According to an article on Yahoo! Health, there are several ways to cut calories at home without a lot of thought or effort. Here are six tips, provided by Prevention.
Trim Down Portions at Home. According to a study in The Joy of Cooking, home cooked meals have 63% more calories per serving today. One of the reasons is a 33% increase in serving sizes since 1996. Assume that you will have leftovers and store half the food as soon as it is cooked.
Skip Over-Sweetened Drinks. According to a study at Johns Hopkins University, people who eliminate just one sugar-sweetened beverage from their diets a day lost more weight over six months than those who reduced the same number of calories from solid food.
Eat Protein at Every Meal. Protein helps to keep you feeling full longer and uses more calories during digestion than carbohydrates and fat do. Good choices of protein are chicken, tuna, low-fat cottage cheese, soybeans, or quinoa.
Begin with Broth. Research has shown that you will eat about 20% fewer calories if you start your meal with soup instead of diving right into the main course. Stay away from the high calorie cream-based soups, though.
Have a V-8. Vegetable juice may help suppress your appetite and control calorie consumption. Researchers at the University of California at Davis had a group of men and women follow a low calorie, heart healthy diet, and found that those who drank at least eight ounces of low sodium vegetable juice daily lost 4 times more weight than those who skipped the drink. I’m sorry, but I have to say that V-8 is absolutely disgusting. Needless to say, I will not follow this tip.
Make Your Own Snack Packs. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research reports that dieters actually ate more when given prepackaged 100 calorie snack packs than when they received larger packages. Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center stated that the 100 calorie snack packs may be perceived as low-cal “diet” food, but actually tend to be sugary and nonfilling, and recommends buying a big bag and portioning out your own sensible servings.
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