It seems that everybody is on some sort of diet these days.
Low carb diet, no carb diet, Atkins diet, South Beach diet, Full Body Cleanse, Grapefruit diet, Almond diet, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem — the list goes on. We could even throw kosher, vegan, and vegetarian diets into the mix, as those are also both active decisions to eat food from specific food groups.
Look, all diets that are for weight-loss purposes (as opposed to diets for health reasons, such as for lactose-free, diabetic, or gluten-free diets) all come down to one thing: you’re supposed to take in fewer calories than you expend in a given day.
Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200:
200 Recipes Under 200 Calories
If your body processes 2000 calories a day through normal activities, then you should take in 1800-1900 calories a day (or any other reasonable number below that 2K calorie burn, per your doctor’s advice). If you change absolutely nothing else in your daily routine, then guess what? You’ll lose weight.
It may be a slow burn, but burn it will.
So what are some options you can have if you’re strictly counting calories?
Web Watch thinks it’s always a good idea to have a visual clue as to what’s what so you’ll know the amounts of food you should have. Everyone knows that a reasonably sized steak portion should be about the size of your hand, or a standard deck of playing cards. (Web Watch likes to play with jumbo-sized cards, so our steak portions tend to be a bit bigger than recommended.)
But if you are counting calories, you’ll want to check out WHAT 200 CALORIES LOOKS LIKE in different foods. And get yourself a food scale for home use, as most calorie measurements are done by the gram or ounce rather than the individual number of items in the package.
For example, 200 calories can be made up by…
- A handful of salted, mixed nuts
- Eight Hershey Kisses
- A reasonable handful of M&Ms
- Six peanut-butter cracker sandwiches
- Half of a Snickers candy bar
- 10 Werther’s candy pieces
- About 20 gummie bears
- One single hot dog, plus an extra bite of a second hot dog. No bun.
- Four Tootsie Pops
- An avocado
- Three eggs
- A whole bunch of broccoli, celery, apples, baby carrots, etc. Yeah – fruits and vegetables really let you chow down.
So what are your favorite snacks for dieting, regardless of calorie count?