You Can’t Lose Fat Eating These
We’re all about balance.
Sure, we have a reputation for living off tofu and grass, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.
We follow a 90/10 rule – eat clean 90% of the time and “let the reins out” the other 10% of the time.
In numbers that means if we’re eating 5 meals each day, with 7 days in a week, that’s 35 meals total.
With 10% of the meals being “relax” meals, that is about 4 meals each week.
Aim for this same goal and you’ll never struggle with your body weight again.
But there are 3 foods that will totally sabotage your goal of getting lean.
So, OK, if you eat them once in a long while, no worries…but if they are even fairly regular parts of your diet, you’ll struggle.
Bagels. These things are a nutritional disaster. They are giant white balls of refined carbohydrates, packing in 350+ calories WITHOUT anything added to them.
They'll cause you to hold onto weight like it’s stuck to your body with glue!
Typical bakery bagels are equal to about 5-6 pieces of bread. Add in the cream cheese, enjoy it with your morning latte, and you’re in trouble.
Salad Toppings. Salad can be considered the perfect food, when made with great ingredients.
But when that otherwise healthy salad is loaded with high-calorie dressings (~300 calories), fried chicken strips (350 calories), bacon (125 calories), cheese (225 calories), and croutons (125 calories), you’ve just turned what could have been a great meal into a disaster, with over a day’s worth of calories and fat!
Smoothies. I love a homemade smoothie as much as the next guy – but “healthy” smoothies often go incognito and can pack a serious dose of calories and sugar. Smoothie King offers one drink with over 2000 calories and many others are well above 500. That’s healthy?
Make your own – fresh fruit, some Greek yogurt, and a splash of juice or skim milk. Now THAT can help you ultimately reach your goals.
Remember that 90/10 rule. Stick to nutrition basics. Maintain a nice balanced exercise routine and you’ll be well on your way to permanent success.
Do you have any others to add?
Here another article talking about strategies to lose that belly fat forever.
Check out a success story of someone who lost over 60 lbs using our simple fat loss strategies.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:07 am
What about 100% whole wheat bagels? Still just as bad?
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Chris and Kara Mohr Reply:
January 15th, 2010 at 6:18 am
Great question! While whole wheat bagels are SLIGHTLY better than plain, offering at least a few grams of fiber, they’re packed with way too many refined carbs for my liking.
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January 15th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Any canned/packaged goods loaded with sodium…even the 25% less versions still contain WAY too much added sodium! This includes seasonings!
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January 15th, 2010 at 7:10 am
I breathed a sigh of relief when I read that you two actually do "relax" sometimes when it comes to what you eat and when the three things that you listed to avoid were not three things I eat:) Whew!
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January 15th, 2010 at 8:50 am
The average muffin sold by Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks is between 400-600 cals with loads of fat (and mostly refined carbs) too. Many people don't eat at McDonalds and other fast food places because they consider themselves healthy eaters. But they'll still pick up a coffee and muffin for breakfast and between the two, consume half of the amount of calories they should be eating the entire day before it hits 9am.
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January 15th, 2010 at 8:51 am
The average muffin sold by Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks is between 400-600 cals with loads of fat (and mostly refined carbs) too. Many people don't eat at McDonalds and other fast food places because they consider themselves healthy eaters. But they'll still pick up a coffee and muffin for breakfast and between the two, consume half of the amount of calories they should be eating the entire day before it hits 9am.
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January 15th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Chris,
What do you think about eating whole grains (I agree with you on Bagels being a calorie bomb) only during the first half of the day and then tapering off grain intake as the day wears on? I've had success with this but haven't seen much research on it. Intuitively it makes sense to me that taking in higher energy foods, such as grains earlier in the day and then tapering to avoid an influx of usable calories- in the form of grains- that are simply going to be stored. After all, do we really need that much fuel at the end of the day?
Thanks
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Chris and Kara Mohr Reply:
January 17th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Great question — I think it’s more important to eat your carbs around when you exercise instead of eating them according to the time of day. If I exercised at 7 PM, I’d need some carbs to help me recover, even though it was close to bed time.
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January 15th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
I think a lot of people are mislead because they don't know how to read nutrition labels. 100 total calories and 40 calories from fat means the item is 40% fat. (40/100 = 0.40) Don't have it on a regular basis unless you want to become 40% fat.
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