Little Black Dress Challenge - Week 5

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little black dress 5We have completed 4 whole weeks of the Little Black Dress Challenge and hopefully you will all have been able to colour in 4 of those little shapes on your downloadable sheet, showing that you have lost 4lbs! Well done. Those 4 weeks are probably the hardest of the whole challenge and now that you have those first 4lbs under your belt, for every subsequent lb you lose you will really start to see the difference. This week I want to help you not to ruin your weight-loss track record through choosing the wrong kinds of snacks. Stopping snacking entirely may be the best approach for your weight-loss success. Most snacks tend to be high in fat or high in calories or both, so even eating relatively small amounts gives you a lot of calories which really damage any dieting. It might not matter too much if people didn’t eat as much at main meals, but research shows that people who snack tend to eat the same amount at meal times as people who don’t snack, so those snacks are EXTRA calories. And if we are trying to reduce our normal calorie intake by between 250 and 500 calories a day, depending on exercise levels, that is going to be very difficult if we are also taking in extra calories through snacks. So the best advice is don’t snack – it will make your weight-loss journey so much harder.

But if you find that too hard, it is better to manage your snacking consciously so you don’t feel tempted to choose the most damaging snacks. So here is a list of low calorie snacks (under 100) which you could build into your daily eating, whilst keeping to your calorie limit:

  • 1 banana
  • 20 grapes
  • 2 dried figs
  • 3 pineapple rings in juice
  • 3 sticks of celery filled with cottage cheese
  • 6 dried apricots
  • 2 breadsticks with hummus
  • 1 hard boiled egg
  • A slice of brown toast spread with Marmite
  • 2 crackers spread lightly with smooth peanut butter
  • 1 rice cake with 1 tbsp guacamole (around 95 calories)

There are more ideas on the NHS website.  If you have discovered your own favourite low calorie snack which has helped you to curb the munchies, do share it on my Facebook page as it could really help someone else. Or have you found a strategy to avoid snacks altogether – I’d love to hear them and share them in class.

Blog, Weight LossClaire Edwards