Replaces
Proportions of food consumed on a plate
A good way to reduce the calorie content of a serving is to increase the proportion of lower-fat foods by reducing the proportion of higher-fat foods. Visually the dish will seem larger, but the calorie content will not increase.
For example, put 1/2 of your regular serving of meat, and fill the rest of the plate with salad, rice, buckwheat or other healthy foods.
The first tip is to correctly distribute the food on the plate.
How to reduce caloric content of food? It would seem that the answer is clear: limit the consumption of fats (1 g of which contains 9 kcal!) and increase the amount of foods containing carbohydrates and proteins (1 g contains only 4 kcal) - and the whole secret of losing weight!
But the catch is that there are very few products containing fats, proteins and carbohydrates in their pure form. How to determine whether a dish contains a lot of fats, proteins and carbohydrates?
We recommend that you focus on the following nutritional principle. When filling your plate with food, follow a simple rule: half the portion should be vegetables or root vegetables.
The second half of the plate should be divided brotherly, that is, in half, between protein and complex carbohydrates. Here's a simple rule.
Good healthy protein is found in lean meat, fish and seafood, legumes, etc.
It is better to get carbohydrates from cereals, coarse pasta, and a small amount of potatoes.
By eating according to this principle, you will not be hungry, and the energy density of the dish will not be high, which is especially important for us, those who are looking for simple ways to reduce the calorie content of food.
Give preference to less fatty alternatives
The easiest way to quietly reduce your caloric intake is to replace foods with lower calorie versions.
Do you often eat fatty pork or lamb? Replace them with diet beef, chicken, turkey or rabbit. If you learn how to cook them correctly, the taste is in no way inferior to fatty meat. Brown rice is much lower in calories than white polished rice.
If you often buy milk, pay attention to the low-calorie version at the store. Regular mayonnaise (600 kcal) can be replaced with diet or lean mayonnaise (250-300 kcal), regular yogurt - with low-calorie yogurt (80 kcal). Eliminate any bread from your diet. It is an excellent substitute for bread (40 kcal in 1 piece).
Losing weight easily: how to reduce your calorie intake unnoticed
One of the surest ways to lose weight is to reduce your caloric intake. But, you have to admit, counting calories can seem tedious. In fact, you can reduce the caloric content of your diet unnoticed and without tedious calculations.
If you are looking for a way to easily lose weight without dieting, try reducing your caloric intake automatically through some tricks. Just follow the simple tips.
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Less high-calorie foods
It is very easy to imperceptibly reduce your caloric intake without counting calories. Try to eat less high-calorie foods. In this case we are talking about fatty and sweet foods, as well as treats.
The satiety of food does not depend on its fat content. For example, a sandwich with lard and the same sandwich with lean meat give approximately the same feeling of fullness. But the calorie content of the first is 2.5-3 times higher. Switching to low-fat foods allows you to reduce the caloric content of your diet by 15-20% and lose weight by 1-2 kg per month without dieting.
The second step is to limit or avoid high-calorie foods such as sweets. Sweet foods stimulate appetite and provoke overeating. If you reduce your consumption of sweets, your caloric intake will also be reduced by 5-10%. To reduce the amount of sugar in your diet, eat sweets not like regular food, but slowly and savoring the taste. Gradually reduce the usual amount of sugar you put in your tea or coffee. And for lovers of sweet soda, I would like to remind you that a can of Coca-Cola and Pepsi contains 6 full teaspoons of sugar.
Sitting on an illiterate, extremely low-calorie diet for a long time causes serious harm to metabolic processes. Such self-experiments never lead to the desired result - healthy weight loss.
Samoilenko Natalia Alexandrovna
nutritionist, Kyiv Ask your question
Delicacies such as smoked sausage or nuts are also very high-calorie foods. Like sweets, these products are not suitable for everyday eating. The purpose of treats is to provide pleasure, not to fill you up. It is not necessary to give up such foods - just eat them full, slowly, savoring and enjoying the taste.
Dietary fiber instead of high-calorie foods
Dietary fiber (fiber) gives food volume and increases its residence time in the stomach. In other words, they maintain a feeling of fullness. In addition, fiber slows down the absorption of glucose in the intestines, reducing the rate at which blood sugar levels rise and the release of insulin. It also promotes a feeling of fullness and prevents you from overeating.
Foods rich in fiber include cereals (especially oatmeal and buckwheat), vegetables and fruits, berries, bran, and wholemeal bread. This technique will help reduce your caloric intake by about 5%.
Fiber in any form is useful if it does not contain other “suspicious” additives. But it’s best to improve your diet, more fresh vegetables, beets.
Berezovskaya Elena Petrovna
Obstetrician-gynecologist, Toronto Ask your question
Eating speed affects calorie intake
Tested: if you eat slowly, you can feel full with fewer calories. According to various estimates, this technique helps reduce daily caloric intake by 10-15%. And this without any calorie counting!
To eat more slowly without falling asleep in the process, try a multi-element meal. Place several different side dishes on the plate, each in small quantities. You will eat this dish more slowly than, for example, just mashed potatoes with a cutlet. Because “multi-ingredient food” will make you taste different combinations of flavors.
It will help to eat more slowly and a tasting approach to food. Taste every bite and try to concentrate on the variety of flavors.
Reducing calories by eating frequently
Frequent (fractional) meals can reduce the caloric content of the diet by 10-15%. The more time passes between meals, the more the “appetite hormone” ghrelin is produced. Accordingly, the more we want to eat. And with a “voracious appetite” there’s no time for counting calories. Therefore, eat more often and little by little, then you will not want to pounce on food.
How to easily lose weight by changing dishes?
Try replacing regular plates with smaller dishes. It turns out that when eating from smaller dishes with dessert spoons, a person is satisfied with less food. It has been proven that the same portion of food in small dishes is perceived by us as more plentiful than in a large plate.
This technique allows you to reduce your daily diet by 5-10%.
To lose weight easily, do not sit down at the table hungry
If 10-15 minutes before the main meal you drink a glass of tea with milk, or, for example, low-fat milk with a slice of bran bread, then the feeling of hunger will be interrupted. As a result, you will be able to eat much less during your main meal, and the caloric content of your diet will decrease on its own.
If you manage to follow all these rules, then your weight will slowly but surely decrease without any diets or counting calories.
Elena Kukuevitskaya
Photo: Depositphotos
Change your approach to preparing your usual dishes
Be creative and take advantage of the benefits of civilization. Modern non-stick cookware allows you to cook in a completely dry pan without adding oil. In cases where this is not possible for frying, it is better to use a sprayer: this way the layer of oil in the pan will be minimal.
Pay attention to salad dressings. For example, you can make mayonnaise yourself, then it will have fewer calories and unhealthy fats. If the dressing is made from vegetable oil, you can dilute it with lemon juice.
For soups, use the second broth. Get rid of the “magic” cubes Galina Blanca.
Did you know that the calorie content of a chicken thigh decreases by as much as 50 kcal when the skin is removed?
Give preference to steamed, slow cooker, grilled or baked dishes.
Hint three - liquid
Do not think that we are now reminding you of the long-known rule about a certain amount of liquid per day. No, we are looking for other ways to reduce calories to lose weight. If you carefully look at the table of calorie content of foods, you will see that in many, in addition to the proteins, fats and carbohydrates included in the composition, the percentage of water is indicated - liquid.
This is not just a number.
Remember, the higher the percentage of water in a product, the less calorie it contains. After all, water contains as much as 0 kilocalories! How much less? There is a lot of water in vegetables and fruits,
therefore, they are considered low-calorie foods.
The calorie content of dishes cooked in water is also reduced. If you carefully consider the calorie content of buckwheat, for example, the first thought that will arise is what kind of low-calorie product this is, because 100 g contains 335 kcal? But keep one thing in mind - the calorie content of the dry product is indicated on the package.
When cooking, you dilute the cereal with water and thereby reduce the calorie content several times - out of 335 kcal, only 90 - 100 will remain. Here is another way to reduce the calorie content - cook with water and, again, eat vegetables and fruits.
Reduce the fat content of the dish already on your plate
There are situations when there is no way to influence what ends up on the plate. For example, visiting a grandmother, a friend, a mother, a friend, and you never know what else can happen. Then it’s worth “sifting” the dish through the sieve of your principles: cut off fatty pieces of meat, do not touch sauces and mayonnaise salads.
“Wrong” sauces always contain hidden calories! Just stop seasoning your prepared dishes with them to experience the real taste of the food without adding chemicals. Total calories will decrease, but portion size will remain the same.
If you feel full before you finish the dish, do not try to force it into yourself. Better put down the fork and eat the leftovers at your next meal, or throw them in the trash.
How to reduce the calorie content of dishes. Avoid frying
Most people who are losing weight believe that by reducing the amount of food they consume, they will definitely reduce their daily caloric intake, which will invariably lead to weight loss. Alas, not everything is so simple. After all, it is important to consider not only the amount of food, but also how it was prepared. After all, even the most harmless dietary product can be prepared in such a way that it contains a lot of unnecessary calories. Nutritionists persistently advise giving up fried foods, because they are not only the cause of excess weight, but also health problems. When frying foods, you double or even triple their calorie content and, of course, there can be no question of any dietary nutrition, even if you fry a lean chicken breast. Stew, steam, grill and this way you will significantly reduce the calorie content of your dishes.
Many people find it difficult to give up fried foods as they have been a mainstay of their diet for a long time. In this case, there is no need to suddenly change direction and switch to boiled dishes. Try baking them in the oven, this will reduce the calorie content, but at the same time, it will not greatly affect the taste.
Savor every bite
Good old advice, but how it works! Eat slowly, chewing each piece thoroughly, then you will feel full even while eating. After all, saturation occurs not in the stomach, but in the brain.
Try to deprive yourself a little when forming a portion. Reduce its size by 1/3 of the usual size. Within a week, the body will begin to rebuild itself and will not feel hungry, and the stomach will shrink.
Interesting: the color blue is believed to suppress appetite. Perhaps buying a blue plate is a good investment.
Would you like some fried chicken?
Use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.
Coconut oil has amazing properties. When you use it for cooking, it reduces your appetite and increases your metabolism. So replace your regular vegetable oil with coconut oil.
One study found that regular use helped reduce daily caloric intake by an average of 256 calories.
Just 10 tips that are proven in practice - follow them and you will lose weight without counting calories. Enjoy getting rid of the excess!