How Healthy Snacking Can Help You Lose Weight
For many people, the idea of a snack is associated with bags of greasy chips and quarts of syrupy sodas. “Surely, snacks aren’t meant to help you lose weight,” they might think. But, the opposite is actually true. Simpalo Snacks knows that by enjoying healthy snacks, you can lose weight while still enjoying your favorite treats. Here are some ways to enjoy your favorite snacks while still sticking to your weight loss diet.
How Snacks Help
For many dieters, they feel that they should avoid snacks entirely. Snacks are seen as a way to ingest needless calories and can throw off their carefully structured meals throughout the day. But snacking the right way can actually help your dieting practices.
Plan Out Your Snacks
When you’re snacking to aid with weight loss, you have a lot to consider. Your snack needs to be properly balanced so it compliments your diet plan and your dietary needs. Dieticians suggest that your snacks should have 3 or more grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. These two elements help make your snack filling and healthy. You’ll also want to limit the amount of sugar and sodium in your snacks, as these can upset your diet’s weight loss focus. You can also plan the timing of your snacking. Diets are most successful when they follow a planned routine. You can incorporate snacking into your diet by scheduling a snack every three to four hours. This helps maintain your blood sugar levels throughout the day. Your body is always digesting and processing the food you eat throughout the day. Having a snack helps you digest larger meals, like breakfast and lunch. Healthy snacking allows your body to make the most of everything you put into it. You’ll feel more alert and more productive because your body is producing the energy you need.
Snack Like You Mean It
We’ve often heard about the idea of grazing, where you chow on a variety of foods, snacks, and treats throughout the day. Grazers feel that by eating little amounts of food throughout the day, they’re eating less, and doing more for their diet. While grazers often eat small handfuls or bites of a lot of little things, those little bites can add up to big calorie counts. It’s hard to quantify the calorie count of something like “a handful of nuts” or “a pinch of sunflower seeds,” and it’s even harder when you repeat those amounts several times throughout the day. A snack, on the other hand, is a contained event. A pre-packaged snack, like the ones you find in our variety box, has the calorie counts listed on them, so you can better plan how your snack will impact your diet. One of the best ways to avoid grazing is by making snacking a focused part of your day. While we tend to set aside time to enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner, treat your snacks with the same respect. When you practice mindful snacking, you’ll eat less, and eat healthy snacks that are better for you.
Avoid “Diet Friendly” Snacks
If you’re on a diet, it might be tempting to pick up snacks that are labeled as “low fat,” “light,” or “calorie-free.” While these snacks might look healthy, they’re typically anything but. These snacks are often loaded down with sugars and added sodium to make up for a lack of flavor. These snacks are often laden with chemicals that can cause other health problems down the road, making weight loss seem like the least of your problems.