UNDERSTANDING PORTION CONTROL IN THE SNEAKY CALORIES
People can often add extra calories to foods without even realising it. Take mayonnaise for example. Just adding a “bit” to your sandwich for flavour can seriously hurt your waistline if you are on a weight loss plan. It’s important to understand what I call Sneaky Calories and controlling your portion size of them means you can still enjoy them but still lose weight.
This is a live video originally recorded on our facebook page from Mike’s home in Ennis [link below].
When you look at a tablespoon of full fat mayo which, depending on your source, equates to between 13g and 15g it could mean an extra calorie intake of over 100calories.
While that may not seem like a lot, when we start putting it all together in the form of a sandwich we realise that these oversights can be detremental to losing weight.
Let’s reverse for a second. Before mayonnaise comes bread. On average a slice of bread comes in at approximately 100 calories. At two slices of bread we are 200 calories. Maths is simple here isn’t it!
Now let’s add in the mayo. If you look at the video we didn’t even have enough to cover the bread so let’s take the full amount into acount and give it 120 calories.
Before we put anything into this sandwich we are already looking at 320 calories. Hmmm, see where I am going with this…
Time for the filling!
You are in the mood for a simple ham and cheese sandwich. 20g of cheese (which isn’t a whole lot) is approximately 80calories. Now we are at 400 calories. Don’t forget the ham. One slice of deli cooked ham sliced off the big lump of meat could be approx 50 calories.
Putting it all together your faced with a 450 calorie sandwich with nothing special going on. Imagine if you keep going an add some tomatoes, some salad. Then you have the extras, maybe a packet of crisps to go with it.
All of a sudden that simple looking sandwich is climbing north of 600 calories.
If you remember back we said we were going to look at someone who may be on a fat loss plan of 1400 calories. Doing the simple maths here you would not be too far off 50% of your daily calorie intake in a “simple sandwich”
I hope your face has turned to shock at this point and it’s helping you realise that without making some changes to how we carelessly add these extra calories you will end up in the same cycle of frustration, losing some weight and putting it back on and on and on the cycle goes. Not good!
HOW TO MAKE YOUR SANDWICH A MORE WAISTLINE FRIENDLY OPTION
You don’t have to change too much to make this a lighter calorie option and that’s where a lot of people go wrong. They change too much and are too strict on themselves and they can’t stick to it.
So let’s take a look at what we can do to make this friendlier to the waistline.
One simple way to do it (as we are talking about mayo) is to pick low fat mayo instead of going full fat. Not much difference, if any, in the taste. But the big difference is the calorie content in that tablespoon. By going for low fat it reduces the calories from over 100 to about 40.
And instead of going for 2 slices of bread to make one sandwich why not go for a wholegrain wrap which comes in at about 90calories on its own. Just on that bread and full fat mayo substituted we have gone from 320 calories right down to 130 calories which is a massive difference for those looking to lose weight.
This kind of mindfulness around portion control on the “sneaky calories” will make a massive difference to your waistline.
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