How to quietly reduce the calorie content of dishes? Tips and lifehacks

If eating intuitively and at the same time healthy doesn’t work out, and the mere word “diet” makes you shudder, don’t immediately despair. The path to healthy eating and lifestyle in general does not have to start with strict restrictions. Try adding a few simple healthy habits to your routine that will help you subtly reduce your calorie intake.

How to get rid of the feeling of hunger? 10 healthy snack ideas

Say no to sauces

Mayonnaise is far from the only harmful additive. Sour cream, cheese, tomato and cream sauces - they all have high energy value and can significantly increase the calorie content of any dish. And soy sauce, although it does not contain as many calories, retains fluid in the body, which can cause swelling.

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Skip the sauces and replace them with low-fat yogurt or balsamic vinegar, for example. Firstly, it seemed that familiar dishes would reveal a new side. Secondly, their energy value will decrease. For example, if you exclude mayonnaise from a portion of Olivier, you will get 100-200 kcal less.

Sample meal plan

Here is an example of how to properly reduce the caloric content of your diet to lose weight without harming your muscle mass and physical strength.

To cleanse your diet of junk food, remove about 500 calories and take a few steps towards a healthy diet. This is the perfect way to improve your diet - small steps lead to big results.

Breakfast: The best way to start eating less is to replace the sugary yogurt with an unsweetened option. You can also eat less oatmeal.
Lunch: if you reduce calories here, you will have to make lunch less filling. Watch your portion sizes, replace some foods with fiber-rich vegetables, and monitor your overall nutritional intake.
Dinner: Smaller portions are the best way to cut down on extra calories without changing what you eat for dinner. If you drink alcohol, limit it to one drink.
Snacks: This category has the most opportunity to clean up your diet. Instead of cookies or sweets, try sugar-free cottage cheese - instead of carbohydrates, you will get the proteins you need so much. This goes to show that you don't have to eat less to achieve a healthier diet.
Workout Food: The food you eat before, during and after your workout is an area where you don't want to change anything. On the contrary, there is an opinion that you should reduce other meals and add this food to your pre-workout meal. After all, these are the calories that will be burned when you exercise.

Replace carbonated drinks with water

Sweet soda not only contains a large amount of sugar, but also negatively affects the condition of the skin. In addition, carbonated drinks do not quench thirst well - after them you want to drink even more. And if you are also used to drinking lemonade with your food, there is a risk of eating much more than you need.

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Try to replace sweet soda and packaged juices with plain water. For taste, you can add lemon and mint or, for example, seasonal fruits and berries. And if you really like “sparkling” drinks, take sparkling mineral water instead of still water.

A little about the sad

Almost always, losing weight and maintaining weight at an optimal level turns into an ordeal.
Diets, miracle pills, gym memberships, a swimming section, sugar-free foods and a refrigerator that alerts the entire apartment about an insidious burglar are not a complete list of tricks that from 60 to 80% of the adult population resort to from time to time. Not everyone achieves success: either there is not enough enthusiasm, or time, or other obstacles arise on the way to the dream of becoming a ballerina.

If you take statistics for Americans, you can see that in 2004 they consumed 2,750 kcal daily, which is as much as 500 kcal (can you imagine, 500!) more than in 1970. In our country the scale is not the same - fast food has not yet managed to take over everything and everyone, but it is quite comparable.

Don't overuse fruits

Often, having decided to lose weight, many rush from one extreme to another and, for example, giving up sweets and baked goods, try to compensate for them with more fruit. Although they are indeed healthier than sweets and pies, many of them are still very high in calories and also contain a lot of carbohydrates.

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Since the carbohydrates in fruits are simple, they are absorbed quickly and do not fill you for a long time. Therefore, without noticing it ourselves, we can eat too much, which is also not good for the body. Of course, fruits contain many useful substances and elements, so you should not exclude them from your diet. Use them in moderation and don't get too carried away.

What happens to the body if you eat apples every day?

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?

Reduce your sugar intake

Even if you just stop adding sugar to your tea and coffee, this will significantly reduce the number of calories you consume. For example, one cup of black tea with two spoons of sugar contains approximately 60-65 kcal, while the unsweetened version contains only 3-5 kcal.

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In addition, sugar is also found in seemingly unexpected products - packaged juices, tomato paste and yoghurts. Replace juices with freshly squeezed ones, and buy yoghurts and curds without sugar, and you can get rid of several dozen extra calories.

Fresh berries and fruits, as well as spices, herbs and herbs will help satisfy your need for sweets. Moreover, some of them - for example, red pepper - also speed up metabolism. For other products that speed up your metabolism, watch the “Championship” video.

What ingredients make dessert high in calories?

Girls, afraid of gaining weight, try to limit themselves in eating sweet desserts. After all, they understand that such delicacies include butter, cream, eggs, sugar, dried fruits and nuts. All this is very high in calories and dangerous for the figure. But it’s impossible to give up sweets your whole life. Therefore, you need to know ways in which you can reduce the calorie content of desserts.

The filling often adds calories to the dessert. For example, products made from choux pastry are quite light in themselves, only 150 kcal, but butter cream and condensed milk almost double the number of calories. In this case, it will be more useful to replace the cream with fruit or curd filling.

Desserts with shortcrust pastry are prepared on the basis of flour, margarine or butter, with the addition of eggs, a large amount of sugar, and are supplemented with chocolate as an impregnation. Therefore, it is better to replace the impregnation with fruit jelly and sugar with honey.

Reduce the amount of fat

As a rule, we do not count how much oil we add to the frying pan when we stew vegetables, fry an omelet or fry meat. As a result, the dish turns out to be much higher in calories than it could be.

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Reducing your intake of “bad” fats is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. For example, when stewing, butter can be replaced with broth or water, and for frying, use olive oil or a non-stick frying pan.

The best is the enemy of the good: why is junk food not so bad?

Following these five rules is not that difficult. Healthy habits will help not only reduce the calorie content of your meals, but also gradually switch to a more proper and healthy diet.

Base

The period in which you train less is the best time for the right start, so as not to spoil the results of training, if any.
Reduce slowly and gradually, the deficit is 300-500 calories per day
Monitor your energy levels and mood
Eat foods rich in proteins and vitamins, not calories
Don't consume sugar on days you don't exercise
Use fiber to fill you up
Spread out your protein intake throughout the day
Don't ignore the energy needed to train
Don't eat snacks
Don't drink alcohol
Drink enough water throughout the day
Monitor your calorie intake
Don't eat until you're completely full - always get up from the table a little hungry
Eat slowly and chew your food

Deep sleep

Scientists at the University of Colorado have proven that people suffering from lack of sleep are more likely to feel hungry and eat significantly more. Good sleep should last at least seven to eight hours to stabilize the nervous system and counteract stress hunger.

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Ways to reduce the calorie content of desserts

Nutritionists have long proven that products made from processed wheat flour, in particular sweets, do not benefit the body. But flour forms the basis of many cakes, muffins and pastries; it is best to replace it with other products. Ground almonds, oatmeal, corn starch and bran will do an excellent job for this purpose. They will significantly reduce the calorie content of the dish, but will not change its taste.

For baking and preparing various desserts, it is better to use clarified butter. To do this, you just need to heat the butter over low heat, remove the white film and filter it through a sieve. Butter purified in this way significantly reduces calorie content.

Sugar can be replaced with agave syrup, honey and fruit, which will add a sweet taste to your favorite dessert. Instead of sugar, it is also recommended to use dark chocolate with a high content of cocoa beans.

Spices: vanilla, nutmeg and almonds will add a new and interesting taste to your favorite desserts. Such additives are an excellent substitute for sugar in dishes.

Thus, you can significantly reduce the calorie content of any dessert by replacing some ingredients. The big advantage is that all of them do not reduce the taste of the dish, and can even add piquancy to them. Therefore, you can continue to pamper yourself with your favorite desserts without fear of gaining extra pounds.

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How to reduce the calorie content of baked goods: 8 alternative options

Which of us can voluntarily give up lush and incredibly tasty baked goods, even if we subsequently have to pay with extra grams on the scale? Luckily, there are ways to cut calories without sacrificing flavor.

Photo taken: https://wallbox.ru/resize/2560×1600/wallpapers/main2/201716/sladkoe-vypecka-vkusno-bulocki-bulocka-baking-sladenko.jpg

Use a sweetener

It will be more difficult to give up sugar. In baking, sugar is often needed not only for sweetness, but also to secure shape and consistency. In addition, the lack of sugar will have to be compensated with flour, and from the point of view of energy value this is the same thing.

But in everything else, drinks, cereals, where sugar does not play a key role, but is added only as a sweetener, give preference to a sweetener.

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Modern sweeteners do not have such a strong unpleasant taste as their early representatives and, if added in small quantities, are practically indistinguishable from sugar.

NB You shouldn't indulge in fructose. Unless the “natural” origin of all ingredients is extremely important to you and you are radically against any chemicals in your diet. The fact is that fructose is the same fast carbohydrate, has the same calorie content, and it is no better than sugar (slightly sweeter, which means you will need to add it in less quantity). Moreover, fructose, when there is excess energy in the diet, is more likely to be converted into fat than glucose and sugar (which consists of fructose and glucose in equal proportions).

How to reduce the calorie content of the menu without suffering and restrictions. 7 secrets from a brutal nutritionist

Why do we gain weight? Because we consume more calories (energy) than we expend. It is logical to assume that in order to lose weight, you need to either spend more or consume less. But it's not that simple. Nutritionist and author of the Physical Transformation project Oleg Zingilevsky knows the right path.

Many of us tend to greatly overestimate our energy expenditure. There are two reasons: the feeling of fatigue (which we often exaggerate) and gadgets that count calories burned in hundreds, which, unfortunately, is not true. In fact, the energy expended during an intense strength training session will not even compensate for the Snickers you eat. Well, maybe a small piece of it.

What should you do, eat less? Also an option, but not the most promising one from the point of view of psychological comfort and long-term prospects.

How to reduce the calorie content of desserts without changing the taste and aroma

Going on a diet is quite difficult, because there are always various temptations that provoke eating breakdowns.

When a person decides to lose a few extra pounds, he immediately begins to crave something sweet and tasty, for example, shortbread or sponge cakes.

However, the thought of the high calorie content in such products makes one feel despondent and experience a strong craving for the forbidden.

Important! To reduce the calorie content of dessert, it is worth replacing some foods with lower calorie ones.

Thoughts about this or that food can drive you crazy. A person who constantly thinks about food becomes distracted and irritable. And it's all because of the feeling of hunger.

Experienced nutritionists say that if you plan your diet correctly, its occurrence can be avoided.

At the same time, it is very important to follow a diet and try to eat every 3-4 hours so that there are not too many hungry intervals. And, of course, drink and drink water again, at least 1.5 liters per day.

An irresistible craving for traditional desserts brings real discomfort. Someone who is losing weight can literally experience real withdrawal symptoms.

Sugar is a product that is actually addictive to the body.

Due to sudden withdrawal, the level of its content in the blood will sharply decrease, which will cause poor health, fatigue, irritability and, in some cases, headaches.

Many experts recommend eliminating sugar from your diet gradually so that negative symptoms do not appear.

But in the case when you suddenly want to eat some desserts while on a diet, it is better to succumb to the provocation and cook it correctly.

To reduce the calorie content of a traditional dessert, you should replace some high-calorie foods with more healthy ones.

A few simple methods will make this easy.

When preparing dessert, you should avoid using first-grade wheat flour.

It is better to give preference to rye, almond, coconut, oatmeal, buckwheat or second-grade flour. Or choose whole grain flours. The calorie content of the resulting dish will decrease significantly.

Use different sweeteners that are of natural origin instead of sugar

Or make desserts like pancakes or pancakes without using any sweeteners, and just add a little honey or maple syrup at the end.

Choose yogurt or cream with less fat content

But you should avoid foods with zero fat content. They are usually high in carbohydrates in the form of sugar.

Replace some of the flour with psyllum or other dietary fiber.

Replace higher-calorie fruits with lower-calorie ones

Giving preference to berries and unsweetened fruits.

That's all! By giving up sugar or replacing it with more natural sweeteners, you will be able to significantly reduce the calorie content of the resulting dish.

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Simple solutions for those who have decided to lose weight, but do not know where to start.

These life hacks will help you reduce your calorie intake, even if you don't count calories.

Include sources of protein at every meal.

More proteins!
Good and different. At the same time, choose less fatty meat and dairy products. The difference between 18% curd mass and 2-5% cottage cheese is colossal. Both from a diet and health point of view. As for meat, you should give preference to chicken, turkey, beef (not marbled, unfortunately). It's simple: the less fat, the fewer calories (which means you can increase the portion), and the more protein, the higher the satiety. And so much the better for your health.

Replace half the carbs (side dishes) on your plate with vegetables.

Protein + vegetables = balanced diet.

3. Reduce the amount of oil when cooking.

A non-stick frying pan, as well as a multicooker, convection oven or grill allow you to fry without oil at all, but if you still need it, pay attention to bottles with a spray: 3-5 grams of oil is enough to prepare a dish, and that’s literally two sprays. Even those who count calories often forget to take into account the oil, and the result is very different from the forecast.

Start filling and end delicious.

A little something tasty at the end can sometimes be good.

Don't get carried away with snacking.

Even healthy snacks will add a lot of calories.
Everyone who counts calories imagines what proportion of daily calories can be taken up by nuts, dried fruits, muesli and other “healthy snacks”. They can indeed be very healthy in terms of micronutrients, but at the same time they are much higher in calories than a “bad” chocolate bar.

Limit liquid calories.

Therefore, it is worth making a choice in favor of calorie-free drinks: tea and coffee, water and diet soda.

Don't avoid cafes and restaurants

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How to quietly reduce the calorie content of dishes? Tips and lifehacks

Be careful with alcohol

A glass of beer in the evening after work can cause weight gain: the body will primarily process alcohol at night, leaving fat metabolism for later.

In addition, alcohol is also extremely high in calories. This is especially true for smoothies and milk drinks loaded with sugar. If you can’t give up alcohol completely, it’s better to switch to lower-calorie drinks: white wine diluted with sparkling water, dry champagne or gin and tonic.

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Avoid mayonnaise

One of the most high-calorie and fat-rich ingredients, used in Russia wherever possible, appropriately and inappropriately. Its calorie content, just think about it, is higher than that of butter (mayonnaise - 680 kcal; Krestyanskoe butter - 662 kcal). This is no joke; seasoning a dish with 72% butter will be healthier than mayonnaise.

What’s worse is that mayonnaise has crept from its traditional use as a salad dressing into dishes that could do just fine without it. Traditionally, shawarma is prepared with thick unsweetened yogurt (one of the most dietary sauces, only 66 kcal), but in half of the eateries they will serve you 10 times more high-calorie mayonnaise. No pizzaiolo in his right mind and memory, either in Italy or even in America, would drop a single gram of mayonnaise on his pizza. In Russia, this is a widespread practice, ruining the taste of the dish and increasing its already considerable calorie content.

From lyrics to practice. If you're making pizza, add solo tomato sauce (made from canned peeled tomatoes) or, if you're using a lot of cheese, just brush with a couple of drops of olive oil.

When preparing shawarma, use Greek yogurt.

And even in the traditional home of mayonnaise, salads, it can be safely replaced with mayonnaise sauce, which will be three times less caloric. The taste of the final dish will not be distinguished from the standard one even by distinguished fans of classic salads (tested on relatives by blind tasting).

You can also use mayonnaise sauce for baking. Or a more exotic, but also “higher” option, common in French cuisine - cook bechamel sauce. It also has three times less calories. Basic option: milk, butter, flour. Add a little lemon juice and mustard at the end of cooking - you get poured mayonnaise.