Do you put your full 100% effort into your diet program but can’t see any result?

A lot of people also have this problem. They work hard on their diet and exercise, and yet can’t get the body transformation that they wanted.

I still remember when I was counting calories of every foods that enter my mouth, and still there’s little to no change in my weight and body.

What’s the problem then?

Most of the times, the problem is not about lack of effort or plan. If you’re constantly counting your calories and increasing your metabolism by doing exercises, then you might be on the right track, strategy wise.

The main issue that I see (which was something that I was guilty of before) is on the choice of food.

I believe it’s well-established that not all foods are the same. Some foods are good and some are bad (especially those processed junk foods). But do you know that there are many foods to avoid to lose weight?

Even those foods that are marketed for dieters might not be a good thing for you. To make matters worse, these foods are the staple foods in a modern household.

What are these foods to avoid to lose weight? In this article, I’m going to share the Top 10 Everyday Foods To Avoid To Lose Weight.

Interested to clean up your diet? Then continue reading!

Top 10 Everyday Foods To Avoid To Lose Weight

1. Sugary Drinks
2. Desserts
3. Fat-free products
4. Protein & Granola Bars
5. Deep fried Foods
6. Fruit Juices
7. Baked Foods
8. Sweetened Yogurts
9. Alcohol
10. Pizza

If you don’t have the time to read the whole article, watch this video for a brief summary =)

 

1- Sugary Drinks

It is no wonder that sugary drinks should be placed at the top of this list of the foods to avoid to lose weight.

Sugary drinks are the arch-enemy of everyone that wants to lose weight. Period.

It has huge amount of sugar in it, which means there’s a ton of calorie inside it that disrupt the calorie deficit all dieters need to have to lose weight.

For example, the average drink from Starbucks has 200 kcal of calories in it (grande size).

Those that knows their daily caloric requirement (or BMR) knows that this constitutes about 10% to 25% of their daily calorie needs, depending on gender/weight/height.

When you’re dieting, each calorie counts. As much as possible, you want to reduce the amount of calories consumed while at the same time maximizes the amount of nutrition you’re getting from the foods (well, because you need to keep the body functioning properly).

And this is another problem with sugar – it does not have any nutrition! In short, it’s an empty calorie, lot so energy but so little nutrition.

Another problem with sugar is it will spike insulin level in our blood. While insulin spike is normal to any human, it will stop any fat mobilization/burning which means you won’t be able to burn off fat for a few hours.

So if your habit is to have a sugary drink with your meals, then I strongly recommend that you stop it and drink plain water, tea or coffee instead.

You can easily shave off 100 kcal from your daily diet, minimum =)

2- Desserts

Desserts – cakes, biscuits, pudding, etc. – are the same type of food as sugary drinks, which is empty calorie.

Without explaining in length (as I’ve covered almost all the negative effects of refined sugar above), desserts should definitely not in your list of foods to consume if you’re looking to lose some weight.

It packs a lot of calories and gives little to no nutrition. Definitely a bad choice of food to eat.

But what if you can’t live without your piece of cookies or cake?

Then the only option is to eat sugar-free desserts (such as this recipe page on Allrecipes) which mostly uses fruits or other non-sugar ingredients to give the sweetness.

3- Fat-free products

You should beware of any food items marketed as fat-free. While these foods might be fat-free, it does not mean that it’s a good food to eat.

For example, suppose a yogurt/milk was made fat-free by removing the fats, how does the manufacturer keep the yogurt/milk still delicious?

The answer is they must have substituted the fat content with something just as undesirable, such as lots of sugar!

So beware the next time you encountered a fat-free product. I highly recommend to look at the ingredients and nutrition content to know what’s inside it before you buy it.

4- Protein & Granola Bars

Next in the list is protein and granola bars. Although it might sound healthy (after all, protein is one of the best macro-nutrients that you need to eat more to lose weight), this might not be the case after all.

Despite its prevalence in many diet program nowadays, not all protein bars are healthy to be eaten (read this article to understand my concern more) due to the ingredients that are mostly made up of processed foods and sugars.

How to check which one you should not eat?

2 easy ways that I found were working to root out the bad protein bars:

1. Just look at the food label and see if it has lots of sugar in it. If it contains more than 15 g of sugar (about 100 kcal) in a small bar, then it’s not a good protein bar to be eaten (see above on why refined sugar is bad for you, and your waistline).
2. Try it out. If you feel the taste is too much like a dessert, then chances are the bar might be an over-processed foods (think desserts, cakes, etc.). As much as possible, you want a protein bar that is made from real ingredients with no to low sugar, with the sweetness coming from the ingredients itself.

Yep, it’s difficult and pricey to get a good real-ingredient protein bars. That’s why I recommend that you forego it and choose other easier and cheaper alternatives such as nuts (unsweetened & unsalted), or fruits as your quick energy meal.

5- Deep fried Foods

Who doesn’t love fried foods? Fried chicken and french fries were my most favorite foods growing up (even today LOL!) but I have to say that fried foods are not a good food to be taken if you want to lose weight.

The reason why fried foods are very delicious is due to the fat, specifically the fat from the oil that the foods was cooked in.

When we deep fry a food, the fat from the oil will stick to the outer layer of the food during the cooking process.

Lots of fat will still be on the food even after it was taken out from the deep fryer, and this fat layer is what gives deep-fried foods such good aroma and taste.

I mean, fat is one of the most delicious thing to be eaten right?

Unfortunately it’s also one of the worst.

Fat has a huge amount of calorie, specifically 9 kcal per gram. This is more than double the amount of calorie in a carb i.e 4 kcal per gram. So you’re actually consuming more calories eating a deep-fried food.

In addition, the cholesterol from the oil is the bad type of cholesterol which was proven to be the cause of cardiovascular diseases.

While eating deep-fried foods can gives us utmost pleasure, it’s also the recipe for weight gain AND diseases.

If you can’t live without your fried chickens and french fries, I suggest that you use air fryer with little oil.

Air fryer has improved tremendously over the years and most people (including me) thinks that it’s a better and healthier alternative to deep fryer.

6- Fruit Juices

Fruits are good right? Absolutely. But what about fruit juices? It should be good as well right?

I hate to burst the bubble but fruit juices are not a good drink. In fact, I’d say fruit juices are a tad bit better than sugary drinks as it has some vitamins and minerals. But other than that, it’s one of the drinks/foods to avoid to lose weight.

Why is fruit juices not a good drink?

Because its not the same as fruits. A whole fruit contain lots of sugar, vitamin, minerals and also lots of fiber. This high fiber content inside it makes it a good choice of food because it helps with digestion. In addition, the fiber also acts as a buffer to reduce the effect of insulin spike from the sugars in the fruit.

But when it comes to fruit juices, there’s no fiber in it. Fruit juices contain mostly of sugar/glucose. Depending on the manufacturing process, the sugar can be natural (if you make the juice yourselves or from some brands) or refined sugar/syrup (every other typical fruit juices in the grocery store).

It’s devoid of fiber which means it’s just a sugary drink with vitamins and minerals.

I recommend trying your hand with smoothies instead. Smoothies are different from fruit juices in which the whole fruit was blended into making it, which means all the fiber goodness is also inside it.

This makes smoothies very nutritional and is a better choice than juices. Try it out today!

7- Baked Foods

We all love our baked foods right? Cookies, pastries, donuts and breads are easy to eat everyday foods that I personally love.

It can be eaten anywhere and is a good source of energy thanks to the carbohydrate inside it.

Not to mention it tastes great as well yum-yum!

But the carbohydrate is actually a problem with baked foods. As most of these baked goods use refined flour, the carbohydrate inside it is made of glucose, and this means it will spike insulin level in your blood and stopping fat mobilization.

In addition, most cookies and pastries also uses sugar or syrup in it which further worsen this.

While I don’t think baked foods are very evil, it’s definitely one of the foods to avoid if you want to lose weight.

8- Sweetened Yogurts

Yogurts are quite stale, but fruit flavored yogurts are the best. Although it’s a favorite among the masses due to the perceived natural health (it contains fruits?), fruit flavored yogurts are actually not that healthy.

Why is fruit flavored or sweetened yogurt not a good choice of food?

Yep, you’ve guessed it. It’s the sugar inside!

There’s no way in hell anyone can sell an affordable yogurt with REAL fruits in it. Which means what’s actually inside it is sugar/syrup, artificial sweeteners and some bits and pieces of the fruits.

Another issue is the amount of sugar inside it. The next time you’re picking out your favorite yogurt, do double check the sugar content. Chances are the sugar content is high – and that’s the reason why it tastes so damn good!

One workaround is to do your yogurt yourselves. Get a plain Greek yogurt and put some tropical or berry fruits inside it. I can guarantee that it’s healthier and not to mention a cheaper alternative =)

9- Alcohol

It’s a favorite beverage among many people on earth but it’s also one of the least nutritionally drink, on par with sodas.

Think about this, alcoholic drinks are high in calorie thanks to its sugar content, with little to no other nutrition. On average:

1. 12-oz of regular beer has 150 calories
2. 12-oz light beer has 100 calories
3. 5-oz glass of red wine has 125 calories
4. 1.5-oz glass of an 80-proof distilled spirit has 90 calories

Indeed, some people might say that wine has antioxidant but there’s plenty of other options to get antioxidants without racking in those extra calories.

Various teas and coffees (green tea in particular) are famous for antioxidants with little to no calorie.

If you really can’t live without alcohol, then I suggest to factor in the calorie from your alcoholic drinks into your diet.

Done right, you will still be able to create a calorie deficit diet while enjoying a glass of beer once in a while. Just remember to not over-drink or you can say goodbye to your weight loss goals =)

10- Pizza

The last foods to avoid to lose weight is the delectable pizza. Hot pepperoni pizza is a great snack – or a meal by itself.

But do you know pizza is also one of the foods that will hamper your weight loss efforts?

The problem with pizza lies with the refined flour in it, same as baked foods.

Refined flour gives simple sugar that will easily spike your blood sugar level to the roof and stopping any fat burning at the same time.

Not to mention it’s not fulfilling and you’ll end up eating a few many slices just to feel satiated. And this can easily lead to over consumption of calories – the very thing that will stop your weight loss!

And don’t get me started with the nutrition value of pizza. True enough, you can choose to put vegetables and meat on your pizza for some nutrition boost, but let’s be real here – how many veges can you put on it?

In terms of nutrition value, pizza is far from a well-rounded meal and that’s another reason why you should avoid eating ASAP.

 

Conclusion

Thanks to modern age, there are too many “bad foods” around us right now. What’s worse is how easily accessible these foods are. Some (such as pizza and baked foods) are even eaten on a constant basis due to its convenience.

Without a doubt, these foods are enticing and delicious to be eaten. But as someone that is targeting to lose his/her weight, these foods are the foods to avoid to lose weight.

I’m not saying that you should forget about that cold beer forever though. What I highly recommend is to stop eating/drinking these foods daily and shift to fresh, natural foods on daily basis.

For these 10 foods, you still can enjoy them but limit it to only one “cheat” meal per week. That way, you will still be able to savor these foods but there’s little effect on your weight as it’s only one meal in a week.

I’ve learnt most of the things in this article from The 2 Week Diet . It’s one of the best diet that I’ve read and I’ve managed to achieve my target when utilizing the diet inside it (read my review of the ebook here).

By the way, there’s an ongoing 30% discount going for The 2 Week Diet. You can click this link to see if it’s still available.

I hope this article about the top 10 foods to avoid to lose weight is beneficial to you. Do let me know if you have any comments or suggestions on other foods that should be included inside this list.

Till next time.

Cheers!