Hidden Calories

You take care of your nutrition, exercise regularly, and you want to lose weight but something still seems to be standing in your way of achieving your goal. Do you feel as if you were coming back to the starting point over and over again despite great efforts? You have to read this post as the problem might be caused by hidden calories!

 

Balance Above All

You know the saying that even though you don’t count calories, calories still count? The theory of energy balance is the basis for effective weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you must expend more energy during the day than you consume through food. This can be achieved in various ways: increasing the level of daily physical activity, including regular training, or reducing the calorie content of the diet. And it is this last point that I would like to focus on today.

 

Calorie Traps

Many people begin to change their eating habits without counting calories: they pay attention to the quality of the products, their composition, the nutritional value of meals, their number, and mealtimes. In this way, you can also reduce body weight if you manage to achieve a calorie deficit (e.g. if you replace fried pork chop with roast chicken without added fat, you will achieve a significantly lower caloric value of the meal).

However, you often complain that, despite trying to eat healthy and choosing nutritious products, you do not notice any changes in your weight or sometimes it even goes up. Does it mean that you need to start counting calories meticulously? First of all, I encourage you to pay attention to the calorie traps that we often fall into.

 

Deceptive drinks

Beverages are one of the most deceptive sources of hidden calories. Take, for example, an innocent latte from your favorite café. What may seem like a simple pick-me-up, actually contains a significant dose of calories from milk and sugar. A sweetened, flavored latte may contain up to about 500 kcal! That’s as much as a nutritious breakfast! The situation is even worse with alcoholic beverages. It’s all too easy to have a few drinks, which often contain not only alcohol but also sweet syrups.

The problem with liquid calories is that they don’t trigger the same satiety signals as solid foods. It’s easy to consume liquid calories without realizing how much energy you’re putting into your body. It is worth choosing water every day, and other drinks only occasionally.

 

A Small Addition – the Sauce

Although they add flavor to our meals, ready-made sauces can also add a significant amount of calories without us realizing it. Do you decide to have a salad in a restaurant for a light dinner? Ask for the sauce to be served in a separate dish. Sometimes the dressing itself contains more calories than the entire salad! When preparing dressings at home, it is best to measure a portion of oil with a spoon – this way we can control the amount we actually consume. And if you choose store-bought ready-made sauces, always read the labels and note that the serving size given by the manufacturer rarely corresponds to the one we actually consume.

 

Deceptive Names

Veg, light, sugar-free…? You will find these inscriptions on many products, but this should never be an indicator of their nutritional value. Manufacturers often use this technique to persuade us to buy something. The growing popularity of vegetarian and vegan products is a good example. Very often, these are highly processed products which contain significant amounts of fat. That’s why I encourage you to read those labels carefully, analyze the product composition, the nutritional table, and then make informed choices based on this knowledge.

 

Managing hidden calories can be a game-changer in maintaining a healthy diet. It’s about realizing that sometimes what we don’t see actually matters a lot. Counting calories is not the only way to achieve effective weight loss, but you must remember that calories always count 🙂