Just a milkshake with my meal…. 🥤

If you’re grabbing a take away/food delivery or eating out at a fast food place you might fancy a milkshake with your meal. You may decide that you will skip dessert to save some calories and have the milkshake instead. You would probably assume they’re roughly similar calories too so it’s going to work out roughly equal.

The reality is they often aren’t. For example a dessert of two scoops of ice cream at GBK will cost about 250 calories depending on flavour. In contrast their lotus biscoff milkshake costs over 1000 calories! That’s more than some of the actual main dishes!

Now that’s not to say you shouldn’t have a milkshake of course – if you want to spend your calories on that then obviously do! But if you’re assuming the calories are similar to an ice cream dessert then you’d be grossly underestimating them.

This is why it’s so important to be aware of the calories in the foods you eat – that way you can make informed choices. So no matter how ‘good’ you think you are at eyeballing calories always double check and pay attention to your assumptions, because they’re not always correct.

Enjoy 🤗

Xx

Some days vs most days.. 🍟🍗

I talk about this a lot but losing weight really is all about balance. You don’t need to demonise or shun your favourite foods to hit your goals. If you use a flexible approach then any food is fine in moderation. Yes even a take away McDonalds. Obviously that’s not healthy food in terms of nutritient content but it doesn’t exist in isolation. You’re not ONLY eating that McDonald’s. You can fulfil your emotional needs with the take away and fulfil your nutritional needs in the rest of your diet. Calorie wise it’s not even that bad!

So you can have that take away – just be aware of the calories and account for it. Then make sure you’re getting a range of nutrients in your other meals and that you’re still within your calories on average over the week.

So balance occasional indulgences with more nutritious daily decisions: enjoy McDonald’s every once in a while, but make your mainstay chicken breast and oven roasted potatoes.

Enjoy 🤗
Xx

‘Weight loss’ meals vs ‘normal’ meals….🥘

Once again this highlights a really important issue – marketing! Ready meals can be a really useful thing to have in your freezer/fridge for quick meals when you’re busy. They’re also handy if you’re trying to stick to your calories and want something with pre calculated calories too. Most people would assume that the slimming world or weight watchers (or other weight loss brand foods) are automatically a more virtuous choice of ready meal . Whilst the ‘normal’ supermarket ones may be assumed to be higher calories.

In reality the Slimming world and the weight watchers ones are actually significantly higher in calories at 440 and 424 cals vs 372 and 363 cals for supermarket examples. That’s quite a large difference! The weight loss branded ones are also more expensive – up to £4.40 vs £1.85.

So don’t automatically assume these weight loss branded foods are always the better option. Sometimes they’re the same or worse than other brands. And very often pricier! If you enjoy them then definitely have them, but if you’re only having them because you think they’re better and lower calorie then think again.

Read the labels and look at the calories and then make your choice. If you’re trying to lose weight then go for the lowest calorie option, that you actually want to eat!

🤗xx

A snack or loads of snacks… 🍫

There are lots of strategies you can use when trying to stick to your calorie deficit to lose weight/fat. Being aware of the calories in the foods you choose to consume and swapping to lower calorie foods which you also enjoy is an obvious option. As well as the calories though it’s worth considering the quantity and volume of the food you’re choosing.

Snacking is a common problem and an easy way to extra calories to sneak in. If you were to snack on a banana and chocolate muffin you’re looking at a substantial 377 calories of food. That’s quite a lot for a snack, and it will be gone in a few bites. However for only 259 calories you could have a curly wurly, a light babybel, some raspberries and a packet of popchips. This combination not only has the advantage of fewer calories overall, but also higher protein overall which will help to keep you fuller for longer, and they contain more fibre (mainly from the raspberries) and other micronutrients which will also help. But an often overlooked aspect is that there is also a greater volume of food in the lower calorie option. It will take you longer to eat the 4 snacks than the muffin, which will also increase feelings of satisfaction. You may also even find you don’t even need to eat all 4 snacks.

Obviously if you fancy the muffin and can fit it into your calories then go for it but this is just another strategy to add to your toolkit to help you stick to those calories.

Enjoy 🤗

Xx