Everyday Weight Loss Tip #7 - Kick The Sugar Habit

If you’re one of those who ‘MUST’ have a sugared soft drink with your meals, this one’s for you. Everyday, at the restaurant I have my daily lunch at, I look around and see that almost EVERYONE has their meal with either a soft drink, or some sort of sugary concoction.

Why this habit? Often we think that it is fat that we must avoid, and fail to take into account the hidden empty calories that lurk in a soft drink in the form of sugar. It may only be about 100+ calories per drink, per day, but over time, these extra calories add up to alot, and as you should know by now - weight loss is not a daily thing, but more of an average over several days. (An excess of 3500 calories will gain 1 pound of fat, or muscle).

A good choice would be to replace them either with water , or if you must, the diet version of that drink, if it’s available. For instance, have a can of Diet Coke, instead of Regular Coke. This can make a very, very big difference.

Avoiding sugared drinks help eliminate a decent amount of unnecessary calories from our diet. Soft drinks (Coke, Sprite, 7UP, etc) obtain nearly all of their calories in the form of refined cane sugar or corn syrup. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of added sugars to our diet is 10 teaspoons for a 2,000-calorie diet, and many soft drinks ALONE exceed this amount.

Soft drinks linked to weight gain and type 2 diabetes
In 2004, an eight-year study of 50,000 nurses showed a correlation that suggests drinking one or more sugar-sweetened beverages (insert your favourite soft drink here) per day increases one’s risk of developing diabetes by 80% versus those who drink less than one such drink per month. This finding was independent of other lifestyle factors. It concludes, “Higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a greater magnitude of weight gain and an increased risk for development of type 2 diabetes in women, possibly by providing excessive calories and large amounts of rapidly absorbable sugars.”.

Here’s a scary illustration:

A can of Pepsi (325ml) contains 150 calories, consisting of:
Total Fat 0g
Sodium 38 mg
Total Carbs (Sugars) 40.5g
Protein 0 g
Potassium 15 mg

To burn these calories… we need to do either one of the following exercises:
* 41 mins of Walking
* 17 mins of Jogging
* 12 mins of Swimming
* 23 mins of Cycling

# Based on a 35 year old female that’s 175cm tall and weighs 144lbs. *information taken from CalorieKing

Now that’s a lot of effort that can be saved if we’d only make better choices in what we drink. Suddenly… a soft drink doesn’t seem all that sweet anymore…

*This tip is part of my Compilation of Everyday Weight Loss Tips. Read the introduction and stay tuned at that page for more tips as I write and compile them.

Your friend and coach,
DM

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