There’s no doubt that almost every person on this planet loves to eat. Eating is after all, not just a form of sustenance. Many consider it an indulgence, a passion, if you will. There’s a lot of healthy food that can be appealing to the regular Joe’s palette. Fruits, like strawberries, apples, and avocados are generally considered delicious. As is aglio olio pasta sautéed with shrimp or vegetables. But let’s face the fact that it’s usually the more sinful dishes that are most appealing to the taste buds. That’s exactly why they’re considered decadent.
Chocolates. Ice cream. Pastries. Wine. Pizza. These are all comfort foods, and they’re considered so for a very good reason. Because they provide respite from stress, break-ups, and any negative emotions we may be dealing with. Unfortunately, the consequences for such indulgences are dire, because they lead to massive weight and fat gain that aren’t exactly easy to shed. Here are some of the most difficult foods to burn off.
15 Soda
Soda is unhealthy in every sense of the word. It’s loaded with empty calories, a large amount of fructose corn syrup, and many other additives. Even if taken in small amounts, it can result in excessive weight gain. The calories settle mostly in your midsection, making it difficult to burn off, no matter how many stomach crunches and ab exercises you may do. If taken in large quantities, it can lead to obesity. And no, diet sodas are not better.
14 Whole Milk
Dairy is very much recommended for your daily diet for a good number of reasons. Its main health benefits are that it’s packed with calcium and helps prevent osteoporosis. However, whole milk, while loaded with calcium, is also laden with fat, which adults can very well do without. Studies show that even low fat milk or 2% milk have fat content not needed by adults, unless your struggle is to gain weight. The kind of milk adults need is skim or 1%; otherwise, it will be such a struggle to burn off.
13 Potato Chips
Any and all forms of junk food are killing your health, chips being some of the worst. Almost all potato chips are fried in hydrogenated oils, also known as trans fat, which is notorious, not just for weight gain, but also increasing cholesterol levels and chances of heart disease. Aside from that, its calorie count is massive for just a handful of chips, and this results in embedded fat that is difficult to work off.
12 Pancakes
Maybe the reason pancakes were designed to be a breakfast food was because its caloric content is through the roof, and eating it in the morning, when your metabolism is working the fastest, is the lesser evil in terms of weight gain. It’s oh-so-delicious, but deadly, even more so when you top it off with syrup or whipped cream. The healthier alternative? Whole wheat waffles, as anything that’s whole wheat helps in decreasing belly fat.
11 Pepperoni Pizza
Pizza is arguably everyone’s favorite comfort food. Unfortunately, it can very well be considered junk food, mainly because it’s loaded with calories and carbohydrates (from the crust), and fat. One slice of pizza can carry as many as 290 calories. Pepperoni pizza, in particular, packs quite the wallop and can hamper your weight loss efforts significantly. A slice has fewer calories if your toppings are a variety of vegetables. But a slice of pizza, in any form, takes 60 minutes of intense exercise to lose.
10 Caffe Latte
Many of us can’t function properly, whether it’s bodily or mentally, without our daily dose of caffeine first thing in the morning. While regular black coffee can actually be considered a boost to your health, Caffe Latte is a whole different story. It's way sweeter than bitter black coffee, and for that reason, it’s absolutely detrimental to any weight loss efforts you might have, more so, if it’s topped with whipped cream. A large mocha latte contains as much as 260 calories.
9 Donuts
Who can resist a delicious donut, whether it’s sprinkled with honey glaze, dipped in chocolate, or filled with raspberry or cream. It’s decadently tasty, but it’s also pretty deadly to your health. One small donut can pack as much as 260 calories because it’s deep fried in trans fat oil, which can cause your cholesterol and blood pressure to spike. To burn it off, do some intensive freestyle or breast stroke laps in the pool for 25 full minutes.
8 Chocolate Bar
Anyone who would deprive themselves of a chocolate bar is crazy! Who doesn’t love that burst of cocoa sweetness melting in your mouth? Unfortunately, as with most delicious foods, chocolate bars are also detrimental to your health. One small bar can hold as much as 210 calories, and is laden with fat and sugar, due to its ingredients of whole milk, butter, and sweeteners. However, dark chocolate is recommended as the healthier alternative, and is even considered good for the heart.
7 Slice of Cake
Aside from fruits, almost any other form of dessert is quite deadly for the diet, especially pastries. A slice of cake, for instance, is packed with sugar, carbs, and as many as 312 calories. It’s the icing that makes it sweet, the flour that is loaded with carbs, and the butter and milk that make up the fats. A cake, in healthier form, would be a flourless, icing-free one, but it still contains a lot of calories. It takes 50 minutes of intense hiking to be able to burn it off.
6 Hot Fudge Sundae
We can justify eating ice cream all we want by saying it’s a great source of calcium. But the truth of the matter is, ice cream is loaded with fats which can sit on those sections of your body that are difficult to tone, such as the thighs and the belly. But how can we say no to ice cream with all its added toppings and flavors, like a hot fudge sundae? One serving of it contains upwards of 392 calories, and burning that much off requires a lot of effort. A 75-minute high-impact spinning class might do the trick.
5 Bagel
Many of us enjoy eating bagels as a breakfast staple, particularly when it’s toasted and smothered with cream cheese or lox. But a regular-sized bagel can hold up to 320 calories, and since it’s made off starches and flour, it’s also loaded with carbs that aren’t that easy to burn. The cream cheese, on the other hand, makes the entire dish fatty. The best exercise to get rid of the unwanted poundage from bagels would be a 45-minute jog at a good pace.
4 Grande Caramel Frappuccino From Starbucks
While most people have Starbucks as a regular staple in their morning routine, there are others who frequent it for the cold, sweet drinks. One of the coffee shop giant’s most popular cold drinks is its Frappuccino line, in any variant or any size. Perhaps the most cringe-worthy one is the Grand Caramel Frap. It’s cringe-worthy because it’s a killer in terms of number of calories: 410 to be exact. And working it off is approximated to take 4.6 miles of running.
3 Big Mac From McDonald’s
In recent years, McDonald’s has come under fire for all the health hazards its products have posed to consumers. All fast food chains in general have been criticized, but McDonald’s being the biggest fast food franchise in the world, has taken the brun. And who can blame the health conscious for wanting to shy away from anything that’s on the menu? A Big Mac, which is McD’s biggest, most filling burger, contains 560 calories!
2 Chipotle Burrito With Chicken
Chipotle Mexican Grill went from being one of America’s most beloved restaurant go-tos for Mexican comfort food, to the one that everyone should avoid like the plague, after the recent E. coli outbreak sent many of its loyal customers to the hospital. And it’s just as well, since one of the restaurant’s best sellers has way too many calories for anyone’s liking. The Chipotle burrito with chicken has as many as 1,050 calories—which can be burned off if you do vigorous running for a good 11.8 miles.
1 Bloomin’ Onion From Outback Steakhouse
[caption id="attachment_19418" align="alignnone" width="1000"] via: yelp.com[/caption]
Carnivores around the world know a good steak restaurant when they see one. One all-time favorite is Outback Steakhouse, because its steaks and ribs are moderately priced, and the servings are pretty hearty. But it’s not just the meats that keep people flocking to Outback. It’s the appetizers: the Bloomin’ Onion in particular. It’s basically a heaping of deliciously deep-fried onion rings, which are also deadly for your diet. One whole order (which some people can actually wolf down on their own) contains a whopping 1,900 calories.
Sources: fitday.com huffingtonpost.ca
