What are your favorite calorie cutting tricks?
 

I just discovered that I'm just as happy with a little 1% chocolate milk in my coffee instad of 2 cream one sugar, knocking out about 70 cals of dumb calories. A little bit of grated old cheddar instead of a lot of mild cheddar gives a lot of flavour with out as many calories. Cheddar popcorn seasoning on broccoli gives the salty cheesy flavour without all the saucy calories. Chai tea tastes like a treat for just the cost of the milk calories. I can make a lean cuisine frozen dinner or soup fill me up if I add about 1 cup of veggies or coleslaw mix (not with dressing, just the bagged mix you get in the produce aisle) to it for a fast dinner.

What are you favorite discoveries lately?

I add instant coffee and stevia or 0 calorie lemonade packets to plain non-fat yogurt. It flavors the yogurt, but helps to cut calories and sugars compared to store-bought flavored yogurts (and it ends up costing less, too).

I sprinkle paprika and garlic powder on my pasta instead of adding chorizo sausage. The taste is very similar and I save 200 calories.

I smother everything in siracha or red pepper flakes. If my tongue is numb I can't eat! Just kidding, ya'll.

Seriously though, I do mix in red pepper flakes into things. Like fat free ranch. I'll add cayenne and red pepper flakes and the taste lingers so I don't feel the need to dunk chicken as often.

I also find swaps for things. I used to make my own hummus with tahini, which is ok. But I found low fat greek yogurt cut the calories and made my cannelini hummus much creamier and yummy! By the way, it's awesome as a spread in a roasted veggie pita vs mayo.

Flat out wraps for pizza instead of a lean cuisine pizza for "treat" nights, adding in more veggies like olives and mushrooms rather than meat.

Holy moly! These are brilliant!

The only one I can think of right now is vanilla almond milk on cereal instead of skim milk and sugar - saves about 90 calories, and it's just as sweet and yummy!

Favorite trick?

Hmm...Water :)
It's almost all I ever drink...

Drinks with tons of calories are so worthless! Seriously I know it seems hard at first but think about how many pointless calories you're gaining by drinking one soda...it's so not worth it in my opinion.

Not very helpful since this is common diet knowledge but let me think of other things...hmmm
Not eating cheese or cereal is a good way to cut back (loads of calories and hardly any healthy substitutes)

I cook with fat free vegetable broth - instead of oil! saves a lot of calories!

I use pam spray instead of oil, butter or margarine when cooking/frying.

Also, the broth trick is good too. I used to do that all the time. Onions fried in chicken broth taste wonderful and are actually better tasting than greasy onions fried in oil. Thanks for the reminder!

No dressing on my salads. If I have enough yummy stuff in it, I find the dressing is unnecessary. Why add the extra calories?

balsamic vinegar instead of butter, dressing or sauce on veggies, especially spinach or leafy greens. Yum!

I don't have any good tricks... The two easiest ways that I've cut calories has been switching to black coffee (I now prefer it without creamer) and making my oatmeal with water instead of milk. :)

There is a wonderful tea I have been drinking, it kills my appetite. It's by Yogi, the green tea/bluebrry slim down tea. Worth giving it a try.

I found that I don't need mayonnaise on sandwiches at all anymore. Just a little squirt of mustard or a tiny bit of horseradish goes a long way and makes a sandwich moist enough without all of the calories of mayo or even light mayo.

Also I rarely drink my calories, if I want a soda I have a diet soda. If I am sweetening I only use Stevia or other sweetener. Why waste calories on sugar if you don't have to?

As another member posted when I make stir fry I just use a little bit of Pam.

I can't wait to try this; thanks for sharing! I love yogurt but it's so hard for me to find any with low enough sugar.

I buy blocks of parmesan cheese, cut off a chunk and weigh it/calculate calories, then grate it myself over my veggies or pasta. When it's finely grated you need less and distribute flavor evenly. I use the cheese instead of olive oil.