energy, fats for slow burning energy, and proteins to repair wounds and build muscles. However, if you don’t have access to all the forms of food, your body can use any of the three for each of the three functions.
For example, if you cut carbohydrates from your diet, your body can use protein and fats for energy. If you cut out fats from your diet, your body can actually make fat from carbs and protein! So, even if you cut out foods high in fats, you could still get fat. The trick is to eat a low calorie diet, not a low fat diet.
Here are the top 5 foods making you fat:
Fattening Food #5: Desserts
Almost every dessert is fattening. Butter is almost pure fat, and most desserts are made of butter. So, butter based products like cookies, cakes and pastries should be avoided. One large Danish pastry has 31 grams of fat and 550 calories. This means that eating just 7 pastries will put a full pound of fat on your body! And this is just #5 on our list!
Fattening Food #4: Dairy
Whole dairy is a hidden source of fattening calories. Ice cream is the obvious culprit, but many of us forget that whole milk and cheeses are also laced with a high level of fat. Anything with dairy has the potential to make you fat! One serving of milk has 8 grams, a serving of cheese has 10 grams, and a serving of ice cream can have 30 grams! 9 servings of Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice cream will add one full pound of fat to your body!
Fattening Food #3: Fried Foods
Oil has the most dense calorie of any type of food. Because of this, you should try to avoid anything drenched in oil, which is the definition of most fried fast foods. One tablespoon of oil has the same amount of calories in over a pound of spinach!
So, when eating fried foods, it’s all about portion control. One serving of large fries has 500 calories, so 7 servings equals a pound of body fat.
Fattening Food #2 Creamy Sauces, Dressings, Soups
This is #2 on our list because sauces and dressings they can make any food fattening. Even the most meager salad can be turned into an artery clogging disaster by adding a dressing like thousand island.
The trick here is to avoid any sauce or soup that is white and creamy. The creaminess most likely comes from hordes of butter and cheese. Alfredo, Caesar, bleu cheese, thousand island, and all chowders are all items to avoid. A single Caesar salad can set you back 1,000 calories. Just 3 and a half of these will add a pound of fat to your waist!
Fattening Food #1: Drinks
The biggest fattening food culprit isn’t even a food. These are calories you can drink! Sodas, juices, and sugary beverages, most of which don’t contain fat, are the worst. Liquid calories are mostly carbohydrates in the form of simple sugars, but throughout the day they can add up fast. Drinking 2 cans of soda and 3 cups of juice per day is almost 750 calories extra per day! If you do this every day of the year, you will gain 78 pounds of fat!
Not all drinks are created equal, however. Shakes with ice cream and candies are an obvious culprit, but so are certain types of coffees. In order to burn off one large chocolate shake from McDonalds and one large White Peppermint Hot Chocolate from Starbucks together, you’d have to run 15 miles! If not, and you have one each of these drinks with your lunch each day, you will have an additional 156 pounds of fat at the end of the year!
The trick to fat loss is to eat less calories than you use per day. Understanding hidden calories in everyday foods will help you avoid unnecessary fat gains that you may have overlooked.
-KW
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