When you want to lose weight, you have to limit your intake of sugar. A teaspoon of sugar provides you with 16 calories. Though not much, you need to be careful about how many calories you put in your system when you are trying to lose weight. Things can become worse if you also have soda and sweetened beverages in your diet. You are going to put on weight when you are ingesting more calories in your system than you can burn. Let's find out more about why it makes sense to limit your sugar intake to lose weight effectively.
Link Between Eliminating Sugar and Weight Loss
It makes sense to cut sugar from your diet because it would help limit the number of calories you consume daily. You need to bear in mind that you actually need to eliminate sugar-laden foods from your diet and not just the plain white sugar. Those products do not just contain sugar, but they also have refined starches and fat. Eliminating them from your diet can actually help you cut many calories from your diet, which translates into weight loss.
Sugar is frequently and abundantly used in highly processed foods. To lose weight efficiently, eliminating sugar means you will have to exclude highly processed foods in your diet as well. It means you no longer can enjoy chocolate biscuits, lollies, fizzy drinks, cupcakes, Magnums, caramel Frappuccino and much more. It is actually good because these foods just provide you with empty calories and no nutrition.
How Much Weight Can You Lose by Eliminating Sugar?
You already know the connection between eliminating sugar and weight loss, but it is natural to think how much weight you can lose by making specific food choices. As mentioned already, there are 16 calories in a teaspoon of sugar. Therefore, if you eliminate beverages or foods that contain about 10 teaspoons of sugar, like a soda, you would cut 160 calories from your diet.
By doing that for seven days straight, you would be able to cut 1,120 calories from your diet. It implies that you would be able to lose about a pound in three weeks by not having those 10 teaspoons of sugar every day. You can certainly lose more weight if you are willing to cut more sugar from your diet.
How to Cut Sugar from Your Diet
Once you have understood the connection between eliminating sugar and weight loss, you would want to know more about the best ways to cut sugar from your diet. You can actually try many tips to achieve your fitness goals.
1. Limit the Sweetness
Do not go for stuff that tastes sweet. However, it is not enough actually, mainly because many food items that contain sugar are not sweet at all. That is true in case of condiments, breads, and sauces. You also need to cut those foods from your diet if you want to eliminate sugar for weight loss. Women should limit their intake of sugar to less than six teaspoons a day, which means less than 100 calories a day. Moreover, it is generally a healthy idea to avoid a high-sugar diet because it increases your risk of heart disease, tooth decay, and diabetes.
2. Be Sure to Check the Labels
Before you buy anything from the store, be sure to check the labels carefully. There are so many products that you think are not sweet but contain sugar. Some nice examples are crackers, sauce, salad dressings, and condiments. It is therefore important to check the ingredients before you buy any product.
3. Know Aliases of Sugar
You need to get familiar with sugar's aliases because sometimes you check the label and buy something because there is no mention of sugar. While in reality, you are ingesting sugar in your system if the product you are using contains ingredients like dried cane syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, molasses, invert sugar, honey, brown rice syrup, and maple syrup. Even cereals and yogurt may also contain certain types of sweetener that you may want to avoid when losing weight.
4. Opt for Unsweetened Foods
When it comes to eliminating sugar and weight loss, it is always better to buy unsweetened products instead of looking for different names of sugar on the labels. You should be opting for foods labeled 'unsweetened' or 'no added sugar'. Interestingly, there are unsweetened versions of most common food items, including non-dairy milk, nut butters, canned fruit, oatmeal, and applesauce.
5. Include Fiber and Protein in Your Diet
When trying to cut sugar from your diet, you may also want to tweak your diet to provide you with more of fiber, healthy fats, and protein. Unhealthy carbs can cause a spike in your blood sugar levels, but fiber and protein help stabilize the levels. When your blood sugar levels are stable, you are less likely to deal with hunger pangs that result in overeating. Have some almonds with your breakfast, enjoy a slice of turkey breast as your midday snack to add more protein and healthy fat in your diet. Nuts, avocados, and seeds are also some nice options, and so are heart-healthy oils, such as walnut oil, olive oil, and coconut oil.
6. Avoid Artificial Sugars
Do not make a mistake of switching to artificial sugars when trying to cut sugar from your diet. It is important that you resist the temptation for the sugar-free candy, diet soda, and packets of artificial sugar in your latte. Even though artificial sugars do not contain calories, they make your body look for more calories and nutrition. This response can make losing weight a tad difficult.
7. Try Other Ways to Add Flavor
Do not let your life become flavorless just because you have decided to eliminate sugar from your diet. You can always use vanilla extract, vanilla bean, citrus zests, and spices to make your foods taste sweet without using any sugar. It could be as simple as ordering an unsweetened latte and then add some vanilla powder or cocoa for flavor.