Sometimes the things which sabotage our efforts to lose weight are not that obvious, which means they are harder to steer clear of. Below are 5 things which you probably didn't think could ruin your diet:

Salad dressings: Dressings are the hidden diet killer in a perfectly nutritious salad. Lots of salad dressings are packed full of either fat, or even worse, sugar. That means you go to the effort of ordering the salad to be good and keep your calorie intake down, but then unwittingly put lashings of sugar or fat all over it before you start eating. Instead of having any fancy dressings on your salad, ask for it plain and then put vinegar on it and pepper, that way you get a great taste without all the extra calories.

Friends: Sorry I have to say it; friends are often disastrous for your diet. The problem is they are often NOT on a diet, which means they want to go out for meals all the time, or they will drag you into Dunkin' Donuts or some shop which sells heavenly chocolate muffins, and even worse they will buy something and sit there eating it in front of you while you sip on some water and try to smile. It is hard enough to resist temptation throughout the day anyway without someone making it even harder. To avoid this problem you just have to chat with them and let them know they are making it hard for you, usually they didn't even realize.

Family: It is the same situation with families; they usually aren't on diets either. So your kids want ice cream and your partner is stuffing their face with all sorts of wonderful treats while you are out and about. Or they sit there eating potato chips while watching TV with you. They won't like it when you ask them to avoid eating tempting foods in front of you, but you need to be firm and either insist they stop doing it, or avoid being round them when they are (if they do eat all that kind of junk then maybe they need to join you on the diet!).

Portion size: Ah yes, this is a problem when you are eating out. Restaurants want you to enjoy yourselves and they definitely don't want you to say you didn't get enough food, so they load your plates up high with huge portions that pile up the calories too. Don't feel obliged to eat everything that is on your plate, I know it might feel bad to leave things but if you have too much on your plate then set aside the portion of your meal you want to leave before you start eating, that will make it a lot easier to resist.

Drinks: We watch what we eat, but we rarely watch what we drink. A simple can of soda can contain from 130 - 200+ calories. Some people drink 4 or 5 of them a day, particularly kids, and that is anywhere from 520 calories to 1000 calories a day they are consuming just from those drinks! Stick to water instead when you can, and save the soft drinks for a treat instead of a regular drink, or have tea and coffee without sugar if you fancy a hot drink.