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Stop Drinking Your Calories — Here's Why

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What is “drinking calories”

The term “drinking calories” usually refers to drinking beverages that have calories (probably a lot of calories).

 

Most people that are trying to lose weight, only think about the calories they eat rather than the calories they drink. This is bad. This can cause you to lose a lot of progress when trying to cut weight. Why is this?

Why is it bad for weight loss?

In simple terms — if you are trying to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than your normal maintenance calories. Basically… you have to eat less. 

 

If you are consuming drinks like sports drinks, sodas, shakes, or even fruit juices — then you are adding way more calories than you think. Usually resulting in going over your calorie goal for the day = bad.

Example:
Joe Blow wants to lose weight. His maintenance calories (per day) are around 2,400 calories. He eats around 2,100 calories in a day, great! But he also drank: one soda (+150 calories), one apple juice (+100 calories), and a sweet tea (+150 calories). So he actually consumed around 2,500 calories in a day… not so great anymore.

Nice. Now you understand the science behind why you should not drink calories. But what about how you feel? Well if you like feeling full while losing weight, then you should definitely not drink your calories. Here's why:

 

Below is another example, this one compares drinking a Starbucks beverage vs eating a meal of chicken and sweet potatoes. See below.

First off, the Starbucks drink has more calories than the meal does. Wow. Secondly, the meal is more likely to fill you up than the Starbucks drink based on volume. So in most weight loss scenarios, drinking your calories is going to be a bad idea. Simple. 

So now what?

So if you are not drinking beverages filled to the brim with calories, then what will you drink? 

 

Uh… water. But some people aren’t satisfied with just water. If you are one of those people then some alternatives could be sparkling water, flavored water, zero-calorie alternative drinks, etc. 

 

The best practice here is to just quickly check the label of the drink you want, and see if it is packing calories.

 

Great, so what did we learn today? We learned what “drinking your calories” means, and why it can be bad. All in all, eating whole food will keep you full, cost fewer calories, plus give you the nutrients to fuel your body.

 

To be clear if you are trying to gain weight then drinking calories can be okay, plus there are always exceptions to every rule. But in general, when trying to lose weight, avoid drinking your calories.

Engagement:

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