Do You Know Where The Hidden Calories Lie?

Calorie Creep: How to spot the hidden high-calorie foods in your diet

You replaced your morning cola with a 12-ounce glass of orange juice. Your burger and fries lunch is a thing of the past, and instead you eat salad topped with cheese and crunchy croutons. You’ve even developed an appetite for baked rather than fried chips.

Yet despite those changes, you’re nowhere closer to a healthy weight than before. What’s happening?

Most of us are misguided about how many calories we’re actually taking in, and it is usually a combination of both eating too much and eating the wrong things, nutrition experts say.

Here are the top “calorie creepers” that may be adding unwanted calories to your daily diet, according to health professionals. 

Salads

For lunch at the fast-food place, we decide to get the salad instead of the hamburger. But if you get the crispy chicken [salad] instead of the broiled and take all the toppings and dressing that come with it, you usually would have been better off getting the hamburger.

The solution: Focus on the vegetables–the low-calorie part. Include darker greens, such as spinach and romaine lettuce. And add a rainbow of color with tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms, she says.

Salad dressings

Dressings also pile on more calories–73 for a tablespoon of either ranch or French style–than you might imagine. And who uses just one tablespoon of salad dressing?

The solution: Place the dressing on the side and dip your salad into it. That way you still get the taste from the dressing in every bite, but the amount of calories is much lower.

Baked snacks

Just because it isn’t fried doesn’t mean it’s low in calories.

The solution: Steer clear of the supermarket aisles with processed foods, which have excess sodium, sugar and bad fats.

Nutritious beverages

Milk, fruit juice and tea can all pack in calories. Watch out for sweetened tea as well: Presweetened tea can contribute 300 to 600 calories to your daily intake.

The solution: Water!  Not flavored waters, just plain, old-fashion water.