Weight Loss Tips for the Real World—Part 3

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So, you’ve decided how much weight loss you can shoot for at one time, and now you are ready to give this whole losing weight thing a try. One of the most logical ways to lose weight is to cut back on the amount of calories you are eating on a daily basis. This is pretty much rule number one from Diets 101, right? Reduce the number of calories and the number on the scale will get smaller too.

Again, this is an area where too many dieters take this notion to the extreme. I remember back in high school when a good friend of mine decided she needed to go on a diet, and she embarked on some 500 calorie a day thing that I recall seemed to involve eating copious amounts of tuna fish and celery. She lasted about a week on this plan and immediately gained back whatever weight she had dropped during that time. And really, who could blame her? We are not designed to subsist on so few calories over a short amount of time, let alone weeks and weeks.

Going back to my slow and steady wins the race analogy, when it comes to cutting calories, the little things you cut back on here and there during the day really do add up.

For example, I love the restaurant chain Baja Fresh and I eat there at least once a week. Their fish tacos speak to me—I could eat them probably every day if I had the money to do so. Each taco comes wrapped in two soft corn tortillas. When I started my weight loss program, I decided to eat just one of the tortillas with each taco. At the end of my two fish taco lunch, I was certainly as full as usual, but I had two corn tortillas sitting there on my plate that I didn’t eat. To avoid wasting food, you can even order the tacos made with just one tortilla each. The package of corn tortillas in my fridge right now says each one is 110 calories. So for me, that was an easy way to cut back on 200-plus calories at just one meal. I still got my two tacos, and I still enjoyed some chips and salsa on the side, and I was still full.

Doing the math once again, 200 calories a day times seven days equals 1,400 calories. It is estimated that one pound is equal to 3,500 calories. So by doing something as simple and painless as not eating two corn tortillas at one meal I would easily lose about a half pound a week. But that was only one example and one meal. Most days I was able to find similar things to cut back on at each meal, which over the course of the week probably averaged out to about 3,000 saved calories. Add in a bit of walking, and I was easily getting to 3,500 calories a week saved, or a weight loss of one pound a week.

So as you go through the day eating your snacks and meals, always be on the lookout for small cutbacks that you can make that are painless and don’t leave you feeling deprived. Don’t give up the cheeseburger you love, but maybe have only half a bun. Go ahead and have some chips with your sandwich, but make it a small handful instead of your usual two or three, and try just half a sandwich too. And keep reminding yourself, it’s the little things that add up to big weight loss.

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.