5 Easy Ways to Cut Calories

With all of the temptations out there today, it's easy to overload on calories without even thinking about it. This calorie surge has been resulting in slow, gradual weight gain for many people. Coffee drinks, soda, sweet snacks and candy have all attributed to consuming extra calories. These little extras make it almost impossible to keep weight under control. Socializing revolves around food and drink and the food and restaurant industry has exploded over the last couple of years. Rich foods with decadent glazes and sauces are at every corner waiting to treat your mouth. Specialty martinis and exotic drinks are refreshing and make the end of the week a little easier. With all of these food and beverage distractions, cutting calories might seem hard but these simple 5 tips may help you reduce your intake enough to get control of excessive calorie intake.

1. Lighten Up on the Liquid - Liquid calories attribute to approximately 260 additional calories per day for most Americans. One of the biggest offenders is coffee, particularly coffee drinks loaded with syrup and sugar. Watch the amount of liquid calories you take in that are caloric. Soda, juice, sugary coffee drinks and sports drinks are all drinks that may contribute to the extra calories in your diet. Omit liquid calories completely or make sure you are adding every calorie laden drink into your daily food journal. These calories must be tallied into your daily calorie count in order for you to keep it under control. In addition, logging your liquid calories will open your eyes to how much of an offender you are. Lose the liquid calories and stick to water!

2. Be a Snack Master - Watch what you're snacking on! Candy, chips and handfuls of trail mix are all yummy but they won't do much for your waistline if you're taking in too much. One of the best inventions in the snack department has been the 100 calorie snack packs. You can still have a calorie limited snack that treats your taste buds right with 100 calorie packs of chips, cookies and crackers. Otherwise, go for an apple, 10 nuts or a piece of low fat cheese for your snack time. You'll want to journal your snacks as well. Make sure these make it into your daily tally in order to keep track of what you've really been eating.

3. Allow Alcohol Only on Weekends - Blah, blah, blah! I know what you're thinking. Alcohol is a huge contributor to excess calories and weight gain! Not only is alcohol packed with calories (7 calories per gram) but it is also a depressant so it can slow your metabolism down. Limit it to a treat for weekend nights and you'll help yourself out big time!

4. Ditch the Dessert - I'm not telling you to ditch it completely but it's time to treat dessert like a desert. Yes, you can treat yourself once in a while - even once a week. Dessert shouldn't be part of your staple diet or a daily occurrence. The calorie surge and sugar surge won't do anything for your body or your insulin level. Omit the dessert on week days and replace it with low calorie fresh fruit if you need something sweet.

5. Restrict Your Restaurant Trips - Eating out is so easy and convenient and the food is normally pretty darn good. The problem with restaurant eating is that you don't truly know what you're eating in terms of how your food is cooked and any added ingredients you don't know about. Unfortunately, this yummy food is another big offender in the calorie overload arena. Fortunately, restaurants are popping up that offer healthy options and calorie counts on menus. If you must eat out regularly, stick to these types of offerings for the majority of your meals.

Cutting calories doesn't have to be extremely hard. The goal here is to lessen the amount of calories you take in, treat yourself every once in a while and get back on track to healthier eating habits. Hopefully, these 5 tips will put you on a better course and on the way to losing a few lbs.