It’s a constant struggle for people trying to melt away extra fat to navigate through aisles of supermarkets, consciously looking for healthy food that would help them slim down quickly, most of them look for food extremely low in calories, and ignore other factors, or should we say ingredients. Many companies push their products under the tag of “diet friendly” and “low calorie,” but the truth is far from reality. When your goal is to shed weight, it’s important to be extra careful about what goes into your mouth. The best way to lose weight is to eat right and be consistent with your diet plan, most importantly, follow a good plan like Rati Beauty diet, and avoid so-called “diet foods” that in fact make you gain weight. In this post, we are drawing the spotlight on foods that you think are weight-loss friendly, but beware, they can make prevent weight loss from happening.

1. Flavoured Coffee: The caffeine content in coffee boosts weight loss in a big way, improving metabolism, helping burn extra calories, but flavoured coffee has a lot of calories, also high in added sugar, which may lead to weight gain. Additionally, drinking close to the bedtime would interfere with sleep quality and as we all know, compromising on sleep can slow down metabolism and aid in build up of belly fat.

2. Artificial Sweeteners: Artificial sweeteners have this health halo around them, but “all’s not well” with synthetic sweeteners, especially when added to daily chai or coffee to sweeten things up. Artificial sweeteners do manage to spike insulin levels because our body cannot really differentiate between artificial sweeteners and real sugar. When insulin gets spiked, it sends the body into a fat-storage mode and all the extra calories would be stored into fat cells, leading to weight gain. Studies have found that certain artificial sweeteners can alter the gut flora, leading to imbalance, and a whole set of health issues including high blood sugar level, stress, and elevated hunger hormone levels, and weight gain. Instead of relying on artificial sweeteners, what would help you lose weight successfully are the meal plans on the Rati Beauty diet.

3. Canned Fruits: Pineapple, cherries, peaches, mangoes, prunes, grapefruits, lychees, mangosteen, – it’s a good way to enjoy these amazing fruits when they are not in season by buying a can of mixed fruit cocktail! Wait, here’s the issue – these canned fruits come soaked in sugar syrup – they can lead to weight gain! Some people do think canned fruits are healthy! But how can fruits that are soaked in sugary syrup with zero nutritional value be good for you? Not to mention, the high sugar content shoots up blood sugar, has loads of calories, raises inflammation, and can even impact gut health. Having canned fruits in sugar syrup is the easiest way to gain weight and build up belly fat. Even if you want to indulge in canned fruits, always make sure that these fruits are soaked in their natural juice or water.

4. Protein Bars: These bars which claim to be rich in protein are a favorite post-workout snack among gym goers, but chewing on these bars will put all your effort in the gym down the drain with high sugar content. Make your own protein bars at home with peanuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and jaggery for sweetness.

5. Granola: This popular breakfast item has a good amount of sugar and other sweeteners with high calorie content. It’s better to switch to traditional Indian breakfast dishes that are full of nutrients, low in calories, and are filling at the same time. For example, idli, dosa, dhokla, poha, etc.

6. Smoothies: Smoothies maybe extremely nutritious, but they can be high in calories. For example – banana+peanut butter smoothie; no doubt it’s healthy but banana and peanut butter are high in calories. Since your aim is to lose weight, you can consume one banana or simply eat a handful of peanuts instead of adding milk and sugar to it. Another very common drink in the fitness world is protein shake – protein shakes are excellent way to add that extra dose of protein into the body but be careful before purchasing any protein powder. Read your labels well and do check calories per drink. The best protein powder to choose is ‘whey protein’ as it’s low in calories and highly nutritious. Tip: Avoid refined sugar and use stevia as an alternative to avoid adding extra calories to your drinks. Also read: “10 Tips for the Healthiest Smoothies.”

7. Low-fat Flavoured Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt is rich in probiotics and help strengthen the gut, but make sure you are picking the “unflavored” ones because the other variants have loads of added sugar in them.

8. Fresh Fruit Juices: Most people add fresh juices of vegetables and fruits into their diets in order to improve health and lose some weight, but surprisingly, fruit juices are packed with sugar and calories, low in fiber, which can lead to weight gain. It is better to eat your fruits rather than juice them out. Bonus is that you get complete nutrition from your fruit as juicing drains the fiber in them. You can stick to non-starchy vegetables and fewer fruits to control your calories.

9. Most Breakfast Cereals: When you are changing your lifestyle to healthy, most people reach out for low-calorie cereal thinking and trusting that it would be a perfect healthy start to the day, but these breakfast cereals may have high sugar content. Some healthy breakfast options to swap packaged breakfast cereals are oats, dalia, poha, rice free idli, chia seed pudding, oats pancakes, homemade-granola etc.

10. Energy Drinks and Sports drink: Sports drinks always had a good reputation and are considered as a excellent choice for athletes or for people who perform intense workouts, but sports drinks are loaded with sugar and an average person doesn’t need so much sugar. It can spike your blood sugar levels and can make you gain weight. According to a survey, children who consumed sports drink regularly weighed more than children who don’t. I think I’ll just have a glass of water thank you!

11. Salad Dressings: Are you taking some effort and adding salads to your daily diet to shed some weight and yet there is no progress, may be now you’d know why. Surprisingly, many packaged dressings like mayonnaise, mustard, tomato ketchup, mint sauce are packed with sugars. It is estimated that one tablespoon of sauce has one teaspoon of sugar. Choosing regular dressing in moderation could be the best option.

12. Packaged Coconut Water: Coconut water is one of the healthiest beverages found naturally, abundant in vitamins, minerals and even antioxidants, but only when you get it directly from the coconut, not the packaged variety which comes in plastic bottles because BPA found in plastic is an obesogen that acts as an endocrine disruptor, and can lead to weight gain.

Hope you are well aware of your food and make healthier food choices, eat healthy stay lean!

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