Quick and Easy Ways to Cut Calories

Counting calories can be tedious and time-consuming. A less demanding approach is to find low-calorie substitutes for foods you eat every day.

If you do the math you'll see simple changes in daily habits add up to significant reductions in the number of calories you consume.

"Eating 100 [fewer] calories each day can help you lose 10 pounds in a year," says Jo-Ann Heslin, registered dietitian and co-author of The Calorie Counter (Third Edition, Pocket Books, 2003). "It can be done by making small changes in what you eat."

The trick is to eliminate something you typically consume on a daily basis. By taking that approach, it's easy to remember. You're basically forming a new routine, replacing a high-calorie habit with one that is lower in calories.

The following scenarios demonstrate the impact of small changes. Make just a couple of these adjustments and you can easily cut 100 to 200—or more—calories a day.

Breakfast

Instead of two pieces of wheat toast with margarine, have 1 piece of toast. Instead of regular fruit-flavored yogurt switch to light or fat-free yogurt.

Coffee break

Switch from whole milk to non-fat milk in your latte. Replace the apple Danish with an oat bran bagel.

Lunch

Put 1 tablespoon of light mayonnaise on your sandwich instead of 1 tablespoon of regular mayonnaise, and make it turkey instead of salami. Replace cream-based soups with broth-based soups.

Afternoon snack

Replace a small bag of chips with a cup or two of light popcorn. Replace an ice cream sandwich with a low-cal frozen fudge bar.

Cocktail hour

Have two light beers rather than two regular beers. Drink a glass of wine instead of a margarita.

Dinner

Have a green salad with light dressing instead of a baked potato with butter or sour cream. Choose a "light" frozen entrée rather than regular.

You can also take the next step, which is to go beyond the calories consumed on a daily basis to those unnecessary calories that appear frequently enough to be a nuisance if you're trying to reduce. Being diligent, you can get in the habit of eliminating them too. Heslin suggests the following tricks:

Use mustard, salsa or fat-free salad dressing in place of 1 tablespoon of regular mayonnaise. Order a cup of soup instead of a bowl. Eat a plain baked potato with pepper; skip the sour cream. Eat cereal with non-fat milk instead of whole milk. Swap breaded and fried chicken fingers for broiled. Use tuna packed in water, not oil. Swap regular soda for diet. Have a chocolate kiss instead of a chocolate bar.

Change your eating style

Avoiding specific foods will drop calories from your diet. But so can changing your style of eating.

Judy Dodd, registered dietitian and adjunct assistant professor in Clinical Dietetics and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh, suggests a Mediterranean style of eating. What that means is a slow, leisurely pace centered around small courses. And take rests between your courses, rather than hurrying through your meal.

Dodd recommends focusing on small servings of proteins and perhaps a broth soup and a salad course to add volume with fewer calories. Sip fizzy water or wine as you eat.

"Take time to enjoy the food," Dodd emphasizes. "You may find your brain catches up with your stomach and signals that you are full."

She also suggests starting with a small plate and making a rule that there should be some white space on the plate after you've put food on it—basically a no-food zone. She suggests this is a particularly good rule with buffet-style meals. "We tend to overfill our plates and continue to eat, responding to our moods and food availability rather than need," Dodd says. "Sometimes the easiest way to cut calories is to cut portions."

Find more on weight loss:

• Weight Loss Success: Before & After
• Weight Loss Tools
• Top 10 Food Mistakes
• Weight Loss Stretches That Work