We all snack, but thoughtless snacking damages our weight loss and diets if we’re not snacking on the right foods. Some people spend all day grazing on various foods that are not tracked and therefore can’t be included in any calorific intake diaries – don’t be that person because they won’t lose weight, you really need to control snacking when dieting!
Do we need to ban ourselves from snacking altogether, or can we change the type of snacks we eat and manage our calorific intake better?
Snacking – The Bad
Eating snacks can lead to weight gain – no matter what you’re snacking on, constantly eating food will add hundreds of calories to your diet every day – maybe even thousands!
Snacking can create a big spike in your intake of bad fats, sugar, and salt when consuming very processed foods such as pastry, lollipops, or salty crisps and crackers – these need to be removed as an option.
It can make your energy dip drastically – although snacks can give you a quick boost of energy this will trip your blood sugar levels on a rise and fall which will leave you feeling sluggish, sleepy and useless which will often result in your reaching for another energy-boosting snack which will begin the process again.
Snacking – The Good
Snacks can help you manage your hunger levels so you don’t feel completely ravenous, as long as it is a healthy snack that is not over-sized.
Snacking can also assist your blood-sugar balancing – a “good” snack of good quality carbs (such as a granola bar) can provide a long-lasting energy boost to help you to the next meal in a positive way. It can help you reach your daily nutrition target – let’s face it, most of us are nowhere near achieving our daily fruit and vegetable intake targets so our snacks should be cleverly used to add to our daily intake tally by choosing fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and yoghurt.
How to Control Snacking when Dieting
- Don’t buy unhealthy “easy” snacks so you can’t eat them. If you have them, give them away – it’s the only way they won’t end up on your waistline!
- Decide if you are just wanting to eat for comfort, or because you’re bored, or is it just something you always do while you watch television or cook? If you’re not really hungry then don’t have the snack!
- Get yourself a portion of snack – rather than just eating from the bag/packet decide how much of a snack you want bearing in mind your calorific target. Once you’ve eaten that portion you decide there’s no more.
- Prepare “good” food for snacks in advance, such as chopped fruit or wholegrain snacks – keep them in a box at the front of the fridge or cupboard where you’ll see them before anything else and move all “bad” snacks (if you must have them in the house) away on high shelves – out of reach, our of mind!
Be prepared for when you will feel the need to snack, and have something ready to eat that’s not doing yourself more bad than good! Plan for tomorrow, today!
The best diet we’ve found – the smoothie diet!
We found a good healthy way to replace snacks with something worthwhile is to replace it with healthy smoothies. Take a look into this 21-day smoothie diet as it’s worked for many thousands of people worldwide!
