If you want to lose weight or burn off that stubborn belly fat then make sure that you limit these 9 highly fattening foods. Some of these are even considered healthy, but they still make you gain weight due to their high caloric content. Don't be fooled, watch this video and learn exactly which foods are making you fatter and which ones are helping you get closer to that flat stomach.
Whenever you eat food the calories and nutrients that you take in are used to power your brain, repair broken down muscle tissue and provide energy for all your cells and organs to function. However, once your basic energy needs are met, all excess calories are then converted to fat that is stored around various places throughout the body especially around the stomach, love handles, and hips. while this whole process does follow the basic principles of calories in versus calories out, there are certain foods that are more likely to lead to the overconsumption of calories and in turn more fat storage. So I want to go over 9 of the most highly fattening foods that you should definitely limit if you want to maintain a flat stomach. And the number one food or beverage, I should say, that's highly fattening is soda. In fact, Soda is a much bigger problem than you might think. The average American consumes 270 calories of added sugars every day, and most of these extra calories come from drinking soda. These liquid sugars end up adding up to almost 1900 extra calories per week, which is about equivalent to the number of calories you would burn if you run 12 to 15 miles. So that's going to be tough to burn off to say the last. And the problem with sugary calories is that they're ineffective at satisfying hunger and so they typically end going on top of the calories people already consume. (1) That’s why people that drink soft drinks and other sugary beverages tend to weigh more than those who don’t, as shown by two systematic reviews. (2) So for that reason, I recommend that you replace soda with healthy beverages like (sparkling) water, tea, or coffee. You can also add some artificial sweeteners like stevia if you crave that sweet taste because Various studies show that substituting sugary foods and drinks with artificially sweetened alternatives lowers calorie intake and aids weight loss. (3) And most human studies indicate that artificial sweeteners are generally safe when the maximum recommended amount isn't exceeded. (4) So two to three packets of stevia per day should be okay, but don't go overboard as having too much can enhance sugar cravings. Next is beer. That's right the term "beer belly" exists for a reason - because beer is one of the beverages that are most likely to cause you to gain excess pounds. There are a number of reasons why beer is likely to make you pack on weight. First of all, alcohol is converted to acetate in the body, mostly in the liver, and as acetate enters your blood, fat burning becomes highly suppressed throughout your entire body. (5) As a result, the fatty acids that you eat are much more likely to be stored as body fat instead of being burned off. On top of that acetate itself can also be converted into fat. Another issue with drinking alcohol, in general, is that it's often paired with high-fat junk food like pizza, or late-night McDonald's trips. And the excess calories from drinking alcohol don't seem to fill you up at all. Contrary to protein, carbs, and fats, alcohol doesn’t suppress appetite, but instead, it may even increase it. For example, in a recent 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis, the researchers concluded that adults don't compensate properly for the number of alcohol calories they take in by eating less. On the contrary, a relatively small amount of alcohol can lead to an increase in food consumption (6). Now, when you compare alcoholic drinks, beer is one of the most likely alcoholic beverages to cause fat gain. That’s because, as a general rule, beer contains 150 calories per drink while wine contains 125 and hard clear liquors contain about 100 calories. Moving on we have croissants. Now croissants are tricky because they don't look that bad calorie-wise. But back in 1995, a group of researchers wanted to see which foods are most satiating. (7) To do that, they evaluated 38 foods, separated into six categories (fruits, bakery products, snacks, carb-rich foods, protein-rich foods, and breakfast cereals. (8) Each of the foods was fed to groups of people in portion size of about 240 calories. After that, the scientists took a satiety rating from the participants every 15 minutes over a total of 120 minutes. (9) Then, after 120 minutes, they were free to eat as much as they wanted from a standard range of foods and drinks. To evaluate how satiating each food was, the scientists calculated what they called the "satiety response curve" for each group, which...
