0 calorie snacks

This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by lydiac 9 years, 2 months ago.

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Jakki

1:34 am
30 Jan 15
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Hi. I’m on day 2 of the FD (fast days Monday and Thursday) and have been having a 184 calorie cup of porridge at 08.30 and 20.30. I have a lot of health issues and have to eat when I take certain medications. I have been having 1 32 calorie rice cake just to ‘line’ my stomach. I have been told that rice cakes are zero calorie snacks, as they take more energy to eat and digest than is in them. If they are zero calorie snacks do I count them towards my daily total or not???
Thanks for any help in advance.

simcoeluv

1:47 am
30 Jan 15
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Hi Jakki and welcome:

Yes, you count them. If you think about it, the ‘reasoning’ someone has told you about could apply to any food. You could justify reducing the number of calories of any food by the number needed to digest it.

But science is totally unable to figure out how many calories are needed to digest different amounts and kinds of food for any individual (do you really think it would take your body more calories to digest 100 rice cakes than the calories 100 rice cakes contain?). And your TDEE includes whatever number of calories are needed to digest food for each day because it represents your total energy needs for the day, including energy needs for digesting food.

Many people find eating fat/protein is better than eating refined carbs like rice cakes on their diet days. Find what works best for you, but count every calorie!

Here are some tips: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Jakki

2:02 am
30 Jan 15
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Thank you!! I’ll have a read through and keep counting

lydiac

8:15 pm
25 Feb 15
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Hi Jakki. Most sites say that rice cakes are not a good thing to eat if you are controlling your appetite/weight because they are apparently high glycaemic. As above, protein is better – if you feel you need to eat them add protein to balance the impact on your blood sugar. Good luck!