Healthy Foods That Make You Fat

FAT FOOD TRAP: Bread

Bread-lovers in the study discovered that it was easy to eat too much of that food in a single sitting. If you can't live without sandwiches, then you should have them, but try to splurge on only those couple of slices of bread a day. Bread isn't evil; it just tends to be hard to control for people who love it.

WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD: Grains

Slice your protein or veggies over grains including whole-wheat pasta, wild rice, couscous, or quinoa.

FAT FOOD TRAP: Fruit-flavored yogurt

When Weight Watchers asked 10,000 dieters to eat wholesome foods — like grains, vegetables, dairy, and lean protein — they saw that people often ate four containers of low-fat yogurt a day if the fruit was mixed in. But if the subjects had to stir in the fruit themselves, they stopped at only one cup.

WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD: Plain, nonfat yogurt — you add fresh fruit

Mixing in fruit yourself is enough to prevent you from mindless overeating, says Karen Miller-Kovach, R.D., chief scientific officer for Weight Watchers International and head of the healthy-eating program.

FAT FOOD TRAP: Breakfast cereal — even the healthy kind

The same Weight Watchers study also showed that people who ate cereal right out of the box as a snack tended to munch on way too much of it in a day. Even healthy, high-fiber cereals can up the day's calorie count and halt people's weight loss.

WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD: Eat cereal only with milk

This combination also decreases the meal's "calorie density" — an ounce of cereal with milk (skim, of course) has fewer calories than an ounce of cereal alone, so you'll take in fewer calories but still feel just as satisfied.