3 Surprising foods you must avoid to successfully lose weight after 50
Do you ever feel lost at sea when it comes to how to lose weight after 50? How to be healthy becomes very confusing.
There is so much misinformation coming at us all the time from the food industry and it can make your head spin. It also turns out that much of the information we are given is actually marketing spin to get us to buy a product which isn’t actually good for us. It’s so hard to unpick the truth from the marketing message when you are trying to lose weight after 50.
Do you wish you could visit a grocery store with the confidence that the things you were putting in your basket would help you to lose weight and get healthy? Not pile on more pounds?
I’m going to outline three of the foods that I think are the biggest culprits in ladies being unable to lose weight, especially around menopause.
The three biggest culprits that scupper weight loss after 50.
These three surprising foods are generally marketed as “healthy”. I call them “fake healthy” foods. They are even marketed as things that will help you drop the pounds. When in reality the truth is the exact opposite.
These foods will sneakily undermine your efforts to lose weight and you may not even realise it.
Let’s take a look at the three main culprits undermining your efforts to lose weight after 50
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“Fake healthy” food No #1 – Breakfast Cereals
lose weight after 50
Breakfast cereals are heavily marketed, especially to children. You may have been eating your favourite cereal for years. They are sold as a healthy wholegrain start to the day.
The problem with breakfast cereals is that they are packed full of sugars, [even the ones marketed as healthy and full of fibre etc] refined carbs and artificial chemicals. They have no nutritional value other than the poor quality vitamins and minerals added to them.
They are super addictive often containing the salt/sugar combination that keeps humans returning for another bowl like lab rats pressing a lever for cocaine.
But the worst thing about them is they set you up for a day of spiking insulin. A hit of breakfast cereal first thing causes your insulin levels to rocket skywards.
This is especially pronounced if you pair the cereal with a glass of orange juice, pure sugar in a glass marketed as the perfect “fake healthy” accompaniment .
Your insulin will plummet a couple of hours later leaving you tired, ravenous and desperately craving something around 11 am to keep you going till lunch.
This is when you reach for the “fake healthy” sugary snack bar, coincidentally manufactured by the same breakfast cereal company.
Do you see how this works yet?
Alternative breakfasts
Try to think outside the box of what you think breakfast should be. We have been brainwashed to only think of cereals.
Instead of a bowl of cereal, eat a metabolism-boosting protein-rich breakfast instead to knock mid-morning cravings on the head and keep your insulin levels low to help you burn fat.
Eggs are a brilliant start to the day and easy to prepare. Scrambled eggs are super quick or a vegetable omelette can be prepared earlier and kept in the fridge. What about avocado with smoked salmon or a poached egg? Avoid the orange juice too.
Get breakfast right and you set yourself up for burning fat throughout the day.
“Fake healthy” food No #2 – Diet meals and drinks
We have been told that all we need to do to lose weight is to buy the “healthy” version of foods and drinks. Many of the expensive diet ready meals are marketed by large slimming organisations as healthy or points counted. However, when you look at the ingredients they are anything but.
They may be low fat so use added sugar to give flavour or contain so little protein they will not satiate you. Leaving you running for a sweet snack an hour later. They often generally use cheap carbs to bulk themselves up so will mess with your insulin levels.
Similarly, diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners which can unbalance your metabolism and increase your risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and weight gain.
Some studies even show this whilst they continue to be marketed as a healthy option
STUDY
“At least daily consumption of diet soda was associated with a 36% greater relative risk of incident metabolic syndrome and a 67% greater relative risk of incident type 2 diabetes compared with nonconsumption “
Alternatives to diet foods and drinks
I know myself that diet sodas are addictive having struggled to crack a litre a day of a diet coke habit. However, you will feel so much better and lose weight if you do.
Try sparkling water with a dash of apple cider vinegar and ginger. Kefir, kombucha and herbal teas as alternatives.
Food-wise, just avoid anything that says “lean” “low-fat” or “diet” on the label. Or even better, cook your own high protein foods from scratch to ensure you have a balanced and healthy meal.
“Fake healthy” food No #3 – Gluten-free packaged foods.
This is subject close to my heart as I was gluten-free for 10 years until I managed to sort the situation out by healing my leaky gut. However, I ate gluten-free packaged foods for years until I realised the truth about them. Again, they are marketed as healthy but are anything but.
Gluten-free foods are generally loaded with gums such as Xanthan gum, gum arabic and guar gum. These are needed to reproduce the elastic properties of gluten but they have their own issues. These gums are highly fermentable in the gut and can lead to gas and bloating in some people. They mess with your gut microbiome which can actually lead to you ending up being more sensitive to gluten and having more digestive issues.
Gluten-free processed products are still high carb so will spike your insulin levels in much the same way gluten products will.
They are also generally loaded with sugars and chemicals to try and reproduce the texture and flavour of baked goods so they are not the healthy option they seem at all and can sabotage your weight loss efforts.
Alternatives to Gluten-Free Processed foods
Instead of purchasing gluten-free ready meals try making your own. Try to get away from the idea that you have to have bread in certain situations.
One thing that I really like is thin slices of cooked sweet potato as an alternative to sandwich bread with a filling inside. Creating a flatbread with egg and avocado is a great gluten-free base to start from. Think outside the box and create your own gluten-free foods.
Eat real foods
I hope these ideas have flagged up a few of the hidden weight-loss saboteurs which can make all the difference between losing weight or not. Especially in the menopause years.
These “fake healthy” foods make a lot of money for food companies but trip a lot of people up in their journey to their weight loss goals.
Basically, if you eat real food you won’t go far wrong in your journey to lose weight after 50.
Love and light
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Helen
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