A person is required to have a 3500 kcal deficit in their diet in a week  before he/she is able to see weight loss of 1lb. That translates to 500 kcal a day. To put that into perspective, you will need to cut out about 1.5 bowls of rice a day or add 1 hour of moderate intensity treadmill work to generate a 500 kcal deficit.

Now you go on a diet adding exercise and eating less rice. So far so good. However, you also add a medium sized packet of potato chips or some kind of junk food into your diet everyday. It is easy to eat that little snack and think that you’re still on track, simply because the snack is not very filling and is very tasty. You munch it up in less than 3 seconds. However, what you might not realise is that these sinful snacks are actually very dense in calories. For eg. a medium sized packet of potato chips can contain 400 kcals. Have something like that everyday and you have already blown the 500 kcal deficit you have set for yourself. On days when your friends come over and you have 2 snacks; now you’re on your way to packing on more fats, when all the time you think you’re on a ‘diet’.

What is the take home message here? First, learn to read food labels. Look at the number of calories each snack contains and if you do need to snack, choose something with lower calories. In addition, you can have a ‘cheat/reward’ meal once in a while but make sure you don’t overdo it. So be strict with yourself all days of the week at all meals, except for 2 meals a week where you can have something you will not normally have, like an ice cream. That meal helps to keep you sane on a diet.

So, if you are not losing weight, try to take a closer look at what you are eating. A harmless cookie here and a tablespoon of ice cream there can slowly add up and eat up that deficit that you are aiming to work towards.

Happy dieting!