One thing that I have time and time again come across when speaking to clients or friends looking to lose weight, is that their efforts seem to be dampened by their lack of knowledge on the calories in the drinks they are consuming. Many of us simply forget to track liquids in our day to day diets, as these aren't classified as 'foods' or 'meals'.
What is pretty scary is that your regular 'healthy' drinks throughout the day may contribute to a large chunk of your day's calorie intake, before even touching a meal yet. Let's take a look at an example of this:
8AM: Tall Regular Latte. (av. 150 kcals.)
10AM: Naked Smoothie bottle (av. 240 kcal)
12PM: Can of Coke: (av. 139 kcal)
2PM: Flavoured latte eg. Vanilla latte medium Costa (249 kcals)
5PM: 1 small glass Apple Juice (av. 117 kcals).
8PM: Medium glass white wine (175ml) (av. 160 kcals).
10PM: Cup tea w/ whole milk and one sugar: (av. 40kcals).
Total calories from one day of liquids: 1,095 kcals.
We can see from this brief example that it can be extremely easy to pile on the calories from the drinks you are consuming each day. You may be consuming perfect, whole foods which are in line with your energy requirements, eating in a calorie deficit in terms of FOOD, however it is the drinks that may be seriously holding back your efforts fro success.
This example is very similar to a real-life food diary from a past client in terms of calorie intake. In terms of fruit juices, many of us think that these are an improvement over fizzy alternatives. If you are consuming fresh juices, not from concentrate, in small amounts, these are beneficial in terms of nutrients and vitamins however these may not be helpful in terms of weight loss. Whole fruit, which is much more filling and contains components like fibre are much better for you.
With busier lives and the increasing amount of frappe/smoothie-cino/ meal replacements shakes/milkshakes tempting us, it proves harder to diverge away from consuming way too many calories through your liquids. Never before has there been access to such a wide range of tasty and energy-dense drinks to tempt us. However, what I always emphasise to my clients is that you should aim to limit calories from these sources, so that you can enjoy larger amounts of foods throughout your day which are more filling, nutrient dense and will give you much more energy than these alternatives. Remember to always track everything that you consume when first starting off on a weight loss mission in order to give yourself a rough idea of how many calories you consume currently, and how much you should reduce these by.
And lastly, replacing these unhealthier drinks and energy dense liquids with natural sources like water will be hugely beneficial to you. If you find it difficult to drink enough or do not like the taste of water, you can try adding cucumber, mint, berries or lemon to your bottles to encourage you to drink more. Water is vital to keep your body functioning at its optimal rate, is important for lean muscle tissue growth and helps to expel out toxins stored in your body.
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