6 Microscopic Changes To Your Diet That Will Make A Big Difference

Do you have problems sticking with your diet? Does weight loss just not happen? Are you unsure how to start your dieting journey? Try these small changes.

Drink Water

One 12 oz. can of regular cola has 140 kcal, two per day are 280. If they come on top of the calories you get from food, you are in for more than two extra pounds of weight within four weeks. Because one pound more body weight requires only an extra 3,500 kcal.

Replace the two soft drinks with water and  gone are 8,400 kcal per month.

Switch To Low-Fat Milk

Another calculation: whole milk (3.25%) contains 150 kcal per cup, low-fat (1%) only 100 kcal.

If you eat breakfast cereal with a cup of regular milk every day, then the switch to fat-reduced saves you 1,000 kcal in a month.

Take The Stairs

The average flight of stairs has 12 steps. If you take them three times per day, you burn an additional 30 kcal.

That’s another 900 kcal in a month, from doing something that doesn’t even take longer than using the elevator or escalator.

Serve From The Stove

Do you like your second or third helpings during dinner? Having all food on the table makes it convenient to get them. Instead leave the food on the stove, so you have to get up to refill your plate.

Brian Wansink, consumer psychologist at Cornell University, estimates that this lowers the amount of food you eat by 10%. If your average dinner contains 800 kcal, that’s 80 saved per day and 2,400 in a month.

Eat Your Sandwiches Open

One slice of bread has around 100 kcal. Eat your daily lunch sandwich open-faced and you save 3,000 kcal in a month.

Drink Water Before You Eat

Back to water once more: if you drink a glass of it before you eat, your stomach sends your brain the “full” signal earlier.

In one study, people who drank water before their meals lost 5 lbs more than those who didn’t. That’s an extra 17,000 kcal / month they didn’t eat.

These Tips Are Effective

In fact, they are so effective that I won’t recommend trying them all at the same time. It would send you over the edge of what is considered a healthy rate of weekly weight loss: 2 lbs. If you followed all these tips at the same time you’d save 32,700 kcal / month and lose more than 9 lbs.

Picture courtesy of Jozef Turaci .