These Healthy Drinks are Causing Your Weight Loss Struggles

Healthy drinks are really the last thing you’d imagine would be the cause of your struggles with weight loss.  Unfortunately, these beverages we choose for their nutritional content are more often the source of some serious sabotage to our attempts to lose unwanted fat.

Yes, Health Drinks Can Easily Hold Back Your Results

This can be tough information to swallow. In fact, many of us find ourselves initially rejecting it.  After all, we carefully select our health drinks specifically for their benefits.  It’s not like we’re drinking milkshakes and full-sugar pop all the time. We’ve been choosing these beverages for their nutritional advantages. We must be the exception to the rule, right?

Yes, you might be right. If you’re strategic and selective enough, your health drinks might be helping you just as you hope they will. But probably not. One tool that can help you to understand your unique picture more clearly is a nutrition tracker.

Using a Nutrition Tracker to Check on Your Beverages

If you’d like to see just what kind of an impact your health drinks are having on your diet in terms of the numbers, track your day with a nutrition tracker app. Just enter everything you have during the day – food and beverages – and have a look at where each item sends your total.

Unless you’re just blending kale into plain water – oh no! – the odds are that you will be surprised at how many calories and even sugars you’re drinking. Since liquids don’t fill us up like solids do, it’s also important to keep in mind that any calories you are consuming as health drinks are not providing you with that feeling of satisfaction that the same number would have offered as a solid snack or meal.

Which Healthy Drinks Are the Worst?

Though any beverage containing more than 10 calories or so can easily be lumped into this category, when it comes to health drinks you’re specifically choosing to help your results, it’s post-workout shakes, smoothies, and juices that are typically the biggest culprits for sabotaging your efforts.

Protein shakes and smoothies can be packed with nutrients. They provide a quick and easy snack mid-morning or after your workout.  Though protein and nutrients are definitely a welcome part of an overall balanced diet, it’s important to take a closer look at what else they contain.

If you’re already entering them into a nutrition tracker, you’re off to a good start.

Still, it’s a good idea to take an even closer look at what goes into them. If you’re making them yourself, it’s easier for you to decide exactly what will go in.  Keep a mental tally of your calories and macronutrients as you do.

If you’re purchasing ready-made health drinks, check the nutrition label. Keep a careful watch for low quality ingredients and added sugars in all their various names. The nutrition table can help you to see how much sugar you’ll be consuming along with all those calories. Remember that every 4 grams of sugar is 1 teaspoon.  Visualize scooping the total number of teaspoons of sugar into your drink when you see how many grams it contains. This will help you to decide whether or not it really is a health drink for you.

Similarly, simply leave the juices behind. These aren’t health drinks, no matter how they’re marketed. They’re in the same category as soda. Essentially sugar water, when all is said and done.