What are some of your painless ways to trim calories, where you truly don't miss them? I'll start with a few examples. Each may not trim a lot of calories, but every little bit helps!

Here are my truly painless ways to trim calories:

- Blotting oil off pizza or melted cheese
- Picking nuts off of cookies/breads/muffins (I'm not a nut fan, so I don't miss them!)
- Trimming the extra parts of bread hanging off the edges of my sandwich/burger
- When I bake cookies or muffins, I always put the hot cookies/muffins on a paper towel/napkin to absorb excess oil.

They may not trim a lot of calories, but every little bit helps! Why eat the extra calories if I truly won't miss them? When I think about the small number of calories that a 5-10 minute slow stroll/walk burns, these could be the equivalent of a 5-10 minute stroll!

What other tricks do you use to painlessly trim calories?

Well, for me it has a double purpose - cutting calories and carbs:

Serving stir fry or vegetable/meat toppings for pasta over broccoli slaw instead (steamed).
"If" I go for a fast food burger, taking the top bun off and no ketchup/mayo, but veggies if they offer it (onion, tomatoes, pickles)
Eating dinner with my family by eating the meat and vegetable part of the meal, but not the starch (no rice, potatoes, pasta, sweet potatoes)

Good ones!

I do the same thing - often I will take off the top or bottom piece of bread from a sandwich/burger , and also try to eat only 3/4 of the remaining slice.

When eating french fries, I don't eat the burned/extra crispy/overcooked ones because they don't taste delicious. (I used to be a member of the clean plate club!)

I cut out cheese and mayo and found I really didn't miss it much. My daughter is vegan and we ordered a veggie pizza without cheese and it was amazing.

Crisp bread instead of bread rolls etc.
Low fat feta cheese instead of full fat feta cheease
Mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes (seriously, this is the best thing EVER!)
Cooking chicken/salmon in the oven instead of frying them

I sometimes use chicken broth instead of oil when I stir fry

I do this too, though I just lightly spray some oil on the skillet first just to ensure things don't stick too bad if the broth happens to cook off completely.

Sometimes I like to do a 50-50 ratio of mashed potatoes by mixing in cauliflower or even 25-75, 75 being the cauliflowers. I have somewhat picky eaters in my household and this ratio is more edible to them rather than 100% mashed cauliflower, lol. This is also great if you are making potato soup yet still want some taste of potato in the soup. BTW- Approx 2 cups of cauliflower cooked in 1 cup chicken broth until soft then turned into puree along with sauteed onions and garlic along with some parmesan cheese and salt/pepper makes a great low-cal substitute for Alfredo sauce.

I tend to cut starch (rice, potato, pasta, etc) servings in half and bulk it up with at least a cup of low cal veggies (broccoli, onions, zucchini, squash, that sort of thing.)

For baked goods, I try to cut down on oil and butter by replacing at least half with 100% natural unsweetened applesauce or juice, (depending on what I am making.)

Great ideas, everyone!

I have had mixed success with substituting applesauce for oil/butter. Didn't work well in cookies, but I have read that it works much better in cakes/muffins.

Keep the ideas coming!

Great ideas of trimming off the excess calories without knowing. The calories trimmed may be negligible but if we sum them at the end of the year, they make a very big difference.

If you are making spaghetti sauce and you would ordinarily use 1 pound of ground beef use half a pound you won't notice any differance in the sauce or better yet use ground turkey.

Using light Italian Dressing instead of butter or mayo on sandwhiches.

Dipping any sauces on your fork BEFORE stabbing it into your food! This way, your food is not dripping in extra sauce!

Switching from mayo to mustard, if I use any condiment at all and dropping cheese from most things.

I found salad dressings that have no calories and no carbs that I use since I like to drench my salads. They don't taste as good, but they taste good enough not to waste 200-300 calories on dressing.

When I go out to eat, I ask for a take out box to be brought when the entree is served. When my meal comes, I immediately put half of it in the to go carton.
I also always order a salad even if I have to pay extra so that I'm getting some veggies and it's helping to fill me up ahead of time.

While I'm not on Atkins, I use cauliflower or shiratake noodles or low carb noodles in place of pasta.

Hummus has become my new friend. However, it's hummus that I make because I think everything you buy in the store is just awful.

Not having salad dressing at all on my salads. I know it sounds horrible but one time I did it and I was amazed to discover I actually liked the salad better without any dressing.

Yep - I do this with salad dressing, and use just enough so that I can taste it, without drenching it.

I also try to order sauces on the side, so I can control how much I use.

I thought of a few more: order a Chick Fil A or Wendy's sandwich without butter on the bun, and save 40-50 calories! I can't taste the butter on the bun, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything!

When ordering a cheeseburger at Wendy's, I ask for one slice of cheese instead of two (I have to have cheeseburgers; don't care for hamburgers )