How can you cut up to 500 calories a day?

Many people are looking for ways to cut back on calories with little effort.  Are there simpler ways to cut back on calories than go on some stringent diet?  To lose one pound a week, you need to cut back on 3500 calories or 500 calories a day. But it doesn’t have to mean cutting back on 500 calories of food, one can also increase their exercise and burn up 250 calories a day and then cut back on 250 calories, which would be a lot easier to do.  Trying to cut 500 calories a day is a lot and many people would feel hungry doing so.  For some ideas on how to cut back on calories, WebMD has a few suggestions in their article, 20 Ways to Cut Back on 500 Calories A Day.  A few of their suggestions are highlighted below:

1. Choose black coffee and skip the grande latte.  Even with no added sugar, the grande latte adds 220 calories to your day.  Black coffee has almost no calories, adding only 2 calories to your day.  And for those of you drinking 2 grande lattes a day, this switch would save you nearly 500 calories a day, with no other changes in your diet.
2. Choose water vs Soda – A 20 ounce soda has about 240 calories, all sugar calories and “empty calories” meaning little to no vitamins or minerals.  Have 2 of these a day and you are drinking almost 500 calories of added sugar a day.  Switch to water with lemon, for a refreshing drink with almost no calories. 
3. Eat at home – those who eat their meals at home eat fewer calories.  A Johns Hopkins study found that people who ate at home not only ate fewer calories, about 140 fewer calories due to eating less sugar and less fat.   To get started, eat breakfast at home and pack a healthy lunch each day.  Skipping the lunch out can easily cut back on your calories each day.
4. Get moving – even fidgeting counts.   The Mayo Clinic found that those who fidget can burn up to 350 calories a day.  If you have a sit down job, move every hour.  Get up, walk around the office, go get a drink of water, go for a walk at lunch, take a few flights of stairs during a break. 
5. Work out early, before breakfast.  I like to walk every day and usually I walk before I eat breakfast.  I do have a banana to get some energy before I head out the door.  A study in Japan found that those who exercised before breakfast burned about 280 calories more during the day. 
6. Skip the chips.   Some relatives love to eat at Chipotle which does offer some very healthy choices.  But I recommend they either skip the chips or at least share them as they are loaded with fat and loaded with calories.  At 570 calories with 240 calories from fat, or 42% fat calories, not a good choice.  Not the dip, the salsa is actually low in calories.  Choosing chips at other restaurants can easily add over 600 calories to your meal. 

So this week, if you want to cut back on calories, find some ways to cut back on added sugar, fat or ways to be more active during the day. 

Sources:  20 Ways to Cut Back on 500 Calories A Day, study, study   Image source:  coffee