What snacks besides the obvious (fruits and vegetables) don't make you gain weight?

Question

I'm on a diet and I get cravings to snack. I looked all around the market but i can't find anything suitable.

Answer 1

Honestly, there is no such thing if you have already gone over the amount of calories you burn in a day before you look for that snack.

One of the first things to understand about dieting is this: When you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. Eat more than you burn in a day and you will gain weight. The more calories that you add on top of the overall number that you burn in a day, the faster you will gain weight.

Get it? I could feed you candy bars dipped in lard and help you lose weight. I could also feed you celery and carrots and cause you to gain weight and get fat. It doesn't matter what kind of food it is - if you eat more calories than you burn in a day you gain weight and vice-versa.

You need to question what weight loss is to you. Will you be satisfied with your appearance once you get there? I am a personal trainer, and I could tell you that the answer is "no" most of the time. Once you lose the weight you want to lose, you will look in the mirror and feel that you need to look more tone. Your waist will still be larger than you want it to be and you will not like the shape your body is in (especially with less clothing).

Ask yourself this - do you want to just lose weight or do you want to keep the muscle and just lose the fat? The more muscle you burn, the slower your metabolism becomes for one, since calories are burnt through usage of the muscle. The more muscle you have firing, the faster you burn calories; the faster your metabolism. Keeping your muscle while dieting will also make a huge difference as to how you look when you achieve your weight loss goal - and adding a bit of muscle will work wonders.

People want to lose "pounds." Here is something to consider. Bear with it if it becomes confusing and be comforted in the fact that simple directions follow even if you do not understand some of what you read immediately below.

One pound of FAT = 3500 calories
One pound of LEAN MUSCLE = roughly 2500-3000 calories (varies due to hydration).

See? Potentially, you could burn 2500 calories and lose a "pound" (but, of muscle), or you could burn 3500 calories to lose a "pound" (of fat), or you could burn both muscle and fat in different proportions, meaning you could burn anywhere in the range of 2500-3500 calories and lose a "pound."

Surely you want to burn fat and hold onto as much muscle as you can. The best defense to ensure this, generally speaking, is to eat protein with every meal. Why? To spare your body from losing muscle, which IS protein. If your body needs amino acids for energy (muscle is made up of protein and protein is made up of amino acids) it will eat the protein that you feed it rather than breaking down your muscles for energy. Therefore, you stand a better chance of maintaining your muscle.

A safe place to start is to first determine the amount of calories that you currently burn. The first step is to go to a calculator on a website (search for "calorie counter" on Google). That will give you a rough estimate. Next, subtract 500 calories from that to put you on pace to lose one pound of fat per week (-500 calories times 7 days equals -3500 calories per week = one pound of fat loss.)

You need to eat protein with every meal to get minimize muscle loss. Generally speaking, you should eat roughly 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight to be safe. How do you find lean bodyweight? Simply take your weight and multiply it times your bodyfat percentage (if you don't know it, assuming a BF of 20% will suffice for now). Then take that number and subtract it from your weight. Here is an example using a 180 lb individual:

Bodyweight: 180lbs.
Body fat: 15% (This means that 27lbs of bodyweight is fat: 180 X .15 = 27lbs.)
Lean Bodyweight: 153lbs. (180lbs – 27lbs = 153lbs)

So, this 180lb individual would need to eat roughly 150 grams of protein per day, which would amount to 600 calories (150 grams of protein X 4 calories per gram of protein).

The next step is to establish your fat intake. Generally speaking, you should limit fat intake to roughly 20% of all calories consumed. So, if you find that you should eat 2000 calories per day to get your desired results, that would amount to 400 calories from fat or roughly 45 grams of fat per day (400 calories / 9 calories per gram of fat = 44.4 grams of fat).

Still with me? Don't worry, I will make it simple in a second and you have all you need here to figure it out, assuming you really want to lose weight the right way.

The final step is to establish the amount of carbohydrates that you are to eat in a day. To do that, you simply take the number of calories that you have not filled in with protein and fat and divide. If, referring to the examples above, my protein consumed 600 calories and fat consumed 400, that would mean that I have 1000 calories left in my 2000 calorie allotment. I would take the 1000 calories I have left and divide by 4 (each gram of carbohydrate contains four calories). So I would eat 250 grams of carbohydrates per day.

1) Go to the calculator (Google Calorie Counter). We'll say it specified that I burn 2500 calories per day.

2) Subtract 500 calories from the number it gives you. That means I should eat 2000 per day to lose one pound of fat per week.

3) Establish protein using the Lean Body Weight method above.

4) Set fats at 20%

5) Fill in the rest with carbs.

Counting may become tedious at first, but gets so easy that eventually you will be able to eye something and still maintain your proper pace. Many of my friends will testify to this, as I never bring my measuring cups out to a party, but still know my limits come contest time

To take it one step further to ensure that you are burning fat and not muscle as you restrict your calories, you should exercise since your body is adaptive. This means that to keep muscle, you have to give your body a reason to do so such as working out. If you work the muscle, your body basically says, "We have to hold onto the muscle to do all of this work, so we can't burn it for energy. We'll have to use the fat, as it is less important to our survival." Hence, you get lean and reach the image you have in your mind; your goal.

Trust me! In most cases the end result of "losing weight" doesn't look good. You can disguise it in clothes and other out of shape people may think you look "great," but nothing beats a fit body. It doesn't have to be an extreme physique, like in the magazines, but a little exercise goes a long way with proper dieting. And you will realize countless benefits, in addition to enhanced good looks!

Answer 2

Each time you get a craving, drink 6oz of water and wait a few minutes. This will usually take away cravings.

I keep boxes of Pop Secret popcorn on hand. The box has 3 or 6 one person bags of popcorn. I only drink water with the popcorn. Don't eat more than one bag per day. You can divide it into a mid-morning snack and an after-noon snack.

Cinnamon Graham Crackers. Don't over indulge.

Simple Healthy Snack Ideas

Raw vegetables, such as celery, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, green pepper, green beans, cucumbers, mushrooms or zucchini may be served with a lowfat dip.

Fresh fruit in season, cut in slices or halves, such as apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, grapefruit, grapes, melons, pears, plums or strawberries.

Lowfat quick breads and muffins, such as pumpkin, zucchini, banana or bran.

Non-sugared cereals, snack mixes made with popcorn and whole grain cereal.

Lowfat yogurt with fresh, frozen or canned fruit.

Shakes with lowfat milk or yogurt and fruit.

Unsweetened fruit juices.

Pyramid Tortilla Recipe

Here is an easy to do snack. For each person you will need:

1 8-inch tortilla
2 ounces thin sliced turkey or ham
2 Tablespoons shredded cheese
1/4 cup shredded lettuce
1 Tablespoon raisins
Lowfat mayonnaise, cream cheese, or margarine

Give each person a tortilla. Have them spread with mayonnaise, margarine or cream cheese. Then layer on the meat, cheese, lettuce and raisins. Roll up and enjoy.

This snack could also be made using a slice of bread or an English muffin.

Answer 3

What about those 100 calorie packs? Also, Brachs has a Mott's fruit snack that is made from 100% applesauce, they are really good! Granola bars, nuts, dried fruit, yogurt.

Answer 4

Any snack will make you gain weight if you eat enough of it. Just look for lower calorie ones. I like Little Debbi's SnowPuffs...it's good and sweet and all that stuff, and it's only 100 calories

Answer 5

Rice Cakes. The Quaker ones are awesome, they have caramel if you are looking for something sweet. I personally love the cheddar ones. They are good tasting and low in calories. They even have ones drizzled in chocolate.

Answer 6

a handful of unsalted pumpkin seeds make for a healthy mid day snack theyre rich in magnesium which helps lower blood pressure

Answer 7

Monitor your progress by noting your clothes fit looking in the mirror and taking photos

Answer 8

Participate in sex atleast 3 times in a week

Answer 9

cut your wine calories in half by opting for chardonnay the lightest option as a wine spritzer equal parts wine and soda water

Answer 10

if food was your only source of pleasure make sure to reconnect with other things you enjoy music sports volunteer work or movies for example

Answer 11

sweep your floors for 15 minutes then vacuum for 15