Lose Weight Eating Celery
Celery is a great food to lose weight with, especially for emotional eaters.
THE CELERY MYTH
The celery myth states that you can eat as much celery as you want and never gain any weight because the calories you expend eating it are more than what the celery contains.
This is untrue.
Celery is very low in calories containing only 10 to 15 cal per hundred grams, or about two stalks, which makes it very hard to gain weight with. You could eat two entire bunches in a day and still only be about 5% of the way to the total number of calories you need.
And yes chewing all of that will expend energy and require that you burn calories but not nearly enough to burn what’s in the food itself.
STILL A GREAT WEIGHT LOSS FOOD
So even though that popular internet myth is untrue, it doesn’t mean that celery isn’t a perfect food to use when trying to lose weight.
As mentioned above it’s extremely low in calories containing about 3 to 4 g of carbohydrate with two of them coming from fiber (fiber doesn’t really count.) That is as close to nothing as you can get in a food after water.
Because of that it has almost no effect on your insulin level which is what is responsible for our weight gain (excess insulin that is) and so you can eat as much as you want without counting it towards the total calories you eat in a day.
There’s almost no downside to this food. It doesn’t cause weight gain, it’s high in fiber and water, it’s high in vitamins and minerals and is green colored so you know it’s good for you 🙂
WELL THERE IS ONE DOWNSIDE
It’s bland, boring and not very satisfying to eat. When people are hungry or when they want to eat something tasty, celery is usually not the first food they think of. In the back of their brains celery is number 672 on their list of things they would like to eat at this moment.
Some people don’t even have celery on their list. To them it doesn’t really count as food and so yeah, it’s lame.
You can likely eat one or two stalks before your satiated. After that you’re going to want add something else, some other food to help you eat more of it. It’s a food that needs assistance.
On that note let’s talk about how we can use this amazing food to help us lose weight.
LOSING WEIGHT WITH CELERY
If you’ve read the guide on the main page of this website or any of the earlier blog posts here, you’ll know that to lose weight we need to keep our insulin low.
As an emotional eater you know that you usually eat a lot in order to calm your anxiety. The foods that you generally want to eat are ones that spike your insulin ( like cookies and breads etc.,) so that puts you in a bit of a bind.
So what you need to do is find combinations of foods that satisfy both criteria. You need foods that keep your insulin low AND foods that also taste good. And so this is where celery comes in.
Celery is a great food to combine with other tasty foods which result in a satisfying experience.
Those tasty foods are going to be high in fat. We used to stay away from fat and were told that fat is responsible for our weight gain and so when it’s suggested now that we eat high-fat foods we feel some anxiety and hesitance.
We have that leftover conditioning in our brains that contradicts what is being said now about eating and health. But once we try diets that are higher in fat and protein and lower in carbohydrates, we see results and are immediately sold.
So what should we eat?
Celery & Dip
MAKING CELERY TASTE GOOD
The first and obvious thing that comes to mind is celery sticks with high fat dip. Vegetable trays aren’t always the most popular item at the buffet table but if you can find a dip that is low in carbohydrate and very high in fat that you absolutely love, then you will eat it and enjoy it and have no problems including it in your diet.
Some other good celery combinations include:
– Celery with melted cheese
– Celery with Cheez Whiz
– Celery with natural peanut butter
– Celery with Buffalo chicken pieces
– Celery with tuna salad
– Celery with cream cheese
These are all delicious treats and snacks that people have been enjoying for many years now while on their low carbohydrate, weight loss diet.
Many people spice up those celery combinations above. They add their favorite spices or vegetables or sauces and dips to make them taste even better. Because that’s the goal, to enjoy what you’re eating.
I’ll repeat that because it’s the most important aspect of making a diet like this work for you. Just enjoying it is not enough. You have to actually look forward to eating celery with some other food in order for you to keep the habit, or continue the behavior long term.
Once you do it’ll be part of your routine, or a part of your regular choice of foods. This will allow you to eat foods that fill you up, are good for you and taste really good for years to come. Over time your body will adapt to what you’re putting into it by shedding some body fat.
All the while feeling full, satisfied and content. That’s the secret weight loss.
And this is how you use celery to your advantage to lose weight.
– EatingLove
THE EATING LOVE GUIDE (FREE)
The Eating Love Guide has helped many people regain control of their eating patterns, resulting not only in weight loss but also better health and improved self-esteem. To read it online, click here.
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