Never Eat These Foods if You are Overweight

Certain foods are a lot healthier than others. Although the calories in/calories burned principle does work, if you are eating unhealthy foods, it will be a lot harder to lose weight and be healthy.

Processed and refined foods are more likely to cause weight gain and lead to hormonal imbalances that make it difficult to lose weight.

The foods you eat can have a major effect on your weight. If you are trying to lose a few pounds, the following foods should be on your "do not eat" list.

White Bread

White bread is not healthy for more reasons than simply because it lacks whole grains. White bread is usually high in sugar and other added chemicals, which are extremely unhealthy. The glycemic index of white bread is high, which makes it easy to trigger blood sugar spikes.

In a study of over 9,000 people, it was found that those who eat two or more slices of white bread daily had a 40 percent higher chance of gaining weight or becoming obese. Most people do not have to skip eating bread entirely (although cutting back on bread intake is an easy way to drop a few pounds) but look for whole grain, minimally processed bread with no added sugar.

Sweet Drinks

Most people realize that drinking soda is unhealthy. Cutting back on soda alone typically leads to weight loss in regular soda drinkers. However, soda is not the only sugary drink culprit. Coffee, tea, lemonade, and fruit juice can all have similar effects. Your brain does not recognize drink calories the same way as food calories, which means it is easy to consume too many calories from beverages. The safest way to prevent weight gain is to simply skip sweet drinks altogether until you reach your goal weight.

Fried Foods

Fried potatoes and potato chips are some of the most regularly-consumed unhealthy foods in the United States. Most people know that potato chips and French fries are unhealthy, but it can be difficult to resist particularly when it is the number one side dish at restaurants. However, studies have found that French fries and potato chips are linked with weight gain more often than other foods.

One study from 2011 published in the New England Journal of Medicine even found that potato chips are linked to more weight gain per serving than any other specific food.

Ice Cream

Ice cream is a problem food for many for several reasons. First, it is easy to eat way more than a serving. Second, a serving has tons of sugar and fat. Most commercial ice creams sold in grocery stores are much higher in sugar than they need to be to taste good. If you cannot kick your ice cream habit completely, instead of purchasing your ice cream from a store, make it at home with one-third of the sugar. You can even add extra fat (yogurt is a healthy substitution) to make it creamy if you continue to eat the ice cream in moderation.

Added Sugar

Think if you are staying away from the dessert aisle you are not eating sugar? Guess again. Most pre-packaged foods sold today are incredibly and needlessly high in sugar. Take a look at the ingredient label for any packaged food and you will likely see sugar listed as one of the ingredients in one form or another.

How did so many "dinner" foods become sweet? It is likely that when manufacturers removed fat and sodium from foods in an effort to be healthy, they tasted gross. Adding addicting sugar makes people want to eat the foods again even though they do not taste good even with the added sugar. Check all labels and do not purchase any foods with more than a gram of added sugar per serving. Avoid sugar altogether, when possible.

Candy

Candy is pure sugar and fat and most candy lacks nutrients. Most candy bars are at least 200 calories each, even for the medium sizes. Candy manufacturers have done their marketing well calling candy a "reward" or "hunger-buster." However, you are doing yourself no favors by eating candy and it is easy for candy to sabotage weight loss efforts. Additionally, candy bars are full of processed ingredients and trans fats that are detrimental to health.

Other Desserts

It's a sad fact that you cannot eat cake and still lose weight. Cookies, pastries, cakes, and other baked goods are foods that you should avoid while on a diet. Pre-packaged baked goods are typically high in trans fats, refined flours, and other unhealthy ingredients that only take away from good health.

However, you can still eat a few desserts in moderation. Dark chocolate and fruit-based (with no sugar added) desserts are healthy alternatives to baked goods. Add a bit of whipped cream to your fruit dessert and you may find you don't really miss cake.

Beer

Beer is high in calories. While drinking wine in moderation has been shown to positively affect health, beer does not. Modern beer manufacturing has destroyed the original value of beer, which was a healthy source of probiotics originally. But today, beer is simply a calorie-packed beverage that will only cause weight gain. Instead of beer, switch to red wine and do not binge drink.

Pizza

Homemade pizza made from healthy ingredients can be a healthy choice, but the pizza you purchase from the local fast-food pizza joint is not. Pizza contains a lot of processed meat, unhealthy flour, sodium, and preservatives. If you are trying to lose weight, don't order delivery pizza or eat frozen pizza. Instead, make it yourself with unprocessed meat, healthy flour, and a lot of fresh veggies.

You Don't Need Extreme Diets to Lose Weight

Junk food is a diet destroyer. Unfortunately, much of our culture is built around the frequent consumption of junk food. Resisting that culture can be difficult. However, you can still lose weight and stay healthy by avoiding the foods listed above most of the time. Once a month it is all right to eat something unhealthy, but when it becomes a habit, junk food will only lead to dangerous health risks. Your health is not worth the risk. Avoid these foods and become a much healthier person in just a few weeks.