5 Best beverages to help you lose weight

When we talk about weight loss or dieting we concentrate on what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. What about the drinks?

When trying to lose weight, we focus almost all our attention on food.

While food is the major nutritional factor in losing weight, there lies a grave danger in neglecting to look at the beverages you are consuming and their effect on your nutritional plan.

Consider this:

• A glass of cola contains about 180 calories from refined sugar
• A beer contains 150 calories from refined alcohol
• A white coffee with two sugars contains 80 calories from dairy fat and refined sugar
• A glass of seemingly healthy commercial orange juice contains 112 calories (usually a concentrated mix of refined sugar and fruit)

It is clear that these items must be taken into account as a calorie-contributing factor in a nutrition plan or the extra calories could sabotage your weight loss efforts.

Example of a 'normal' (bad) day of beverages:

This is an example of what a normal person would consume every day in terms of beverages… These are often ‘unconscious’ calories that aren’t being considered as part of the daily nutritional intake, but THEY DO ADD UP!

• Before breakfast: Coffee (white, two sugars) - 80 calories
• Breakfast time: Glass of juice - 112 calories
• Morning tea time: Coffee - 80 calories
• Lunch: Cola - 180 calories
• Afternoon tea time: Coffee - 80 calories
• Arrive home from work: Beer - 150 calories
• Dinner: Small glass of red wine - 125 calories

This works out to around 1 000 calories!

That's about half the number an average woman should consume in a day. So essentially in this scenario, the person is drinking 50% of her necessary calories.

So what should you drink if you want to lose weight?

Here are 5 suggestions:

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