Personal trainer Emmet Rushe uncovers the sneaky things that you may not realise are adding extra calories to your diet.

You can be doing everything right.

You can be training, eating healthy, drinking your water, following everything you are being told to do and yet, you may not be getting the results you are looking for.

It can be really frustrating when this happens.

It could be enough to put you off and send you back to your old ways.

But, that is counterproductive and it might not be what you are eating that may be causing the issue, not when it comes to your main foods anyways.

Sometimes calories can add up from things that you may not be thinking of or even counting if you are tracking your foods.

Below are the top 5 things that I tend to come across whenever someone has stalled when dieting.

1. The oils you cook with

This is one of the ways that calories can add up.
A tablespoon of olive oil or coconut oil has around 120 calories.
if you are using more than 1 serving of these for cooking with, the calories can add up very quickly.
Add into this bad cooking practices and you can get even more.
this usually comes from cooking with too high of a heat and then having to add more oil to prevent the food from burning.
You could end up with 300-400 calories of oil before you even take a bite of food.
It doesn’t matter how healthy the meal is or how healthy the oil you are cooking with is.
All calories count, so be mindful of these.
While not ideal, spray oils are a great way to reduce the amount of calories used when cooking.

Which oil do you use for cooking?

2. Flavoured coffee

We are not talking about your regular Americano here, that come in at around 8 calories, when served black.
We are talking about everything else on the menu that people drink in coffee shops, who don’t like coffee.
Coffee has become hugely popular over the past decade and it is where people will usually meet when they are looking to have a leisurely chat.
But, some of the drinks that you get can have astonishing amounts of calories in them and they can be a way that you are spilling over without even knowing you are doing it.
A Billionaire Hot chocolate from Costa’s Christmas collection comes in at 528 calories, for a drink.
It’s also highly unlikely that you would have it on it’s own, so add in a Glimmer Carrot Cake, to be a bit healthier, you are adding in another 593 calories.
So that’s 1,121 calories for a quick stop in a coffee shop.
You wouldn’t register it as half of your daily calories though, would you?

Careful about the calories in your favourite festive coffee

3. Healthy Snacks

What is classed as ‘healthy’ these days, sometimes doesn’t match with what will satisfy you in between meals as a snack.
Cereal bars
Nuts
Seeds
Peanut Butter
While they all have their benefits, they also have huge amounts of calories for a very little serving of the foods.

Breakfast biscuits

100g of breakfast biscuits has 440 calories
100g of nuts have around 600 calories
100g of seeds have 500 calories
100g of peanut butter has around 600 calories.

While you may not be having 100g in one go with these. Using them loosely, no matter how healthy and the calories will add up.

There are 94 calories in one tablespoon of peanut butter

4. Spreads, sauces and butters

If you regularly eat sandwiches and wraps, you may want to assess what you are spreading on them before adding the fillings. 
Butter, mayonnaise and the different sauces that you get can all have huge amounts of calories per serving.
Butter per 100g has around 700 calories.
Mayonnaise per 100g has around the same.
Sandwich sauce, like Subways ‘Zesty Italian sauce’ has 500 calories per 100g.
Again, while you may not be having 100g in one go with these. Using them loosely, and the calories will add up.

5. Alcohol

Saving the best for last, we come to alcohol.
Can you have alcohol while dieting?
Yes.
Can you have it the way you want to have it while dieting?
No.
Alcohol has a few issues when it comes to dieting.

1. You are taking in excess calories from fluids alone.
2. It will increase your appetite and reduce your restraint, making it more likely that you will break from your diet or binge.
3. It has diuretic effects and makes it more likely that you will crave junk the following day until you are fully hydrated again.
4. Your body will slow the burning of calories until the alcohol is excreted from your system.

It is probably best to avoid it altogether when dieting, at least until you can control yourself and limit your intake.

There you have it, the Top 5 ways that calories can creep in without you realising that it’s happening.
I teach this and more to my Rushe Fitness members in the gym and to my online clients also.

If your coach is pushing latest fad to you again and you are not getting the results you deserve, contact me and come join our gym family.
#TrainSmart