Reasons for snacking may vary – anxiety, boredom, kitchen too accessible, no routine – but the result is the same, it's not helping your weight loss! So with this in mind, we've put together some tips to help.
First, let's define what we are talking about. The terms 'snack' and 'treat' are often interchangeable – but in our view, the two are very different. Snacking in itself is not a problem – providing the food you eat is part of a well-balanced calorie-controlled diet. The problem is when we make poor food choices that cause us to eat too many calories. This leads to the question – when is a 'snack' really a 'treat'?
Here are our definitions:
Snack – a small meal which provides some nutritional benefit and can be a healthy addition to your daily diet.
Treat – a food with little to no nutritional benefit, which should be eaten in moderation.
If your snacking tends to lean more towards the 'treat' side and you want to regain some control, here are some ideas to try.
Click here for some healthy sweet and savoury suggestions
We should aim to eat well at least 80% of the time – aim to get good quality calories from healthy, natural foods. But being realistic, cutting out everything we enjoy rarely works for long. So if you do fancy something less healthy, keep it small (less than 100 kcals) and not too often. Here are some of our favourite treats for less than 100 calories.
Snacking isn't bad – just snack smart! Remember – no food in itself is bad, it's the quantity and frequency with which we eat it that has the impact on our health and weight. As always, the answer is moderation!
Nutritionist Sophie Edgington (ANutr), BSc Nutrition is passionate about practising evidence-based nutrition and debunking the multitude of inaccurate myths that so readily surround food and health information. Her goal is to ensure we are all able to make informed and responsible decisions regarding our health.
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