If you are looking for foods to avoid while trying to lose weight, then making some changes in your diet is of great importance and cannot be downplayed, except the weight gain is due to medical reasons.

Often times, making changes with it comes to your diet can be very difficult because our brains are used to the routine of eating certain foods and craving those that boost serotonin levels, even if they are known to be unhealthy.

The first and best thing to do if you are looking to lose weight is to understand the foods that you will need to avoid in order to gain a smaller waistline and to stay healthy after all. We have listed here some of the foods you may need to avoid in order to lose weight and stay fit.

1. Sugary Drinks

It is common knowledge that sweetened drinks such as fruit juice and sodas are high in calories and contain large amounts of sugar, but sad enough is that the brain does not recognize them the way it does solid foods. Liquid calories never makes one feel full. This means you might eat your food and easily wash it down with a bottle of coke for example, but you would have succeeded in consuming more calories, almost double in a serving.

Weight gain through drinking plenty of sugary drinks will often affect people who have a genetic predisposition to obesity more. So if you are trying to lose weight, just opt for water or a lightly sweetened tea if a caffeine boost is what you need.

2. Potato Chips and French Fries

These are largely tasty, hence they happen to be among the most craved for snacks. But unfortunately, they are very high in calories and can result to serious weight gain. Studies have shown that they contribute so much to weight gain serving for serving than other individual foods.

Moreover, having them consistently could make one vulnerable to acrylamides which are carcinogenic chemicals that escalate one’s chances of having cancer.

3. Alcohol

Alcohol among many other negative health effects is extremely calorie heavy. Plenty individuals like to indulge when it comes to alcohol consumption, but often do not factor in the fact that alcohol is calorie heavy. For instance, for only about twelve ounces of beer there is close to 150 calories and even five ounces of wine contains about 120 calories. Do the mathematics to multiply all these amount of calories by the number of drinks most individuals take in an evening, you will see just how they work toward weight gain unknowingly.

Excessive alcohol intake could also escalate to turning into fat in the liver, thereby raising the amount of fat in your bloodstream. If you are not seeing any reasons to quit alcohol drinking just yet, then stick to just a glass a day.

4. White Bread

Studies show that white bread very little or no nutritional value when compared with other whole grains because it is a product of highly refined white flour. It also contains plenty of added sugar. Eating white bread will escalate your blood sugar levels and eventually crash it shortly leaving you feeling hungry again. This could lead to much craving and overeating.

According to certain other studies, just eating two slices of white bread per day could put you at more risk of gaining weight or getting obese by up to 40%. Avoid eating white bread, take whole grain bread with low added sugar instead.

5. Pizza

Pizzas are delicious and very popular no doubt, but the process of its commercial production may be very unhealthy. Think about it. Pizzas are well known to contain refined flour, so much amount of cheese, highly processed meat, sugar-laden sauce and many other ingredients that are not healthy.

It is more advisable to stay away from such pizzas. If you are looking to reduce the fat content of pizza, you may have to blot the surface grease before consumption or source for pizza at restaurants that provide whole wheat crust, low-fat cheese as well as sauce with low sugar content. You can alternatively just make your pizza at home.

6. Ice Cream

People, adults, children, even the old alike love eating ice-cream but very unfortunately, it is so much unhealthy. Ice cream contains a lot of sugar and is known to very high in calories. Just consuming a small amount  once in a while is okay, but the problem is the cravings for ice cream is usually very high and is very easy to overindulge in just a single sitting especially with friends, family and even colleagues.

If you are working on losing some pounds but still craving for ice cream, you may have to make your own using healthier ingredients like fruit, full-fat yogurt, with less sugar. Also ensure to watch the quantity you eat per serving.

7. Candy

Candy has in it plenty of added sugar, refined flour, and even unhealthy oils. You will certainly need to avoid them if you are working working on weight loss. Candies that contain nuts or raisins do not help much. This is because this type of candy overwhelm the health benefits that could have been received from those ingredients and trigger weight gain.

Even though candies contain lots of calories, they may not get you full. They can instead cause more cravings and make one overeat since it is devoid of nutrients. If you want to snack, you may prefer a fruit or a handful of nuts.