The Sneakiest Calories

The calorie is not a dieter’s friend. While many people carefully choose low-calorie foods, they may not be aware of the quickest, sneakiest way that calories enter our systems: through what we drink.

Studies show that 21% of the calories we consume each day come from drinks.

As the calories Americans consume have increased over the past 40 years, this proportion has also increased. Thanks to colas, sugary coffees, juices and milk, they are now drinking 220 more calories each day than we were drinking in 1960. That adds up to an extra ten pounds of fat every year.

High-calories drinks may also be those advertised as healthy or all natural. “It’s deceptive,” says Dr. Don Gates, owner and medical director of MyDietSolutions.com, “People think, ‘It’s 100% grape juice, so it’s good for me.”

A Purdue University study demonstrated how the body gets deceived by liquid calories. When people overate on a given day, their bodies compensated by cutting demand for calories in following days. But when participants drank extra calories, their bodies didn’t compensate. There was no natural reaction to the additional calories.

“It’s easy to underestimate how much you drink,” Gates adds. He has never seen a patient of 300 pounds or more who wasn’t imbibing hundreds of extra calories each day of sodas or sweat teas.

So don’t drink and diet—don’t drink calories, at least. Cut the calories out completely and stick to water or substitute diet drinks. Look at what you’re drinking and evaluate where you can cut calories.