Do you ever feel like this??
If so, the reason may lie in the way you are thinking about your food...
Most people tend to think of food as 'healthy' or 'unhealthy', right?
We tend to think that something is 'good for us' or 'bad for us' - but what does that actually mean??
Generally, a food is considered 'healthy' when it is packed full of nutrients - vitamins, minerals and things like fibre which all play important roles in keeping our body functioning properly.
Another way of saying it is that they are nutrient dense.
Essentially, they have a lot of nutrients packed into their available space.
A classic example of foods that are nutrient-dense are things like fruit and veg, olive oil and avocados.
But the amount of nutrients in a food has very little to do with whether or not you'll gain weight when you eat.
The important thing to measure when it comes to weight isn't nutrient-density - it's calorie-density.
Calorie-density tells us how many calories (a measure of energy) are packed into the food...
As in, are there lots of calories packed into a small space (eg. a bar of chocolate or cone of ice-cream) or are there very few calories in a pretty big space (eg. a cucumber or an apple).
When most people think of 'healthy' foods, they tend to think of foods that are high in nutrients AND low in calories, such as fruit and veg.
But what about foods that are high in nutrients AND high in calories, such as nuts, nut butter, salmon, olive oil and avocado?
These foods can often be the stumbling block for individuals who eat well and enjoy nutritious foods regularly, but also notice that their weight is not budging, or slowly increasing over time.
The key to these foods is to focus on the quantity that you are having - still include them in your diet so you can benefit from their nutritional qualities, but have a small enough amount that it doesn't lead to weight-gain in the long-term.
If this is something that you're struggling with, it may be worth exploring whether you have any (or many) of these 'high-nutrient and high-calorie' foods in your diet so you can start to see those pounds on the scale starting to fall!
Need some help exploring which healthy foods might be holding you back from reaching your weight-loss goals? Feel free to get in touch with me by sending me an email and I'll get some resources over to you that will help!