3 Surprising foods you must avoid to successfully lose weight after 50

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.

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.

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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 “
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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.