On a diet but not losing weight? Your 'healthy snacking' habits could be to blame.

News Topical, Digital Desk : To lose weight, you've often heard people advise eating three meals a day along with small snacks. Following this advice, we often ditch samosas and biscuits and include snacks like nuts, dark chocolate, and peanut butter. 

But despite consuming healthy snacks, some people still gain weight. The simple science behind this is that while these snacks may be healthy, they aren't zero-calorie. Therefore, if healthy snacks aren't eaten with caution and moderation, they can lead to weight gain. Let's learn how. 

Lack of portion control 

When we consider something healthy, our brain sends signals to eat it without even thinking. For example, almonds and walnuts are healthy, but they are very high in calories. Therefore, if we eat only almonds or walnuts several times a day, our calorie intake starts to increase. 

The low-fat and sugar-free hoax

Commercially available diet mixes, low-fat yogurt, or sugar-free biscuits often prove to be harmful to health. To maintain taste, companies add extra sugar to low-fat products and artificial sweeteners and preservatives to sugar-free products . These ingredients increase insulin levels in the body, which promotes fat storage.

liquid calories

We often consider smoothies, fresh fruit juice, or coconut water to be healthy snacks, but juicing fruits removes their fiber, which speeds up the absorption of sugar in the body. This can also lead to weight gain . 

Mindless Eating 

Healthy snacking becomes dangerous when we do it while working or watching TV. Makhana is great for weight loss, but if you eat an entire box of ghee-roasted makhana without counting, it will lead to weight gain instead of weight loss.

Some essential tips for smart snacking

If you want your healthy snacks to actually help you lose weight, keep these things in mind:

• Serve in a small bowl so you know how much you're eating. 
• Keep a combination of protein and fiber in your snack.
• Often, we're thirsty and end up snacking, so drink a glass of water first.
• Instead of diet or fitness snacks, eat home-roasted gram or boiled sprouts.

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