Cut Back on Calories the Easy Way

Did you know that you can easily drop several hundred calories a day simply by eliminating small amounts of the foods you already eat? There's no need to starve yourself or feel deprived, you can just cut a slightly smaller piece of cake or serve a spoonful less of your favorite dish. The trick is not cutting out huge amounts of calories, just one hundred or so at a time.

Dropping a hundred calories from your snack or meal isn't as hard as you might think. In fact, a hundred calories really isn't that much, but if you cut out a hundred several times a day, you can reduce your calorie intake by 500 or more per day! That can make a significant impact on your weight over a longer period of time. By reducing your intake by just 100 calories per day, you can lose almost a pound per month.

Changing the method that you prepare your food can change the number of calories that you ingest. For example, if you eat two eggs every morning, simply going from frying them to poaching them will save you 100 calories. Fried chicken is notorious for being high in calories, but if you oven-bake your chicken instead, it offers a similar crunch and delicious taste, with fewer calories. This goes for just about anything that would normally be fried. Opt for the baked potato wedges instead of French fries, or try baking any food that you would normally fry.

You might be surprised at how many calories you can toss just by reducing the foods you regularly eat. Try mixing your tuna or egg salad with just 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise instead of two and you automatically drop 100 calories. The same goes for pasta salad, just reduce the regular amount of mayonnaise or oil by one tablespoon to save a whole hundred calories. Pretty impressive, isn't it?

Going for the light version of common snacks and foods can go a long ways toward saving calories, too. Just switching from your regular soda to a diet version can keep you from drinking more than 100 calories per serving. Low-fat cheese on a burrito, along with low-fat refried beans, is a great way to make a favorite dish with fewer calories. You can also substitute half a cup of skim milk for a cup of regular whole milk to get rid of about a hundred calories, whether on your cereal or in your morning smoothie.

While it might not be the same, it is worth changing some fatty foods for slightly healthier ones, in terms of weight loss. A good example of this is eating frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, or plain raisins instead of yogurt or chocolate covered ones. You can substitute dried fruit for sweet candy snacks as well. Obviously, you will notice the difference, but if you can get over your daily chocolate bar habit, it will be worth it. Besides, dried fruit such as apricots, pears and papaya are chock full of great vitamins and nutrients, as opposed to a chocolate bar which is pretty much lacking in the nutrition department.

By changing your eating habits just slightly, you can start to lose weight. It may go slowly, but slow weight loss is more likely to stay off. Not to mention, it's far more likely that you will be able to continue cutting 100 calories a day, whereas many people cannot stick to a strict diet. So, start cutting calories and watch the improvement in your life!

If you have trouble tracking your calories, you may do well with a diet plan like Weight Watchers Points, which is geared to helping make counting calories really easy.

Weight Loss Diet Help > Articles > Cut Back on Calories the Easy Way