Easy ways to cut at least 50 calories from every meal

Losing weight should be a gradual process that fits in with your lifestyle without leaving you craving the food you love.

To lose one pound of body weight every week, you will need to drop 500 calories from your normal daily intake. This may sound like a lot, but if you’re eating three meals and two snacks everyday, shaving a little off each will make little difference to your satisfaction but a big difference to your waist-line.

Here are our favourite crafty tips for cutting calories:

No more mayo

It’s hard to keep track of calories when you ignore condiments. Some condiments – like mayonnaise, are incredibly fatty, sugary and salty, and could be the reason you’re bigger than you’d like to be. Exchange mayonnaise for Greek yoghurt and you’ll cut 57 calories per tablespoon. Whilst mayo has 90, Greek yoghurt – despite still being thick, creamy and delicious – has only 33. Yoghurt tastes delicious mixed with tuna and sweetcorn, and also makes for a satisfying salad dressing when mixed with mustard and a little honey.

Try the ‘skinny sandwich’

This one is very simple and could knock as much as 100 calories from your tally. Take a normal whole-wheat bun, but before packing it with your favourite sandwich filling, gently pull out some of the white dough inside, so just the outer crust is left. You’ll have more room to pack in some crunchy salad and you’ll still feel full.

Before you eat, drink

Before you tuck into your meal, drink a glass of water. Researchers from the U.S found that volunteers ate 75 fewer calories after they had downed a pint of water.

Exchange crisps for popcorn

If you’re looking for something crunchy and satisfyingly salty, forgo fatty crisps and opt instead for salted popcorn. As well as being full of antioxidants, gram for gram popcorn has 100 fewer calories than most crisps.

For more information about losing weight and information about how a nutritionist can help, please visit our Weight Management page.