7 Simple Ways to Cut Calories ...

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Soda is empty calories, plain and simple. Worse still, most of it’s made with high fructose corn syrup, not sugar, so our bodies don’t even really know how to process it. Unless you’re willing to make the switch to diet soda (which offers its own dangers, like the possibility of cancer from the artificial sweeteners in it), it’s a great idea to cut soda from your diet. If you cut out a mere 32 ounces of soda per day (about two tall glasses of it), you’ll cut an amazing 480 calories. That’s a QUARTER of the average woman’s daily calorie intake!

Frying food, even something healthful like chicken, is going to add calories. Cut out fried foods, and opt for baked foods instead. This includes chicken tenders, chicken patties, French fries, and anything else you can possibly fry.

Fast food is monstrously disgustingly bad for you. Not only does it carry any number of food-borne pathogens, and contain hearty doses of animal feces, it’s also loaded with calories. For example, one double-cheeseburger with medium fries and a medium Coke contains 1100 calories, more than half of the number you ought to consume in one day! If you can’t skip the fast food altogether, try to make more healthful, lower-calorie choices: a grilled Snack Wrap with ranch dressing along with a side Caesar salad and a bottle of Dasani water only has 360 calories. Much better!

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Just about anything that comes in a can is going to be full of calories. Tasty calories, but still. An example would be anything with a picture of Chef Boyardee on the label. If you still want to eat canned soups, look for the “healthy choice” labels, and even still, eat those in moderation if you’re trying to cut calories.

Just like canned food will have a lot of empty (but delicious) calories, so will anything that comes in a box, like macaroni and cheese (1 serving has 360 calories) or Hamburger Helper (with 320 calories per serving). Bear in mind, too, that almost no-one actually only eats what the package calls a “serving.” We almost always eat closer to two or two and a half servings. Again, it’s easy to see how many calories we can cut if we avoid food in boxes!

I mentioned in item 5 that almost no-one eats the right serving size; we almost always eat closer to two or two and a half servings of everything. If you’re looking to cut calories, simply eat exactly what one serving is, and set the rest aside. You’ll notice a very big difference, very quickly, in the number of calories you’re consuming. Some women actually cut their calories per day almost in half by doing this alone — eating the correct size servings.

If you cut out the dairy, like cheese and sour cream, from your meals, you can really cut calories. Here’s an example: a bean burrito from Taco Bell, with cheese and sour cream, contains 440 calories. That same exact burrito, minus the dairy, has 340. That’s a savings of 100 calories right there, in that one burrito alone!

Those are 7 of the simplest ways to cut calories, but there are so many more, and they’ll all help you lose weight without spending more than the ideal 5 hours a week on the elliptical machine! Which of these tips do you follow? Which of them surprised you? Or do you have any other calorie-cutting tips to share?

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