Simple ways to cut back on calories

When you decide you want to lose weight it can be hard to know how to start. One place you can always being is looking at easy ways that you can cut calories out of your day with simple swaps and tips to help keep you on track.

  • Hungry or Dehydrated?

Most people assume they drink enough water during the day but tracking your water intake might surprise you! If you have increased your exercise to help with your weight loss you probably need to increase your water intake and thirst can easily be mistaken for hunger. If you’ve had a meal or snack in the last hour and you feel hungry try having a glass of water first.

  • Don’t drink your calories

There are 3 main culprits for accidentally drinking your calories. Coffee, alcohol, and soft drinks.

A large full cream latte can have 221 calories which would be a substantial snack or even a small meal. To save calories but keep the milk you can save 90-100 calories switching to skim milk, or even up to 150 calories switching to almond milk.

Alcohol can be deceptive, while creamy cocktails are an obvious no-no, you might be surprised at how many calories are in a glass of wine. Calories in wine depend on the type of wine: Sauvignon Blanc has the most with 130 calories in every 100mL. The best wine option is a rose with just 83 calories per 100mL. If you aren’t a wine drinker, the classic vodka and soda water with fresh lime is the best option.

Drinking less full-sugar soft drinks will also help you cut back on calories while still treating yourself. While water is the best option switching from a classic coke to a coke no sugar will save you 160 calories per can.

  • Track your meals & calories

Guestimating how much your food weighs is a sure-fire way to underestimate the number of calories you are having each day. There are plenty of free apps you can download to help you accurately track your calories by measuring and even scanning the barcodes to get accurate nutritional information.  One of the most popular is  MyFitnessPal and there you can find not only all the IsoWhey product available but even recipes from our e-books pre-loaded.

  • Try intermittent fasting

Some people find it easier to limit the number of hours the eat during the day in order to reduce the number of calories they eat. Intermittent fasting has been growing in popularity over the last few years with diets like 5:2 which limits the calories you eat on certain days and 16:8 where you don’t eat at all for 16 hours and only eat in an 8-hour eating window (i.e. only eat between 12pm-8pm)

  • Eat mindfully

It doesn’t matter if you are eating at your desk, eating while looking after your kids or eating while watching TV. If your mind is somewhere else, then you most likely won’t notice your body trying to tell you it’s full. Mindful eating has been associated with greater weight loss over time so try and carve 15-30 mins out of your day to sit and eat separately to other distractions.

  •  Pick your snacks

If you are really craving a chocolate think about swapping it out for a less calories dense option. You can switch to a square or 2 of dark chocolate, if you have the willpower you could buy a packet of “fun sized” chocolates for emergencies or have block of IsoWhey probiotic chocolate which only have 55 calories in each bar plus added probiotics & vitamin D3!