Want to loose weight? Then avoid eating empty calories

If you wish to loose weight and planning for dieting, be careful while choosing food for your diet. Some foods are especially bad for weight loss. Foods that contain a high number of calories or fat without providing valuable nutrients are referred to as "empty calories." These foods can dramatically increase the number of calories you consume without filling you up.

Fat is not just what accumulates on your body. It is also a type of molecule within food. Fat takes many forms and appears in most types of food, but is most concentrated within animal products like cheese, eggs, and meat. Fat is harmful for two reasons: fat tends to have many calories, compared to other kinds of food, and fat promotes the buildup of plaque on the walls of the arteries, which leads to heart disease.

Basically Empty calories are high calories with low nutritional values (also known as junk food!), lacking the health-promoting micro-nutrients. Empty calories are most commonly found in processed foods.

Some empty calorie foods are foods high in empty calories may include some daily staple, but often they are classified as "junk" foods. We all know what they are, but here are some examples, just incase you have forgotten.

• Candy and other sweetened packaged foods: Chocolate bars, hard candies, mints and gums
• White bread: Made with white flour, this starchy food has to be fortified to give the appearance of a healthy food
• White rice: High in starch and natural sugars
• Oils: Such as those found in margarine, butter, shortening, and other spreads
• Alcohol: Beer, wine, hard liquors and all other alcoholic beverages.
• Soft drinks: Sodas, flavored drinks with a low percentage of juice as opposed to sugar content
• Fast foods: Staples like hot dogs and burgers, French fries, fried chicken and other foods traditionally fried in fattening oils.

How to avoid empty calories:

Know what you will be eating during the course of the day. Pack your lunch if you will not be home during the day. This will help you avoid joining the rest of your co-workers going to the local fast food joint. Pack fruit or cut up veggies for your day time snack, this can help you fight the after-lunch/before dinner hunger and will prevent you from wandering to the vending machines in search of empty calories... I mean a snack. Avoid fried foods. Switch your fried chicken for a grilled or baked skinless chicken breast. Not only will this help to cut calories, but you may even notice you feel better (eating fried foods has a way of sitting heavy in the stomach and making you feel sluggish). Drink water.Making this switch from soda to water will help slim down your waist! Limit your sweets. Try to avoid eating sugary sweets and baked goods, replace them with fruit. Most fruits are sweet and all will provide you with vitamins and minerals!

• Cut down on sauces and gravies. These can add some serious calories to your meal. If you can't do it cold turkey, put the normal amount of sauce/gravy you would use on the side. Dip your food into it every other bite. You'll be amazed at how much will be left over (which equals fewer calories you consumed).
• Try whole grains instead of refined grains. Whole grains are packed with beneficial fiber and antioxidants. For instance, have a slice of whole-wheat bread instead of white bread. Have a bowl of whole-grain breakfast cereals or unsweetened oatmeal instead of corn flakes.

For a proper, nutritious diet, foods such as the ones listed above should be avoided or severely limited. To improve eating habits and consume calories that will prove beneficial to your body, make thoughtful replacements. For a sweet snack, enjoy some fruit instead of candy. Try whole grain bread for your sandwich, long grain rice or a green vegetable as a side instead of white rice, and water instead of soda.

But what about spreads for your toast? Most jams and jellies could be considered empty calories as well for their high sugar contents. If you must have a spread, check labels to see what you are eating. Homemade apple butter may have more nutritional value than the squeezable jams you buy premade. So take time out, to preplan your meals and snacks. Such substitutions add up in the long run, and you just may find that as the empty calories go away, so will the fat. Hooray!

(Sources: healthcastle.com, dietbites.com)