Do You Know Where Hidden Calories Lie? | Healthy Eating | Diet&Fitness

Isn't is downright nasty when you are on diet and you are working out, and eating only healthy foods when you hop on the sale at the end of the week, to find out you gained five pounds? And you're wondering if you grew a third foot overnight, or if one of the kids has snuck a toy somehow into the scale.

You don't know how it happened, but you know you have been doing all the right things, and eating all the right foods. And sometimes you feel like you are starving yourself and can't possibly drink any more lemon water. It just might be that the foods you thought were the right foods to eat on a diet, aren't all they are cracked up to be. By keeping a diet dairy you can find out just what you are eating and how many calories you are consuming.

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Here's the lowdown on those so called healthy foods:

While having a salad is a very healthy alternative to lunch, skip putting any kind of nuts on it to add flavor. Nuts are high in calories and high in fat. One ounce of walnuts has a whopping 194 calories. One ounce of almonds has 171 calories. Sunflower seeds have 164 calories in just one ounce.
One small package of salted peanuts has 311 calories and over 26 grams of fat. The "crunchy" section of the salad bar -- nuts, croutons, seeds -- is a calorie landmine.

It's hard to not eat the entire bag of microwaved popcorn, but you're going to have to try, because one bag with butter can add up up to 405 unwanted calories. A better option is the single-serving bags of popcorn. A scoop or two of ice cream can actually add up to less calories than a bag of popcorn? It's true! Belgian chocolate ice cream from Haagen-Dazs has only 318 calories. But it has 20 grams of fat, compared to the popcorn, which only has 8 grams.

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Who only eats a 3/4 cup or 1 cup of cereal for breakfast? Possibly only little kids who don't eat breakfast in the first place. But that's the measurement companies utilize, with Honeynut Cheerios at 3/4 cup coming in at 110 calories. Add whole milk to that, and the calories add up to 250 calories. Rice Krispies are 130 calories at 1 1/4 cups, and with milk at almost 300 calories. By the way a fruit and grain cereal bar adds up to 140 calories, and you will probably be hungry in an hour. Conversely, you could eat plenty of fresh fruit for breakfast, or top off those cereals, and have a satisfying, reasonably low-calorie breakfast. Try cereal with skim or lowfat milk to slash calories further.
This one is a shocker! Low fat plain yogurt, with only 1 percent milk fat comes in at 170 calories -- bump up the satisfaction level by adding fresh fruit. And you thought you were doing so well for lunch. A tuna mayonnaise sandwich can add up to almost 500 calories, so skip the mayo or try low-fat salad dressing for extra zing.Try a low-calorie chicken sandwich instead that has only 270 calories. Another surprising dieters' lunch favorite is soup. It's hot and filling, but while it only contains 140 calories a cup, the sodium can be a problem for those with hypertension or heart disease. Campbell's Italian style wedding soup has more than 480 mgs of sodium.

Sides for dinner and lunch can really add up to to sabotage the best laid diet plans. Quick-prep pastas like Pasta Roni Angel hair pasta top off at 310 calories-- for just one cup. Catalina dressing is 130 calories per 2 tablespoons. And ranch dressing adds up to about 150 calories for two tablespoons, while light ranch comes to just 80 calories.

Toppings, cheeses and even that unsuspecting container of yogurt can sabotage the best-laid diet plans. Keep a diet diary and write down everything you eat and how many calories each food item adds up to. This way you will be able to see how healthy you really are eating and how you can cut back to lose those extra pounds.

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