Knowing how to cut calories sounds pretty obvious. Eat less, right? You might be surprised to hear that there’s a lot more to it than that, particularly if you don’t want to starve yourself or sacrifice your nutrition.
Understanding How to Cut Calories with Nutrition in Mind
Remember that the key to how to cut calories isn’t in cutting food. It might sound that way, but that’s not at all what it means when your goals are health and nutrition, even if weight loss is also a target.
It’s time to go back to the basics and reset your perspective, attitude and definition of how to cut calories. To begin, stop thinking of a food and a calorie as the same thing. They’re not. One is the item you eat and the other is the energy that item contains and that your body will use either to power basic functions, thoughts or movements, or that it will store for later as body fat.
Your goal in how to cut calories is to reduce the amount of energy you’re consuming, not necessarily the amount of food. How is that possible? Read on!
Reducing Caloric Intake, not Food Consumption
All too often, we think of how to cut calories as a fast track to feeling like we’re starving ourselves. That absolutely does not need to be the case. The key is to understand the foods you’re eating so you can make choices more appropriate to your nutrition goals. For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll want to consume fewer calories, though you’ll still want to eat the right amount of food, so you won’t be hungry.
After all, nobody is going to be able to keep up a lifestyle of feeling hungry all the time. Any weight loss strategy that keeps you hungry is simply unsustainable. So, your goal is to cut calories without always feeling hungry.
How to Cut Calories Without Feeling Hungry All the Time
There are lots of tricks to cutting calories without feeling hungry all the time. Use the following to help get started on the right track to reaching your nutrition and weight goals.
- Avoid low-nutrition foods with a high caloric content
- Cut portion sizes on high calorie foods but increase sizes on those containing less
- Drink lots of water throughout the day (thirst often feels like hunger)
- Track your food intake so you know what you’re eating in the first place
- Be mindful about how much you add of sauces, dips and dressings
- Take less than what you think you’ll eat, then add another serving of veggies if you’re still hungry
- Start your meals with a leafy salad or broth-based soup
- Read nutrition labels
This is a gradual process. Understanding how to cut calories and applying those new habits doesn’t have to happen all at once. After all, the goal is to build long-term healthy habits. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself and discover the strategies that work best for you.
