What Are Some Of Your Calorie Cutting Tricks?

Here is my secret, you cannot tell anyone. I have a patent on this so I do get residuals. Ready; I lowered my calorie input and raised my caloies output. I know, sound simple, but it has been working.

No cutting out anything, except sitting watching the tv.

Just one old man's opinion.........

Using a teaspoon of olive oil instead of a tablespoon. If I start baking again, I'll use apple sauce instead of oil or butter.

I eat to live vs. live to eat, i.e. I eat only when hungry and when I do eat, I try to keep it healthy.
On days when I exercise, I try not to eat back all of my exercise calories - goal is to eat back half or less of the exercise calories.

Having said that there are some exceptions:
I make sure I get a good dinner and a snack afterwards as I can't sleep when hungry
I have cheat days when I go out over the weekends, and it takes a few days to get the weight back to what it was just before the weekend.

Glass of h2o before meals

Pre-plan eating out by checking the nutrition info on the restaurants website or MFP BEFORE getting there...and stick to it

Also stashing good, healthy snacks at work and in the car, just in case I get the munchies!

Green tea first thing in the morning and 30-60 minutes after eating lunch and dinner. Have 2 snacks a day so 5 meals in all. Prunes prunes prunes!!! And oatmeal(: these will speed up your metabolism.

Moderation and portion control have been the biggest calorie cutting 'tricks' for me. I LOVE my kitchen scale! I still eat pretty much everything else I did before, I just weigh it all and only have one portion instead of 2-3. Plus, I have three 'meals' every 3-4 hrs. now and numerous healthy snacks in-between. It helps keep me from feeling famished and I make better choices.

But, I have made a few other adjustments, including:

1. I use non-stick cooking spray instead of oil when baking, frying or grilling 99% of the time.
2. Stopped drinking regular soda all day long and now drink nothing but water, 1 or 2 Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry sodas a day and coffee with sugar-free creamer. I don't drink fruit juice anymore either. I'd rather have the whole fruit for the nutrients.
3. If I want something sweet I generally reach for fruit, except for one piece of Dove Dark Chocolate almost every day.
4. I still use sugar now and then, but I bought a box of the 1 tsp. packets for portion control.
5. Substituted popcorn dripping with movie theatre butter for a healthy 94% fat free variety.
6. Substituted the majority of white bread products I eat for 100% whole grain. It's actually more calories, but has better health benefits in my opinion.
7. Switched to ICBINB Light from full fat butter. Yeah, I know a lot of people think that stuff is bad for you, and yes, butter is better for you, I agree, but meh. It's less calories and I still get my 'butter' fix so it works for me. I don't like sandwiches, toast, etc. without it.
8. Switched from HV Ranch dressing to HV Ranch Light.
9. Switched up my previous sugary cereal choices for higher fiber varieties such as Fiber One 80 Chocolate and just recently Kashi GoLean Crisp! Mmm, delicious with raspberries. I still love my frosted bite-size shredded wheat though, but that's one of the 'better' sugary cereals. The fiber content cancels out the extra sugar in my opinion, right? Especially when I put raspberries in it too. Yummers! Plus, I enjoy hearing the little kid inside me giggling with glee whenever I eat it. :flowerforyou:

Not sure if these can be called tricks, but:
5 meals a day and not eating between meals.
Portion control. I have reduced the amount of rice, pasta, bread, pizza, fruit, cheese, chips, chocolate, nuts and milk I ingest at a time.
Frequency. I eat chocolate, chips, cookies, cake, ice cream less often.
Drink water instead of soda.
Cook from scratch instead of eating premade.
Stopped using sugar in tea and milk in coffee.
Baking fish, meat instead of frying.
Yoghurt/smoothies w/fruit and nut butters instead of ice cream.
ETA: I eat better quality food, no low-fat low-cal anything, I'll rather reduce portion size.

What about grilling or broiling meats? Or steaming veggies.
Also, I have seen recipes on Pinterest for pizzas on cauliflower crusts. Have never tried it, so I have no idea of the taste.

Soup for dinner - fills you up!

Hot herbal tea/water throughout the day - curbs the need to 'nibble' on items

Tons of veggies on my lunch dishes and in my 'nightly dinner of soup'

Sugar free jello (made with knox gelatin/flavoured herbal tea/touch of stevia)

I spice up EVERYTHING - I discovered spices can replace SO many calorie induced sauces, etc., The hot ones curb my appetite too.

Apple cider vinegar in water - curbs appetite too!


I usually tell myself, if you want something (like nuts=calories galore even though they are healthy)I let myself have one teaspoon.

I guess I'm a little extreme: I don't 'do' carbs: bread; pasta; when I eat fruit - it's limited;
I don't 'do' sugar (only use stevia)
I do not eat 'meat' except for fish
I always eat three meals/day - Not eating only makes you want to eat and eat and eat
Don't ever deny yourself food if your hungry...you'll just overeat later...
Quality highly nutritious food
Not eating packaged foods - 'food items' that are labeled as 'food' really aren't! Look at the ingredients in SOME items and you'll find that what your about to consume is chemicals/fat/salt and sugar...They (the food producers) make it taste SO great that you want to eat more and more and more!

I'm sure I do more, but here you go...

bump loving these tips

massive fan of 0% fage make your own dips and add low fat drinking chocolate to make a choccy mouse