Foods to avoid while trying to lose weight

Here are some of the foods to avoid while trying to lose weight including refined sugars, condiments, refined flours, cheeses, starchy vegetables, popcorn, fried foods, artificial sweetners, caffeine and junk foods.

Avoid refined sugars to lose weight
Avoid refined sugars to lose weight

List of foods to avoid while trying to lose weight:

1. Refined sugars: Refined sugar is usually considered table sugar or sucrose. Refined sugars include white sugar, corn syrup, refined maple syrup and refined honey. It is found in processed foods, sodas, drinks, fat free yogurt and designer coffee. One 12 oz soda contains 10 tsp of sugar. It is good to avoid refined sugar while trying to lose weight. Instead of refined sugars, you can choose whole food sweetners such as raw honey and black strap molasses.

Refined sugar contains zero calories, no vitamins and no minerals. Refined sugars raises the insulin level in your blood. Raised insulin levels depress the immune system.

2. Condiments: Condiments is used to enhance the flavor of food. Condiments found in ketchup, mayonnaise, salad dressings, pickle relish, tartar sauce, steak sauce, barbecue sauce, margarine, soy sauce, creamy horseradish sauce, cocktail sauce etc. Avoid salads with rich dressings. This leads to fat storage and water retention. The better condiment to lose weight is lemon and balsamic vinegar.

3. Fried foods: Avoid fried foods such as french fries, and fried chicken. Instead of deep frying, you can bake, sauté or boil in a pan. Or you can steam vegetables.

4. Reduce sodium content: Some of the foods high in sodium include MSG, soy sauce and brine.

5. Refined flours: Another important food while trying to lose weight is refined flours. Avoid pasta, white bread, all purpose flour (maida), pretzels, processed foods, doughnuts and pizza.

Foods to avoid to lose weight - Pizza
Foods to avoid to lose weight - Pizza

6. Cheeses: Try to reduce cheeses in sandwiches, soups and pastas. Some of the cheeses include cream cheese, butter and cottage cheese.

7. Avoid canned soups: Avoid canned soup if you are trying to lose weight. One can of diluted soup contains about 1700 mg of sodium. The daily intake of sodium is about 2300 mg.

8. Meats: Avoid processed meats, sausages and hot dogs.

9. Glycemic fruits: Reduce the use of high glycemic fruits, especially if you are trying to lose weight such as bananas, watermelon, oranges, raisins, prunes and pineapple. These fruits are high in sugar.

10. Starchy vegetables: Reduce starchy vegetables such as potato, yam, squash and parsnips while you are trying to lose weight. Too much starchy vegetables over an extended period of time can lead to weight gain.

11. Oils: Avoid hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. Instead you can use healthy oils such as canola or olive oil for cooking.

12. Alcohol: Avoid alcoholic beverages to lose weight. Alcoholic beverages contain massive amount of calories.

13. Other foods: Other foods to avoid to lose weight include artificial sweetners, syrup, cream, pie, chips, cookies, caffeine, popcorn, hamburgers, high fat dairy products such as whole milk, yogurt, avocados,canned juice and fruit juices.

Weight loss tips:

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Comments 15 comments

rsusan profile image

rsusan 6 years ago from South Africa

Good list you have here, BlessedMom! All it takes is making smarter choices...

Michael Love 6 years ago

Hi blessedmom ,you are the best i lost so much weight and i am so thankful ; thank you for helping me reach my goals :)

Courtney 5 years ago

"Refined sugar contains no calories"

Seriously? No.

Granulated white sugar contains 4 CALORIES PER GRAM and 20 CALORIES PER AVERAGE TSP.

ladyt11 profile image

ladyt11 5 years ago

Awesome hub, thanks for the information.

maric casales  5 years ago

YES!! at last somebody makes the critical observation that condiments are terrible for diets -- they are often loaded with calories and synthetic colors and flavors. We add them to a salad and ... boom calorie count rockets!!

Thanks for this very timely warning

( Photo made me hungry!!)

Yuhan 5 years ago

Thanks this will help me loss 40 pounds in 2 months so I can go to the concert.

Celeste Smith 5 years ago

I disagree with some of the items. Avocados in moderation are very healthy, as well as the fruits listed. They may be higher in sugar, but they are also part of a well balanced nutritional diet.

honey 5 years ago

its good but plz tell me can i use boiled chken and macronies with vinegar

Madison 4 years ago

While we all know that chips, cookies, and pies are bad for you, most of the other foods you listed are fine in moderation. Our bodies need sugar from fruits to make energy and we need calcium from milk, cheese, and yogurt.

Avoiding these foods might help you lose a little weight, but for true weight loss the only thing that will really help is exercise. It's a matter of converting the energy stored in fat into energy your body can use. Once you're using this energy, fat cells will start disappear.

Simpler advice. 4 years ago

If you can look at something, and all the ingredients are obvious. E.g., when i look at a cake, i have can't see the ingredients that made up the cake anymore, as opposed to when i look at a salad...i can see what's in it. Second, eat 200-300 calories every 2-3 hours, 5 times daily. This is about as much food as you can fit into your cupped hands. This will keep your metabolism up and running, and prevent your blood sugar from dropping during the day which will then signal your body to attempt to store fat.

Erin 4 years ago

The fruits you listed, while they have higher amounts of sugar, they are natural sugars. This does NOT make them bad for you while you are dieting. I have been pretty much on a diet for one month now while doing P90X and we are doing a cross between Dr. Gott's diet and a Paleo diet. We still eat all these fruits quite regularly and I have lost 22 pounds in one month. That's not too shabby for eating 2 bananas a day and 3 cups of watermelon a day during this time. =)

Nutrician 4 years ago

Red Sauces contain much less calories and are the preffered choice for losing weight! avoid sauces like mayonaise.

Nutrician 4 years ago

Also, Sodium overdoses aren't that bad... it just holds water, you'll pee them out eventually. (take these with a pinch of salt!) pun intended. :)

me 3 years ago

this is just about the dumbest article i have ever read. Are you trying to deceive people?? Avocados are an excellent diet food. ALL FRUITS are good for weight loss. For god sake people, the ONLY thing that will lead to weight gain is an excess in calories, and the only thing that will cause weight loss is a calorie deficit. Heck, you could eat chocolate bars all day and still lose weight if you only eat 1500 calories worth of it.

Liam 3 years ago

Most of the things on this list are wrong... Really wrong. A prime example, is in the "Fruits/Veggies category" Bananas in low quantites are great for weight loss, as they kick-start metabolism, and Avocados are often revered as a "Weight-Loss superfood" because of their anti-oxidants and Omega Fatty Acid properties. This list may work if you are living sedentary, but if you are actively trying to lose weight with diet and exercise, then you should look elsewhere.


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