5 Painless Ways to Cut 500 Calories from Your Diet

Many diet plans brag that if you follow their diet plan, you can lose dramatic amounts of weight in a short period of time. While this may be true for many of these fad diets, most dieters end up re-gaining the weight after they quit the diet.

Most diet experts agree that for lasting weight loss, the most effective method is slow and healthy diet and exercise. As most chronic dieters know, to lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you expend. One pound of human weight is 3500 calories. To lose one pound, a dieter must cut this many calories from their diet or burn them off through exercise.

A safe and effective equation to lose one pound a week is to cut 500 calories per day. This means that to lose one pound of weight in a week, you must either eat 500 less calories or burn 500 calories per day. The best method for weight loss is always a combination of the two methods. In this article, though, I will tell you 5 painless (almost) ways to cut 500 calories from your daily diet.

Cut the soda. This is a huge source of un-necessary calories in the Average American diet. Each cup (8 oz.) of regular soda contains at least 100 calories. Some contain upwards of 150 calories per cup. If you drink 2-3 12oz. cans a day, you could easily cut 500 calories from soda alone.

Make-over (or under) your salad. One of the most common "diet foods" is salad. Many dieters eat the wrong types of salads, though, hindering weight loss. Full-fat dressing, full-fat cheese, bacon bits, and other high add-ins that are high in fat and calories can make your salad more caloric than a Big Mac! To lighten up your salad (and yourself), stick with low fat cheese and low fat or fat-free dressing or vinaigrettes.

Reduce Portion Sizes. This seems like an obvious tip for weight loss. Many dieters are worried that they will be too hungry or otherwise unsatisfied if they reduce their meals. This does not have to be the case, though. If you put a little less on your plate, or take a few less bites each meal, the calorie reduction can really add up. Chances are, you wont even miss that last little bit, anyway.