Food Tip: Cutting & Counting Calories
by Shereen Jegtvig
With obesity rates so high in the United States, most people need to become more conscious of the calories they’re consuming every day. Forget about low-fat, low-carb or low-whatever else, if you want to lose weight, you need to reduce the number of calories you take in or increase the calories you burn by increasing physical activity. For the best results, do both.
Choose foods that are low in calories
Foods that are high in water and fiber take up more space in your stomach so you’ll eat less. And when you eat a meal that includes…
…moderate to high-protein foods with plenty of fiber, you’ll stay full longer so you can cut back on the between-meal snacks. Use the FoodEssentials tool to compare calorie counts on thousands of different foods, like this:
See the big difference in calories from the highest to lowest? Those calories can add up fast.
Watch your portion sizes
When you put a big pile of food in front of someone, they’ll eat it – all of it. That’s why it’s so easy to eat too much when you go to a restaurant that uses plates the size of troughs. When you go out to eat, split your meals with a dining partner or take half of it home for the next day.
When you serve foods at home, you can use smaller plates to cut down portion sizes. Studies at Cornell University show that switching from 12-inch plates to 10-inch plates can reduce calorie consumption by 22%.
At FoodEssentials, we rate foods by weight rather than serving size so you can make more accurate comparisons of different foods. When you find the foods you are most interested in, click on the food to read a detailed nutrition label that tells you everything you need to know, like these Snack Well’s cookies from our first list:
Snack Well’s Devil’s Food Cookie Cakes (click to view entire food label)
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