Are Snacks Ruining Your Diet?

When I was a student, I was always on and off diets. Usually, my meals were very virtuous: lots of salads and vegetables, and small portions of carbohydrates and lean meats. Unfortunately, I often found that the calorie count crept up on the inbetweens … chips, chocolate, alcohol and other snacky foods.

Of course, we all know that healthy snacks– perhaps a piece of fruit or a small sandwich – can be a great way to fill the gap between meals and keep our energy levels. However, all too often our snacking involves the wrong sorts of foods. Just look at recent reports in the UK of movie theaters serving buckets of popcorn containing 1,800 calories – that’s enough for some small women for an entire day!

So how can you prevent snacks from ruining your diet?

Snacks Do Count

It’s easy to get into the mentality that “snacks don’t count”. We eat healthy meals – perhaps even going to extremes, like only having fruit for breakfast, or having rice cakes and salad for lunch – but then we end up having a couple of chocolates mid-morning, or a slice of cake.

And, while you might be confident about the calorie content of your meals (because you’re buying sandwiches or ready meals with a nutritional label), snacks often come without any nutritional information. How often have you talked yourself into having a home baked cookie or three because you’ve got no idea how many calories are in them?

The truth is, your body isn’t going to distinguish between meals and snacks when it comes to putting on weight! If you have a can of cola, a couple of cookies and a bag of chips each day, that could be enough to stop you losing one pound a week.

Try getting into the habit of keeping a food diary in order to get yourself out of the snacking mentality – it works wonders!

Eat Sensible Meals

Some dieters end up snacking unhealthily because they’re cutting back too much at meal times. If you’re only eating fruit for breakfast and salad for lunch, no wonder you’re ending up gobbling a huge muffin mid-afternoon.

It’s much better to eat sensible, satisfying meals than to end up raiding the cookie jar because you’re starving. Figure out how many calories you need per day, then spread these across your meals. Allow 200 calories for snacks – plenty for filling up on fruit if you get puckish.

If you fill up at meal times, you’ll find that you’re less likely to succumb to temptation when your colleagues are all digging into the cake, or when your friends are all buying huge buckets of popcorn at the movies.

Smart Strategies When Snacking

There’ll be times, of course, when you do want to have a snack – and fruit slices or vegetable sticks just aren’t going to hit the spot. Being on a diet shouldn’t mean banning any favorite foods: you can continue to eat chocolate, chips etc – just make sure you’re snacking smart. Make a few swaps to ensure you’re enjoying what you eat without scoffing unnecessary calories:

• Swap a full-sized chocolate bar for a fun-sized one. You may find that you’re just as satisfied.
• Switch from regular soda to diet. Try  a few different brands to see which you prefer (I like Coke Zero but not Diet Coke, for instance). Your tastebuds will adjust!
• Share popcorn or chips with friends when at the movies – you don’t need a whole bag to yourself.
• Always sit down and eat mindfully: don’t grab snacks to eat while working or watching TV.

Being on a diet doesn’t mean that you need to be perfect – but it does mean that you need to pay attention to what’s going into your mouth. If you’re snacking thoughtlessly, start making some changes.

Written by Ali Hale

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