Snack foods might be making you fat.

Weight Loss Tip 64 – Cut out the snacks

snacking on the couch

Snacking foods might be the enemy to reducing your waistline.  The problem with snacking is that it often adds calories to your diet that are low calorie.  Birthday cake, candy bars, cookies, chips, doughnuts, and pretzels are terrible for your diet.  They are calorie dense and have a lousy nutrient content outside of carbohydrates.   These are often available in the breakroom at work all day long, and you are very likely to graze on them if they are available.  It might be impossible to resist that bowl of treats in the break room or on the desk of a coworker.  

A good study that illustrates this is from the Cornell Food & Brand Lab[1].  Researchers in the study found that when the candies were on the desk, the secretaries consumed approximately 48% more than when the candies were two meters away. The secretaries ate less candy when it was out of reach.  I know this is a seemingly simple and expected result. It only makes sense that they would eat less if they could not see the snacks.  Maybe we should ban baked goods in the break room.  

The bottom line: Snack food and grazing can make you fat.  I recommend that you avoid the break room and don’t bring the snacks home.  They are simply irresistible.