Dairy, or dairy options, are a key part of a healthy diet, and USDA ChooseMyPlate standards suggest that both men and women get 3 cups of dairy every day. Milk, in addition to plant-based alternative milk sources such as soy milk or almond milk, all count towards your day-to-day consumption. Any nonfat, unsweetened milk can operate in a weight loss diet, and different types of milk have their unique weight loss advantages.
Your Lowest-Calorie, Healthy Milk Options
Healthiest Milk to Drink if You Want to Lose Weight. When you’re aiming to slim down, it’s important you develop a calorie deficit, a state in which you’re burning more calories each day than you’re taking in. Your body needs to comprise the space in between your calorie consumption and the calories you burn, so it begins burning fat as a source of energy, and you slim down. Each pound of fat represents 3,500 calories, so eating 500 to 1,000 calories fewer than you require each day implies a safe weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds weekly.
Specific types of milk are much better than others for keeping your calories low. If you’re drinking dairy milk, make sure it’s nonfat; nonfat milk has simply 83 calories per cup, while reduced-fat 2 percent milk has 122 calories and a cup of whole milk has 150 calories. If you’re consuming a dairy option, like soy milk or almond milk, choose unsweetened. Sugar-sweetened soy milk has 130 calories per cup, compared to 80 calories for unsweetened soy milk. Sweetened almond milk has 91 calories per cup, compared with 30 calories for unsweetened.
Greater Protein Milk
Some higher-calorie milk sources, such as dairy and soy milk, might have a weight loss benefit; they’re high in protein. A cup of nonfat dairy milk has about 8 grams of protein and soy milk provides 7 to 8 grams of protein. Your body burns calories just absorbing protein-rich foods, and protein likewise boosts satiety, which means you’ll feel more pleased after your meal.
Almond milk, while low in calories, has simply 1 gram of protein per cup, so you’re most likely to feel starving not long after drinking it. Reach for soy milk or dairy milk as a more filling beverage–one that might have the ability to operate in place of a treat in between meals.
Get Calcium for Weight Loss
Getting enough calcium in your diet may help you reach your weight loss objectives, inning accordance with a research study published in Obesity Research in 2004.
The study looked at weight loss in two groups of obese or obese adults–one group consumed a more basic diet and got 40 to 50 percent of the daily worth for calcium from dairy foods, while the other group consumed more dairy and took in a little more than the everyday worth for calcium every day. At the end of 24 weeks, the higher-calcium group lost significantly more weight and body fat–consisting of abdominal fat–than the lower-calcium group.
Dairy milk is naturally high in calcium, offering around 30 percent of the day-to-day worth per cup. Alternative milk might or may not supply calcium, depending upon whether it’s strengthened or not. Unfortified soy milk might contain as low as 6 percent of the day-to-day worth for calcium, for example, while the strengthened version has 30 percent. Check the label to make sure you pick an alternative milk with a significant amount of calcium.
Remaining Hydrated to Lose Weight
No matter what type of milk you pick, practice portion control and moderation. Step out a 1-cup serving, and inspect the nutrition label if you’re purchasing “single-serving” bottles of milk, as they may contain more than one serving. Count any milk you drink toward your everyday calorie consumption to keep your calorie deficit, or you won’t slim down.
Don’t depend on milk as your main source of hydration, either. Water ought to make up the majority of the fluid you drink–for both weight loss and total health. It’s naturally free of sugar and calories, which means you can drink it throughout the day without blowing your calorie budget. If you long for more taste, add some chopped ginger or crushed mint to your water.
