Maintaining a healthy diet is essential for effective and sustainable weight loss. The foods we choose to consume can significantly impact our metabolism, energy levels, and overall well-being. While exercise is a crucial component of any weight loss regimen, the foundation of successful weight management lies in our dietary habits. Consuming nutrient-dense, whole foods can help regulate appetite, improve metabolic health, and support long-term weight loss goals. Conversely, certain foods can sabotage these efforts by contributing to weight gain, inflammation, and poor metabolic function.
To optimize your weight loss journey, it’s important to identify and eliminate foods that hinder progress. To discover some of the most detrimental options, we spoke to health experts Lisa Richards, nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet, Kelsey Mauro, functional medicine gut health consultant, and Jay Cowin, registered nutritionist. According to them, three common dietary culprits that can impede weight loss are vegetable oils, sugary pastries, and white bread. These items not only add unnecessary calories but also affect your body’s ability to burn fat efficiently. Learn more about the risks of each below.
1. Vegetable oils
When it comes to the worst commonly used ingredients that are likely to slow your weight loss progress, vegetable oils are definitely somewhere at the top of the list. Mauro warns that these cooking oils, which are processed with chemicals and packed with omega-6 fatty acids, "are a key contributor to inflammation" and "can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases and an increased risk of obesity."
Additionally, vegetable oils offer virtually no nutritional value. As Cowin notes, they "contain only trace amounts of nutrients, meaning cooking with this oil doesn't provide much benefit to your body or diet compared to other oils that are higher in unsaturated fats like olive oil."
Of course, there's also the simple fact that this ingredient is extremely calorie-dense, with a single tablespoon coming in around 120 calories. Overall, your best bet is to trade vegetable oils for olive oil.
2. White Bread
Many people prefer white bread for their sandwiches, toast, and more. It may even be a staple in your own pantry and diet. Unfortunately, thought, Richards warns that this is one of the worst foods for your overall health and could seriously stall your weight loss efforts. For this reason, cutting it out of your diet is one great step to take on your weight loss journey.
White bread and other refined carbs, Richards says, "have many negative side effects for our health and belly fat is just one of them." Essentially, these processed foods "have undergone a refining process where the fiber and beneficial nutrients are removed and possibly replaced with synthetic versions." That means eating white bread can lead to "quick sugar spikes and inflammation, both of which stall weight loss and damage health."
Luckily, there are plenty of healthier breads to choose from. Switching to whole grain or even sprouted bread could make a major difference in your weight loss progress.
3. Sugary Pastries
Here's another type of refined carb that health experts urge you to kick to the curb if weight loss is your goal (or even if you just want to be healthier overall). Richards cites sugary pastries like donuts and danishes as some of the worst foods for inflammation and weight gain.
"They are a combination of refined carbs and fat from oil," she warns. "These two together provide you with a high calorie, inflammatory, and weight promoting snack."
Like white bread, she goes on to explain that pastries are highly inflammatory and likely to lead to a quick rise in glucose due to all that sugar. "When the body is inflamed for a prolonged period of time it becomes more difficult to lose weight," Richards says, emphasizing that "the body will begin to hold on to weight more easily."
For a healthier breakfast that can still hit that sweet spot, you may want to go with some yogurt, granola, and fruit. Here are some of the best weight loss-friendly breakfasts to choose from.
Bottom line
Ultimately, of course, it's okay to treat yourself to your favorite sweet pastry every once in a while—and it's also important to remember that in many cases, a highly restrictive diet can do more harm than good. However, as you navigate your weight loss journey, it is in your best interest to make an effort to limit your intake of foods like white bread, sugary pastries, and vegetable oil as much as possible. Your body will thank you for it!
