Beware of the 100 Calorie Snacks



100 Calorie Snack?!

Beware of the 100 Calorie Snacks

There has been a lot of talk about 100 calorie snacks being the go to amount to look for when picking out a snack. I use the word snack lightly, since most people think of snack as a cookie, or a candy bar, or if trying to eat healthy perhaps some celery and carrot sticks. But, none of these options are going to give you the nutrients that you need to get you through to the next meal (except perhaps the candy bar if they have a lot of nuts!) and help you in your ability to either sustain or lose weight. But, for now let’s focus on how you feel when you eat certain foods rather than the calories.

Use Your Own Body as a Guiney Pig (for a short time period)

I recommend using your body as a Guiney pig for a short time and really find out how your body feels when you are not eating a well-balanced meal or mini-meal (my name for snack). Well-balanced means that you are including dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates and significant portions of each. Write down how you feel right after you eat, an hour after you eat, and then two hours after you eat. Try eating something well-balanced and do the same. How do you feel? Once you realize that you can affect how you feel by what you eat, you will look at food in a completely different way.

Why the desire or need for the 100 calorie snack?

I do not like the word snack, but for this paragraph I will use it. Sometimes you do need a little something to tide you over to the next scheduled meal. Especially if the next meal is a planned one with others or at a specified time dictated by your schedule. While 100 calories seems like a small amount and something to strive for, but as I pointed out in last week’s blog, calories are nothing more than a calculation of the nutrients of dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates, and in and of itself are meaningless. 

Yes, calories in and of themselves are meaningless!

You do not need to eat a snack if you don’t feel like it and you also should not deprive yourself of snack if you need one. I read just yesterday that now the morning snack can lead to overeating during the day…hogwash! If you wake up early in the morning and your next meal is not going to be for 6 hours because you need to eat lunch at noon, you more than likely need a morning snack. But, if you wake up later in the morning and there is less than 4 hours between breakfast and lunch you probably don’t need one. Same applies for the afternoon, if you eat lunch at noon and dinner at 5pm, you are probably fine without an afternoon snack.

But, again it is all about when you feel you need to eat, not when someone else tells you that you need to eat. Track your progress using my journals either online or using the Apps in the Apple or Android Market – Timerdiet and you will learn how much and how often your body needs to eat and remember every day is different!

 

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com/journal