How many calories are hiding in your snacks? We often pay attention to the calories in our breakfast, lunch and dinner, but fail to count the calories in our tiny little, seemingly insignificant snacks. Depending on the snacks you eat (what, how much and how often), you could be undermining your hard won dieting discipline with infusions of high calorie or insulin stimulating snacks.

Giving up snacks entirely is not necessarily the best solution for overhauling your diet. If they are healthy and sensible, snacks can actually benefit our weight loss efforts by warding off food cravings and keeping our blood sugar levels stable. The key is to go for small and healthy snacks.

If you’re on a weight loss program, we suggest you try a snack makeover. Here’s how to do it:

First, start with a snack inventory. For five days, write down when you have a snack, what you have and how much. You also may want to make a note of any side effects you might have from your snack, good or bad (increased energy, energy spike and dip, light headed, sleepy, stomach ache, gas, etc).

Then do a snack assessment. Look at your snack diary and rate each snack on a scale from 1 (least healthy) to 5 (most healthy). Here is a general guide to gauge your rating:

Bad Snacks

• Chips and anything fried
• Cookies, candy, and any food that contains sugar in the first 3 ingredients
• High glycemic foods eaten with no other food (see chart of the glycemic index of foods)
• High carb foods (if you’re dieting, you should know what these are)

Fabulous Snacks

• Fresh fruit (low-glycemic fruits can be eaten alone, high-glycemic fruits should be eaten with unsweetened or lightly sweetened yogurt or raw nuts)
• Raw vegetables with a little protein (like celery and peanut butter or carrot sticks with low-fat cheese)
• Protein powder smoothie
• Lean meat or fish (very small amount with vegetable)

Once you have gotten an general sense of your snack food health quotient, start substituting your unhealthy snacks with healthy snacks. Get creative and compile recipes for healthy treats and snacks. Learn about the glycemic index of foods and keep your snacks in the low glycemic range.