Anonymous wrote:
When you buy yogurt look carefully in the ingredient list. There shouldn't be anything besides milk and cultures. Some companies use starch to thicken the yogurt, or other additives that ruin all the benefits of it.

A little off topic, but has anyone noticed that nearly all the Yo Baby brand yogurts now have DHA additives? We're strict vegetarians and don't eat anything with gelatin or fish oils. So frustrating!

I make smoothies using plain low fat or non fat Kefir, berries, chia seeds, and wheat grass. loads of great micro-nutrients without the processed sugars and starches. If I leave out the wheat grass, my kids love them (they get turned off by the green color). Amazing Greens makes a decent tasting green combo.

slowly wean yourself from sweetened yogurt to unsweetened. I started with the Fage w/ the fruit side. Then plain Fage with fresh berries, sweetened with honey as needed. Eventually I was able to skip the honey, so long as it is with fruit.

And do look at the ingredients. Even some of the so-called Greek yogurts have starch and other stuff added. Bleh.

The key to eating yogurt for weight loss is because it effects your body's hormone levels (increases good, decreases bad, and addresses inflammation) due to the high levels of calcium and protein and some other nutrients, as well as the cultures. So eating something like Yoplait, which has a good amount of added sugar (which increases your bad hormones and decreases good hormones) is going to counteract at least some of the benefits of the yogurt. Also, I don't think Yoplait as the same amount and types of active cultures as other yogurts, so you lose that benefit as well.

There is a diet based on eating a diet of essentially plain Greek yogurt, fresh fruit (raspberries primarily if I recall correctly), almonds, eggs, and spinach. I think it's called the cinch diet. I did it a while back to lose the last ten pounds of baby weight.

Anonymous wrote:Plain Greek yogurt with fresh fruit I add myself, plus toasted nuts. Delicious and full of protein.

+1. Even if you add honey in small quantities, it's better than the sugar in flavored yogurt.

Plain Greek yogurt with fresh fruit I add myself, plus toasted nuts. Delicious and full of protein.

I can't even eat all the flavored yogurts, they are way too sweet and unpleasant tasting. I buy plain Seven Stars (in Whole Foods) yogurt, it is not sour at all, naturally sweet. And if I want something in it, I add raw honey, and/or any kinds of berries and fruits. My kids (3 and 5) too prefer this yogurt to any flavored one. I serve it as a desert for them when I have ground pistachios on hand. To my surprise I just realize that we go through 3 2lb containers of this yogurt a week.
When you buy yogurt look carefully in the ingredient list. There shouldn't be anything besides milk and cultures. Some companies use starch to thicken the yogurt, or other additives that ruin all the benefits of it.

Simple, the weight loss equation is this:

Calories In < Calories Out

You will lose weight.

I switched to making my own yogurt to avoid all the sugar and extra stuff that comes with the store brands. I use 2% milk and then strain the yogurt through coffee filters to make it more concentrated in protein. I eat it with fruit and granola for breakfast, or with salt & a drizzle of olive oil with lunch. Some fresh herbs make a nice addition too. Or I make a raita salad with tomatoes/ cucumbers/ carrots/ beets, whatever I happen to have lying around.

I eat either Greek plain yogurt (or sometimes vanilla) or regular Dannon yogurt (plain) and add my own fruit (fresh or frozen -- usually berries).

I prefer vanilla flavored chobani, but plain has less sugar. For breakfast, I'll actually have a cup of kashi cereal mixed in with a plan chobani. It keeps me so full I don't even get hungry until late afternoon - have to remind myself to eat a light lunch.

I only eat plain Greek yogurt, with a sliced banana or blueberries. Much tastier ( and less sugar) than the sweetened yogurt.

I like yogurt too, like the kind you're describing. But I think that kind has too much sugar to be of any good. I think I read somewhere that you should look for yogurt that states on the nutrition label < or = 10 "sugars". But I haven't found any that I like that has low sugar. I don't like aspartame or plain yogurt. I've switched to Chobani Greek, but that has 19 sugars.

So I'd like to know what other woman think about this too. Maybe it's not great for weight loss but good for calcium and digestive health?

I know that yogurt is a good food to have in your diet to maintain or lose weight. But does it have to be the super healthy kind??? I'm not a huge yogurt fan, but I do like yoplait fruit flavors (blueberry, cherry, strawberry, etc). I buy the regular kind, not light, because I'd rather eat sugar than aspartame. So can I consider regular yoplait a "good-for-me" food to eat 4-5 times a week, or should I treat it more like a treat since it isn't plain or greek yogurt?

Thanks!