Did you know that healthy, low-calorie snacks can help to promote weight loss? Research has shown that eating five or six small meals a day results in a greater loss of weight than eating two or three larger ones. If you snack healthily, you’ll have the advantage when it comes to weight loss. Why is this so?
Eating frequent, small meals or healthy snacks helps to keep your metabolism primed to function at its peak capacity. Plus, you’ll find yourself eating less at mealtime if you’ve had small snack portions throughout the day. The caveat is that your snacks or small meals must be healthy ones.
Here are some ideas for healthy, low-calorie snacks:
- Choose healthy snacks that are low in processed sugar. Some good choices would be fresh fruit, vegetables, yogurt, peanut butter on whole-grain crackers, sugar-free ice cream, cottage cheese, nuts, or air-popped popcorn without butter.
. - Be sure to watch your portions. One suggestion would be to buy healthy snack packs which are already portioned to contain 100 calories each. You could also create your own packs using a gram scale and package them into sandwich bags for future use.
. - Always carry a healthy, low-calorie snack pack with you. You don’t want to encounter a situation where you have to get an unhealthy snack out of a vending machine.
. - Vary your healthy snacks so you don’t get bored and start craving more unhealthy alternatives. There are lots of healthy snack options available to you if you use your creativity and imagination. A trip to the grocery store will reveal interesting fruits and vegetables that would be perfect snacks when paired with a low-calorie dip. You can make a quick low-calorie dip in minutes by combining fat-free cream cheese and some calorie free spices. If you have the time to cook, you can make sugar-free, low-fat cookies using a sugar substitute, egg whites, and low-fat milk. If you need a quick and healthy snack, there are a variety of prepackaged sugar-free gelatin and pudding options available as well as prepackaged low fat and low carbohydrate yogurts.
. - Use your imagination to add pizzazz to your snacks! Dress them up with a flavorful dressing, a bit of low-fat cheese spread, sugar free fruit spread, herbs, or spices. Healthy, low-calorie snacks can taste good. There’s no reason why healthy has to be boring.
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Follow these guidelines for healthy, low-calorie snacks and you’ll be rewarded with a more toned and shapely body.
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