It’s not just what you eat to lose weight, but also what you are not eating. Are you making your calories count with quality, nutrient-dense foods that can promote more weight loss, or are you only focusing on the amount you’re eating?
Eliminating the right foods from your diet, like added sugar and empty calories, can make cutting your intake easier and allow you to lose weight without feeling hungry all the time.
Here’s your go-to guide for the top foods to eat less of for weight loss.
What Makes a Food “Bad”?
Ultimately, no foods are “bad” for your health. It’s your overall diet and calorie intake that have the biggest impact on your nutrition and weight loss goals. However, certain foods can make sticking to your goals more challenging by providing empty calories.
Empty calorie foods are options that contain little to no nutritional value per calorie, essentially the opposite of nutrient-dense foods. Identifying and eliminating empty calories from your diet is a great approach to weight control because you are creating a calorie deficit without decreasing your overall nutrient intake significantly.
Most empty calories will come from refined grains, foods high in added sugar, processed foods, higher fat foods, and desserts.
Foods to Limit or Avoid
Here are 8 sources of empty calories you may want to limit your intake of for faster weight loss:
<p class='slide-count'>1 of 8</p><img width="1109" height="614" src="/uploadfile/2024/1214/20241214133944136.jpg"><p class="photo-credit">Kazitafahnizeer</p>Soda
Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages are basically 100% added sugar. This means they pack a lot of calories into a liquid form — you’d be amazed at how many packets of table sugar you can dissolve in water without significantly increasing the volume of the glass.
Additionally, liquid calories don’t quite fill you up the same way solid food will. It is much easier to drink 500 calories of soda in a single sitting than to eat 500 calories of lean chicken breast (about four 4-oz chicken breasts).
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Candy
Most candies — gummies, hard candies, etc. — pack a lot of energy into a small package with little to no nutrition. Made with added sugar and processed oils and flavorings, these sweet treats are addictive and can often do a number on your blood sugar control. Snacking on candy is one way to enjoy a sugar crash later in the day.
Plus anyone who’s ever eaten their way through an entire fun-sized candy bag can agree that candy doesn’t do much good to satisfy your hunger.
Jack Jelly
Fried food
While you can fry just about anything — even nutritious foods, like vegetables — most fried foods rack up extra calories from breading and oil that add little to no nutritional value to the choice. That lean chicken breast goes from 130 calories for a 4-ounce serving to more than 250 calories when breaded and fried.
The worst offenders for fried foods are sugary, fried options like funnel cakes and doughnuts, as these are often low in nutrition to begin with.
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Dessert
It may sound cliche, but skipping dessert or at least cutting back on it is a really easy way to trim empty calories out of your day. No, the occasional after-dinner treat won’t hurt, but if you’re finding that you can’t quite end a meal without some ice cream, cookies, or other baked goods, you are probably racking up a lot of extra calories that won’t help your progress.
This also includes pastries. It’s incredible how much butter and sugar we can cram into such a small portion of food.
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Sausage
Protein is one of the best macros to eat for weight loss, but high-fat options like sausage can have two to three times as many calories from fat as they do protein. One link or standard serving of pork or beef sausage has roughly 250 calories and anywhere from 20 to 30 grams of fat — while only packing 12 to 14 grams of protein.
Opting for leaner proteins like turkey or chicken sausage can save you a lot of unnecessary calories and saturated fat.
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Butter
A little bit of butter is just fine, but too much butter used in the cooking and seasoning of your meals can add up quickly. Butter is essentially pure fat and provides little to no nutritional value. A single tablespoon has 100 calories and 12 grams of fat. You could be adding hundreds of calories to your day without even realizing it.
If you are going to use butter or oil, make sure you measure out how much and track it with your daily calorie intake. Or swap it out for a light smear of a whole food fat like avocado, peanut butter, or tahini for a flavor twist and a bit more nutrition.
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Mayonnaise
Like butter, mayonnaise is mostly fat and really only there to provide flavor to your food. Skipping the mayo on your sandwiches or opting for a light mayo instead can save you hundreds of calories.
Watch out for other high, fat high-calorie sauces and dressings as well, as they can provide a couple of hundred calories in only a couple tablespoons.
Dmytrenko Vlad
Alcohol
Yes, it is possible to indulge in the occasional cocktail and lose weight. However, alcohol is the king of empty calories — considering it is in a non-essential macro class all on its own.
Moreover, drinking a lot of alcohol can mess with your metabolism, zap your willpower, and cause unwanted cravings.
If you are serious about losing weight, you might want to consider putting the brakes on the booze temporarily. If not, at least make sure you’re tracking calories from everything you eat and drink, including alcohol.
Bottom Line
Finding sources of excess calories to cut is one of the best ways to support your weight loss goals without having to starve yourself in the process. But you should also be simultaneously looking for low calorie, nutrient-dense foods to replace them with.
Need help finding nutritious foods you enjoy eating? Build your ultimate weight loss menu with this list of over 50 foods for weight loss.