If you are struggling to lose weight, chances are you may be consuming more hidden calories than you realize. ⁣If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that losing weight comes down to creating a calorie deficit. ⁣However, if you’re eating plenty of nutritious foods and moving your body consistently and STILL not seeing results, hidden calories may be the culprit.

Keep reading to find out what kinds of foods are best to avoid⁣, or learn healthier alternatives that will enrich your diet and help you to lose weight.

10 Food with Hidden Calories and Their Healthier Alternatives

1. Soft Drinks

Seeing soft drinks at the top of the list might not be surprising for some because of the amount of sugar found in them. One 20-oz bottle of Coke contains 240 calories. If you consume one of those each day of the week, you’re adding an extra 1680 calories to your week. When it comes to weight loss, ALL calories count… Not just the ones from food. ⁣

🍹 Healthy alternatives: Treating yourself to a Coke once in a while may not harm you too much, but swapping the soft drink for a sugar-free alternative (like Diet Coke or Coke Zero) would have a positive impact on your health. 

2. Salad Dressings⁣

Pre-made salads purchased from a store usually come with a mouth-watering dressing, making the healthy meal just that much more delicious. Plus, store-bought salad dressings are usually more convenient to use than making your own salad dressing. For example, one tablespoon of store-bought ranch dressing contains 73 calories, and one tablespoon of olive oil contains 120 calories. This does NOT mean these foods are “bad.” Heck, olive oil has plenty of benefits that aid our health. However, it’s easy to overconsume these calorically dense condiments while trying to lose weight.⁣

🥬 Healthy alternatives: Instead of using salad dressings, try adding a spray of olive oil, lemon juice, or red wine vinegar. Alternatively, you can search for salads sold with low-fat dressings or those that are vinaigrette-based dressings.  

3. Salads

All salads are automatically healthy, right?! I wish! Calories from toppings like cheese, nuts, tortilla strips, croutons, etc. can add up quickly. If you’re trying to lose weight, be mindful to choose plenty of veggies and lean proteins in your salad. ⁣

🥗 Healthy alternatives: Pay attention to what ingredients you add to your salad and in what amounts. Do your best to keep your salads as healthy as possible while not compromising on their taste. After all, healthy food doesn’t have to taste bad. 

4. “Healthy” Snacks

Snacks like trail mix and nuts can be healthy… meaning that they are loaded with nutrients, but they also contain more calories than snacks like fruits, veggies, and hard-boiled eggs. It’s easy to eat more calories than you realize by choosing calorically-dense snacks.

🥪 Healthy alternatives: Whenever you’re craving a snack, air fry or steam some veggies and cut some fruits to suppress your hunger. Alternatively, you can purchase low-calorie snacks that are filling and tasty, like individual servings of Greek yogurt or cheese sticks

5. Oil 

Counting calories can be tricky when cooking, especially with the amount of oil added to dishes. Oils, particularly olive oil, are calorie-dense yet packed with health benefits. Although one tablespoon of olive oil contains 119 calories, it's a nutritious choice—just be mindful to use it in moderation.

🍳 Healthy alternatives: You shouldn’t eliminate oils from your diet plan–instead, control the amount you add. To do this, you can use an oil spray or purchase an olive oil sprayer that will help you reduce the amount of oil you add to your meals. 

6. Coffee

Your morning pick-me-up could be loaded with more calories than you think. If you enjoy a sweetened latte or cappuccino with syrup and rich toppings, you might be consuming as many calories as a Big Mac burger!

☕ Healthy alternatives: No need to give up coffee! You can make simple changes to enjoy a healthier drink. Try switching to skimmed milk or opting for black coffee with sugar-free syrup for a lighter, calorie-friendly option.  

7. Sauces

Have you noticed how much and how often you consume mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, and mayo? If you love to add some flavor to your meals, you might not be a stranger to sauces. However, the calories in these sauces can add up quicker than you realize. A single spoon of mayonnaise may contain up to 130 calories, and adding it to each piece of chicken could lower your chances of losing weight.

🫗 Healthy alternatives: You can reduce your portions or swap your regular sauces with low-fat or low-sugar alternatives, reducing your calorie intake significantly. For example, using a low-fat mayo reduces the calorie intake by 80%! 

8. Fruit Juices

A morning glass of orange juice can cause a sharp spike in your glucose levels, potentially leading to an energy crash and feelings of sluggishness later on. One glass of apple juice can contain about 110 calories, and sometimes contains added sugar which translates to added calories. 

🧃 Healthy alternatives: Try replacing fruit juice with a regular piece of fruit or a fruit smoothie. Smoothies are thicker in consistency and can be made of multiple fruits and even vegetables! Opt for fruit on the lower end of the glycemic index (like pears, cherries, and apples), and experiment with adding carrot or pumpkin. 

9. Meat 

Meat is a protein-rich food that helps build muscle and boost metabolism. However, each cut provides a different amount of calories. For example, a 100-gram portion of rib-eye equals 255 calories, while a filet steak is only about 155 calories.

🥩 Healthy alternatives: Choose your meat carefully and opt for lean pieces of meat. You can swap regular ground beef for lean ground beef and chicken drumsticks for chicken breasts. 

10. Sushi 

Many people are surprised to hear that a delicious and seemingly healthy roll of sushi is actually quite calorific. Overall, sushi is a healthy meal containing rice, seaweed, vegetables, and raw or cooked seafood. This means it’s packed with nutrients. However, some types of sushi can be high in carbs, salt, and unhealthy fats. This is especially true for fried tempura batter, and sushi served with high-fat sauces.

🍣 Healthy alternatives: We don’t want you to stop eating sushi, but try to be mindful with your order, as a few plates of fried sushi rolls may equal over 700 calories. Instead, you can swap some sushi sets with sashimi or onigiri.

How to Make Your Meals Macro-Friendly

When you’re tracking macros, you need to be mindful of your food choices, focusing on filling and nutritious meals while maintaining a calorie deficit. Traditional recipes can be full of high-fat ingredients that may not even curb your hunger or fit within your daily nutrition plan. But does it mean you have to stop eating your favorite foods? Not at all! Instead, you should try to make your food choices healthier and more macro-friendly. Here are some common pitfalls to be mindful of when tracking macros for weight loss:

• ⁣Underestimating portion sizes: You may think you’re eating a 150-calorie serving of pretzels, but are you accurately measuring out your portion? If you’re trying to lose weight, try your best to track your portion sizes accurately. When in doubt⁣, over-estimate your portion size. 

• Mindless Snacking: Focus on only eating a meal or nutritious snack when you feel physical hunger, as opposed to every time you walk past the pantry, or when you feel stressed and/or emotional.

• Fatty Dressing/Topping: Whenever possible, aim for low-fat alternatives when preparing a whip or dressing for your meals. For example, swap sugary syrups with fresh fruit or opt for a freshly squeezed lemon for a salad dressing. 

Final Words

The key to mindful eating is making minor changes in your cooking and overall food choices that will have a great impact on how much weight you lose and, even more importantly, how you feel. Sticking to healthy habits doesn’t have to be tasteless and boring. On the contrary, you can still cook your favorite pizza or pasta, but swap high-fat with low-fat ingredients when possible and measure your portion sizes. Be mindful of the hidden calories that we’ve discussed because oftentimes, these add up quicker than we realize!

Having a healthy relationship with food is easy when you know what fuels your body and gives you energy for the whole day!