Simple ways for cutting calories

For many, each new year starts out the same way, with a resolution to lose weight and begin that old familiar diet odyssey that usually ends with very little long term success. It goes without saying that all of these best laid New Year’s resolution plans tend to fall by the wayside during the year. So...why not make some simple changes that will help you lose weight with very little suffering? In fact, making some simple substitutes for fat laden high calorie foods may have a dramatic affect on overall nutrition and weight loss.

Changing the type of meat you eat can have a huge impact on the amount of calories you consume. For example, instead of using ground beef with a twenty to thirty percent fat content, choose lean ground beef that is ninety percent lean and you will have cut between forty and seventy five calories off a three ounce portion.

You may wish to eliminate red meat all together. Recent recommendations advise individuals to consume no more than 18 ounces of red meat weekly in order to reduce the risk of colon cancer. A good substitute for ground beef is ground turkey or soy based vegetable patties. When used in chili, casseroles, or sauces the switch may not even be noticed.

Fat can come from unlikely sources such as prepared tomato sauce and paste. A healthy substitute is diced or pureed tomatoes, with a calorie content of about twenty-five calories for a half cup of diced tomatoes. Dice or pureed tomatoes are extremely low in calories when compared to processed tomato sauce that may contain anywhere from seventy to one hundred twenty calories per serving.

Another way to reduce the calories in your food (other than lowering fat content) is to increase your portion of vegetables. Usually, vegetables contain very fewer calories; consequently any dish that contains a large portion of vegetables has fewer calories. Another added benefit to increased vegetable consumption is getting added dietary fiber and vitamins, especially antioxidants that may help guard against some forms of cancer.