Reading Labels for Your Weight Loss Program.

In the past few years, it has become increasingly popular to be aware of the ingredients in the food that you buy and to know exactly what you’re eating.

It’s a really healthy trend because you end up knowing just how much fat and how many calories you get from every serving of a certain food item, and that helps you get on with natural weight loss.

If you’re still not sure about how to read the nutrition labels when you go to the grocery, here are a few tips to help you out and keep your weight loss program on track.

How Much is Too Much?

The common idea is that you should aim to have absolutely no fat in everything you eat. Nada. Zero. Zilch. In reality, though, you can afford to reach for just a little bit of fat when you go to the supermarket. After all, your body does need a certain amount of fat, and most food would taste downright bland without fat.

Although the ‘safe’ amount of fat will vary because of your metabolism and your level of activity, a good rule of thumb is to have a maximum of 5 grams fat per 100 grams of product. It’s a pretty good number, and is low enough not to result in drastic weight gain.

Reduced Fat vs. Low Fat

A lot of people still think that the two labels are the same or, at least, interchangeable. To make things less confusing, you should always just reach for the low fat variant of any food.

When something is branded as ‘low fat,’ it means that that product has no more than 3 grams of fat per serving. ‘Reduced fat,’ on the other hand, simply means that the product has at least 25% less fat per serving than the regular variant. When you’re talking about something that’s high-fat to begin with – chips, for example – you’ll still end up eating a lot of fat in ‘reduced fat’ products.