What's your best calorie saving tip?

Cafe Society
1

I’m not talking about whole diet philosophies or regimens here. Or some miracle fad, like, oh, just have a bowl of cabbage soup before bedtime every day and you’ll lose ten inches off your waist! (Er, I just made that up, not real advice.)

I’m thinking about just small changes you’ve made in the ‘ordinary’ way you live that actually have reduced your calorie intake over the long term with minimal or no feeling of deprivation?

Here’s two that turned out to have major impacts for me:

  1. I only drink diet sodas.

For years and years I’d sworn I just COULD NOT drink diet sodas, that they tasted terrible, and what’s the point of drinking sodas except the taste? But then I got diagnosed with diabetes. And since I ‘couldn’t’ drink diet sodas, I just quit all sodas cold turkey. I wasn’t happy about it – I’m one of those weirdos who find coffee and tea too bitter to swallow – but for six months I stuck to nothing but water to drink. And then I was out one day with some friends working on an outdoor project on a hot day and my water bottle ran out and there was nothing available except the cooler of Diet Pepsi cans one of the women had brought… It tasted like heaven! I guess the break allowed me to reset my taste buds from the sugar or nothing habit or maybe I’d just forgotten what the taste of soda SHOULD be, but ever since I’ve been able to enjoy any diet drink I’ve tried, name brand or store brand, whatever variety of artificial sweetener they used. It all tastes at least somewhere on the ‘okay’ to ‘great’ range to me. Probably saved me some millions of calories over the last few decades!

  1. I store containers of ‘snack’ type foods inside (opaque doored) cabinets.

We’d always had a bag of some crunchy carbohydrate type snack food open and available. Like potato chips or pretzels or tortilla chips or cheetos and so forth. And those bags are bulky, and our kitchen cabinets were always full, so we just folded over the tops once they were open and clipped them shut, and left them sitting on the counter top near the fridge. Very handy, you know? You could just grab a handful of chips to have with your sandwich at lunch. Or maybe haul the bag into the living room when you settle down to watch TV.

And we had a clear glass cookie jar with a tight sealing but easy to open lid that hubby had brought into the marriage from his college days. For lack of a better space, it sat on top of the fridge. With the cookies in it always on display. I mean, you just couldn’t help seeing them all the time, whenever you needed something from the fridge, there they were in your face, you know? So, get a glass of cold water because you’re thirsty? Why not have an oreo or two along with that? The silly thing is, I actually am ‘meh’ about just about every commercially produced cookies. I bake tons of cookies around the holidays, I used to give cookie assortments to neighbors and the customer service staff of the businesses I usually frequent But those are freshly baked, home baked cookies. The ones optimized for tasting good vs. being able to be shipped across the country without breakage and sit on grocery shelves for two and half years without molding. And yet, there they were…so I ate them. Way too often.

But then, on one of my many, many clutter purges over the years, I got rid of a whole bunch of kitchen dishes/bowls/utensils/etc. that were ‘inherited’ items we didn’t really use…and suddenly we had a whole bunch of new space inside the cabinets! So to make use of it, and to make the kitchen look less cluttery over-all, I moved the Bag’o’carbs and the CookieTrap into a cabinet and closed the door on them.

And guess what? Our consumption of both types of snacks plummeted. They were easy to get at, right in front on the lowest shelf, less than three feet away from where they used to sit, but now you had to actually THINK “I want a snack” and open a door to see them, instead of them sitting out just luring you in.

We still have both type of snacks around 100% of the time. We eat them frequently enough nothing goes stale or whatever. It’s just that we no long get prompted to automatically grab a handful to go with every sandwich we make. God knows how many calories that has kept us from mindlessly chowing down without even thinking.

So, how about you all? What substitutions or behavioral changes have improved your life without taking any real effort or demanding will power from you?

2

My husband and daughter-in-law like the flavored-soda-water drinks, which have no calories nor artificial chemicals in them. I don’t like fizzy drinks of any kind though and never have.

I like to eat “meal bowls” but now I use a smaller bowl for it. Except salad. Then I go all out.

I never keep any commercial snacks at all in the house, ever. Here, snacks are fresh or dried fruit, dry-roasted nuts, or austerity crackers like rice cakes, or swedish flatbread. We eat them with cheese, or in season, avocado. We’ve done this for decades so we don’t crave chips or other fried snacks.

My biggest calorie saver is one few people are up for – I have a main meal in the early to mid afternoon and skip dinner. When I eat mindlessly, it’s because I’m tired, which is always the case as the day winds down. A salad or a previously-mentioned snack is all I really want in the evening. So instead of following social norms I do what my body wants. Turns out that even at a dinner party I’m not very hungry any more.

And not exactly what you were asking for but very important to me: get outside, get exercise, every day. When I’m indoors and my body fills slowly with sludgy indoor thoughts, I eat for no reason but a chance to get up from my desk.

I lost twenty pounds (significant because I’m barely over 5’ tall) when I got a horse and started riding her, and seven years later I still have my horse and I’m still twenty pounds thinner.

3

I try to eat five servings of vegetables a day. It takes some work, and it took me time to learn to eat the vegetables I enjoy - and not ones I aspirationally “should” be eating - but do not like.

This has many benefits:

  1. Get much more fibre
  2. Highly nutritious
  3. Cues you to make healthier choices
  4. Makes (some) snacking healthier
  5. Provides feeling of fullness
4

No sweets. ( Cakes, pies, donuts, cookies, let alone candy )

I didn’t eat a great deal of them before, but I eat none at all now. I have a VERY wide/adventurous palette and so it’s not that I don’t eat sweets out of self denial, but they’re just further down the list of other things I eat.

The weight just few off after that.

5

At the work cafeteria I take a big plate for the vegetable/salad buffet and a small plate for the warm main course food.

For coleslaw, I use a vinaigrette over mayo. It’s a different style of dish, but I don’t miss the mayo version.

6

Eat less in the evening, more at breakfast - especially carbohydrates.

If I’m putting on weight, the simplest approach that always works for me with minimal effort and loss of functional energy is just to discipline myself to eat nothing after (say) 9pm.

7

I stopped drinking pretty much anything but coffee and water. It wasn’t really a conscious decision; I was trying to be sure to drink enough water and discovered that it quenched my thirst enough that I didn’t want a soda anymore.

Along those lines, if I’m feeling snacky in the evening, I’ll sometimes realize I’m tired and thirsty, so I drink a glass of water and go to bed instead.

And I recently went in the absolutely wrong direction when I ordered a new set of dishes online during the pandemic. They turned out to be significantly bigger than our old, chipped dishes, and sure enough, we have been eating more. I’ve tried to get into the habit of using the smaller lunch plates for all my meals.

8

A few months ago my gf asked me to help her diet. She goes zero carbs (Dukan) for a few weeks and she can drop a few pounds. I was happy to help, and eating grilled steaks and fish was nice.

Then she added partial fasting. No food on Tuesdays and Thursdays except for a healthy dinner each evening. I didn’t mind that. I love carbonated water, and I am a home carbonator so that helps. I also make iced tea (with artificial sweetener) almost every day.

Turns out my gf wasn’t really needing to drop a few pounds, she just wanted me to eat healthier. I feel stupid for not realizing from the start. So out of curiosity I got on a scale and found that I’d dropped 19 pounds!

My calorie saving tip: Next time you want to enjoy a few beers, replace them with a glass of vodka. Keep a bottle in the freezer.

9

I had a cardiac event last year (atrial flutter, fixed but possible to come back) and earlier this year I slipped over the A1c line from pre- to actual diabetic. And my whole attitude has changed. I no longer feel like I am depriving myself when I don’t eat things that I know are bad for me, and that includes heavy meals at dinner. I no longer feel like I can beat the odds of being overweight. Here are a few changes I have made:

No carbohydrate-heavy and/or salty snacks in the house at all. I really don’t miss them.

No sweets, and damn few carbs that are just carbs (e.g. bread). I don’t seem to miss it most of the time. I still eat potatoes occasionally, and partially-milled brown rice. This (much less carbs) has a side benefit of more energy, as I have realized that carbs act like a kind of opiate for me, making me drowsy and sluggish.

If I feel hungry between meals or after dinner, I drink some water or diet soda or tea and wait 15 minutes. If I still feel hungry and it’s too long to wait until the next meal, I will have something. My go-to snack is a small protein bar that is 90 calories and 10 gm of protein, or else fruit, with more water or other liquid.

I don’t stint myself on fruit. Lots of good nutrients and fiber. Yes, fruit has natural sugar in it, but it seems to be okay for me. Maybe it doesn’t spike one’s blood sugar so much? I’m not sure. Anyway, not empty calories, and very satisfying.

Home-made soups are great, they fill me up with a lot fewer calories. Commercial soups are too salty, so I avoid them.

Salads with meat and/or cheese are great, they taste so much better to me than a salad that is just veggies, so we have been having just a big salad for dinner around once a week.

Konnyaku noodles in the miso soup for dinner. They really fill me up, and almost nothing but fiber,

It’s taken me about six months to get to the point where this feels like my lifestyle now, during which time I’ve lost about 20 pounds. These are the easy pounds, so I’m not kidding myself that this is all I need to do. I hope I know myself well enough not to be over-confident, but really, barring some major emotional upheaval, I don’t see myself going back to the bad old ways.

10

Some meaty flavoured soups are hearty and sustaining yet contain few calories. That’s a good one.

I also am snacking more often on portion-packed tree nuts. Though not lie in calories, they are much healthier than most alternatives. (I am not trying to lose weight.)

11

When I’m trying to slim down, I cut way back on bland starchy foods like white potatoes and bread, pasta, and rice, whether white or whole-grain. I never follow a strict low-carb diet, but if I’m going to eat carbs I want them to taste like something. The foods listed are so nearly flavorless that I find I hardly miss them at all. I still eat some of that stuff, but much less than normal. Say, half as much pasta as usual with twice as much (low-fat) sauce. I tend to replace these bland foods with fruits and vegetables that are higher in flavor and nutrition and lower in calories, such as salads, sauerkraut, and rutabaga (less than half the calories of potatoes).

You won’t lack for fiber either because fruits and vegetables have a higher fiber : calorie ratio than even whole grains. A 100 calorie serving of whole wheat bread has only 3 grams of fiber, but a 100 calorie serving of apple has 5, 100 calories of rutabaga has 6, and 100 calories of sauerkraut has 7.

12

Eat a full meal only once per day. Once. The old “breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” is a marketing scam to sell cereal. Eat an evening meal and nothing after that. If you can’t make it all the way through the day, have some tea. One meal per day and you can probably eat most anything you like.

Stop drinking all forms of soda pop. Switching to “diet” is just replacing the sugar with cancer causing ingredients. Stop it all. All of it. You still are keeping the same bad habit.

The whole thing of drinking 8 glasses of water per day, and constantly carrying a bottle of water with you wherever you go is another marketing scam to sell water. You don’t need it. Ask your doctor if you might benefit from a diuretic or water pill as they are commonly called, you will probably drop 10 or 20 pounds in a week or so. Drink a little water when you feel thirsty and quit that whole staying hydrated bullshit. You are already plenty hydrated.

Eat more vegetables. Steamed, raw, or roasted. No sauces, no ranch dressing, nothing. They will replace the space in your stomach and add few calories. In fact, give up all sauces and gravy on everything.

Calories are not the problem. Train yourself to eat less, less often. You can have your cake, and eat it too, once per day with your meal.

13

Undergoing chemo for Stage 4 cancer is a great way to lose 90 pounds… I don’t recommend it, though. I’ve regained about 45, unfortunately.

Radishes cut into thin chips make a great substitute for potato chips or salty crackers.

14

I simply eat less. I do have to count my calories but it works for me, don’t know about anyone else.

15

If you want a sweet, try Outshine popsicles. 60 calories for a lemon or lime one.
If you want a snack, try popping up some popcorn instead of inhaling half a bag of Cheez Doodles.

16

There is no evidence that non-nutritive sweeteners cause cancer. The original research on lab mice has long since been debunked. Even cyclamates have been re-approved for human consumption in many countries outside the US. There is a whole thread on non-nutritive sweeteners elsewhere on this board that you might find interesting.

The carbonation in diet soda is likely to cause more problems in the long run than the sweetener.

17

A couple of tricks that I play on myself:

  • I quit sugary sodas decades ago, but ever since I’ve been looking for ways to cut that “diet” taste. I’m now drinking Sprite No Sugar, good lime juice and water (bottled or tap, sparkling or still). On a hot day, over ice, it’s great. For a treat, add a splash of bitters or rum.

  • Those "Sweets In Sight" have always been a problem. I worked in a college where each office would have donuts or muffins or at least a bowl of M&Ms on the receptionist’s desk. So I’d take circuitous routes to avoid those. But what really helped was my greatest invention yet…

  • The Necco Wafer Diet™.
    Whenever a secretary would offer wonderfully fatty and sweet treats, I’d say no, thank you, and then turn the corner and tryyyyy to resist the urge to go back (“Ha, just kidding. I’d love a massive Bavarian Cream-filled cinnamon bun with maple cream cheese frosting and a chocolate-covered strawberry on top.”).
    But to dull the pain of withdrawal and distract myself, I’d pop a Necco Wafer instead.

This wouldn’t work for most people, who oddly don’t like the taste of chalk. So you can have your Life Saver Diet or Skittles Diet. Just remember, it’s not a bag of Skittles diet…

18

I drive for about an hour for work around 3 PM. I eat a healthy lunch at a normal time, but if I munch on a bag of carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, red peppers, etc while driving it keeps me occupied like chewing gum or smoking and I just have no desire to stop at fast food. And so I have stopped now as a habit and only go once every few months for the novelty, and am usually disappointed which reinforces the behavior.

19

Stay away from any and all fried foods.

20

I switched brands of snack bars. I picked up the habit of sometimes having a Clif Bar as a snack, back when I was much more active, playing sports and training for half marathons and such. Those days are long gone, but the habit stuck. I’ve switched to a much lower carb bar, and have dropped almost 30lb over three years with no other effort. Slow and steady.