Don't Drink Energy!

If you’ve read some of my earlier articles you will know that I’m a big advocate of using a food diary if you are a trying to lose weight. The awareness it creates in your eating decisions seems to help you identify when you are getting it wrong.

The other night I was watching an interesting documentary about obesity. In one section there was an overweight lady who claimed that she didn’t eat too much and exercised regularly and that her weight problem was due to a slow metabolism. After testing her metabolism it was confirmed her metabolism was normal. The people leading this study got her to write a food diary to try to help identify where the problem was.

In the period where she was writing her diary they also monitored how many actual calories she was consuming. Once the testing was finished there was a 40% difference between what she had written down and the actual amount of calories that she had consumed!

How could someone lie to themselves that much? Especially when she knew she was being monitored closely. Well it turns out she hadn’t. A lot of people taking food diaries will be out by anywhere from 10-50%. 50%, how can this be?

The reason this happens is that people either forget or don’t realise how many calories they are consuming in the drinks and the sauces in their foods. A can of coke has 141kcals, so if you are having three or four cans a day you are consuming over 500kcals in drinks!

If you are trying to lose weight, one of the best rules you can have for yourself is to not drink calories. Replace all the calorie rich drinks with ones that have none and you’ll be on the path to a healthier life. 

If you enjoy my pieces you can get them emailed to you when I put them on the internet. This way you won't have to come back to my website to check when a new piece is out. Don't worry I won't spam you. If you want to join up just put your details in here: