Sunday 2 August 2015

Do Low-Calorie Desserts Really Exist?

No.

I've had a look at online recipes for things purporting to be 'low-calorie' (especially chocolate things) and can report that not a single one was any such thing. When they joyously proclaim things like 'only 50 calories each!', reading a little bit further will reveal why they have so few calories. 'Makes 97 servings'.  Hahaha! So, it's 50 calories, but only if you have so little you won't be able to taste it.

Who makes a batch of something and then cuts into into such teeny portions that even a sparrow would ask for more?

I then thought it would be fun to have a look at the calorific differences between 'diet' sweets and 'normal' sweets. You know what? If you only have half a Mars Bar, you'll not be far off the calories and <ahem> nutritional value of a Slim Fast chocolate and caramel bar.

Mars Bars weigh twice what Slim Fast bars weigh, so by halving the Mars bar, you'll have eaten the same quantity as the Slim Fast bar and only 20 calories more. There's more fat and sugar in the Mars bar than the Slim Fast bar, but the Slim Fast bar has lots of scary 'bulking agents' and such.

Then I had a look at yoghurts. They're nice and healthy, aren't they? In it's natural form, yoghurt is very sharp, so the commercially-produced yoghurts have lots of sugar pumped into them. Muller do a range of diet ones that look OK though.

So tell me, do you have any genuinely low-calorie ideas for desserts? (Aside from actually eating a piece of fruit. I do that a lot anyway.) I'd love to see them and try them out. I'll keep looking and I'll see about injecting some 'interesting' things into my diet too.

Here's how I'm doing today - check out the weight target! <beam>

Menu

Breakfast: Yakult and a pink grapefruit.
Lunch: Tried out toasted Weightwatchers bread. It's like eating dust and is not at all satisfying. I've not been hungry in ages, but I was after that, so I had an apple.
Dinner: Baked salmon, spinach and... quinoa. Will report fully on this soon.
Snack: Ovaltine Options hot choccie drink. 
Drinks: 1.5l of tap water

This little lot adds up to 770 calories according to FitBit. 

FitBit Stats From Yesterday

Steps: 15,352
Distance: 5.93 miles
Active minutes: 79

My Stats

Current weight: 11st 7.2lbs (Close enough! On the the next target...)
Next weight target: 11st 5lbs (I'll have lost exactly 3st at this weight.)

TOMORROW: Moving Targets - Losing Weight Little By Little

7 comments:

  1. Frozen banana, some almond butter (or peanut butter), skimmed milk, a few dates and raw cacao powder all whizzed up in the nutribullet will give you a tasty, nutritious, chocolatey thick shake. Less milk will give you an ice cream consistency. Yes, there are calories in this but they all contain actual vitamins, minerals, proteins and good fats too.

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  2. Nice one, Helen. I will go and liberate my Nutribullet from next door and will try it out :D

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  3. I've made chocolate mousse out of a ripe avocado, cacao and honey. It was incredibly rich to the point that a portion made with just one avocado lasted me about 3 days. It was way richer than normal chocolate mousse!

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  4. Natural or Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of good quality lemon curd is delicious. Or whizz up some frozen fruit in the nutribullet to add to plain yogurt also works. Yes there's sugar in there, but it's not pricessed. I think those are all my sweet treat ideas now!

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  5. Seriously liking the sound of the choccie avocado one :D

    I'm not worried about them having some calories in, everything does, it's just wanting to find something that has some nutritional value so the calories aren't completely empty :D

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  6. It's hard to restrict yourself but I like having one chunk of a good quality dark choc and then I nibble it really slowly so it feels like I've been eating it for ages. Also - if you are getting the nutibullet out I do melon, strawberries, grapes, a dollop of natural yoghurt, teaspoon of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and linseeds (mixed) and a couple of leaves of frozen spinach (don't actually want to taste it). Quite a bit of water as I don't like it thick but it makes a good filling breakfast that is easy on the digestive system

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  7. I think buying good quality chocolate is definitely the way forward. I have such a sweet . Gah! I'll try out your recipe too. Many thanks for contributing xxx

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