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Consider the following mistakes that can undermine your weight control efforts, plus strategies to help avoid making them:. To become aware of under-the-radar calories, track your food intake in a journal or an app. Do it in real time to stay mindful.

Five dietary mistakes making you gain weight in the pandemic - The Globe and Mail

Make your daily snacks deliberate by planning what you will eat. Serve them on a small plate or in a small bowl to be attentive to portion size. One way to control mindless snacking is to plan what you will eat ahead of time. For example, people often eat twice the serving size of fish as they do meat or chicken.

But along with the omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, an eight-ounce serving of grilled Atlantic salmon has calories, double the amount found in a four-ounce sirloin steak. Keep your portion size of fish, chicken or meat to three to six ounces, depending on your daily protein and calorie needs. Use a food scale to learn what that amount looks like. Consider your portion size of other good-for-you foods, too, such as cooked whole grains, fruit smoothies, avocado and nuts. One gram avocado, for instance, has calories and one-half cup of almonds two handfuls has With calories in every tablespoon, pouring versus drizzling cooking oil can put a big dent in your daily calorie budget.

Other ways that extra calories from added fats can sneak in: adding cheese and nuts to salads, being generous with seeds for example, flax, chia, hemp in your smoothie and spreading too much nut butter on toast.

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If you work out a lot, you might rationalize eating an extra helping of dessert or slice of pizza. Maybe not. Consider that one pound of body fat stores about 3, calories.

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It is true that exercise, especially strength training, increases daily protein requirements. If your goal is to lose weight, keep up the exercise, but focus on your diet, too. Alcoholic beverages add extra calories to your diet, and they can also undermine your resolve to eat healthfully. Consider that a five-ounce glass of wine has calories, a gin and tonic has and a ounce craft beer delivers roughly If nightly happy hours or Zoom cocktail parties have become a regular part of pandemic life, cut back by reserving alcoholic beverages for weekends or special occasions.

Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private practice dietitian, is director of food and nutrition at Medcan. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe. If you would like to write a letter to the editor, please forward it to letters globeandmail. Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter. If you do not see your comment posted immediately it is being reviewed by our moderation team and may appear shortly.

Read our community guidelines here. Switch gears. Customer Help. Contact us. Log in. Log out. What starts out low in calories -- lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mushrooms -- can turn into more than a meal if you're not careful. Add-ins like cheese, nuts, avocado, and dried cranberries add flavour but at a cost: plenty of calories.

Once you account for the dressing, a small side of greens can pack in as many as calories. Keep salads simple: stick with leafy greens and vegetables. For main course salads, top with chicken breast, tuna, salmon or beans e. Vinaigrette dressings often have fewer calories than creamy ones, but they're still oil-based. And at calories per tablespoon of oil, it's wise to use a measuring spoon to dress your salad. It's easy to justify eating a larger portion or an extra dessert because you're working out four days a week.


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Surely you're burning those calories off. But if you eat more food your weight will hold steady instead of drop. Another common mistake: overeating protein because your strength training. It is true that exercise increases protein requirements. But most people, athletes included, can get what they need from diet alone.

Five dietary mistakes making you gain weight in the pandemic

If you're already getting the calories you need -- and I suspect you are if you're not losing weight -- excess protein from a steady intake of protein shakes and protein bars will be tucked away as fat. Blunder 1: Eating "healthy" portions of healthy foods Sure, grilled salmon is better for you than a juicy, marbled steak.

Blunder 2: Thinking fruit and vegetables are "free" foods Produce is one of the best sources of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Blunder 3: Going crazy with condiments That seemingly innocent squirt or two of ketchup, brush of barbecue sauce, or slather of peanut butter may not be as harmless as you think -- especially if you use condiments to flavour most of your meals. Blunder 4: Sprucing up the salad What starts out low in calories -- lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mushrooms -- can turn into more than a meal if you're not careful.

Blunder 5: Eating like an athlete It's easy to justify eating a larger portion or an extra dessert because you're working out four days a week. Lesliet Beck reveals the top five diet blunders that could be keeping you from losing weight. Related Links Leslie Beck reveals top foods to fight inflammation. Don't read this!

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