Build Your Life To Order ™

Want a trim body for the summer? Of course you do, who doesn’t? You can lose weight by reducing caloric intake, and the best thing is, you don’t have to actually do anything. While I certainly encourage exercising, there are a few little tips that will cut calories from your daily diet with little or no effort on your part. I would estimate that these tips could easily shave off hundreds if not over a thousand calories per day, depending on how your diet looks at the moment. Here goes:

Tip 1

Trade ‘Liquid Calories’ for Water – Yes, ditch the cola and that other crap for nature’s water. Another way of putting it is, “Don’t drink your calories”. With each meal, have some water and cut back on tea and coffee. I allow myself 1 or 2 cups of decaffeinated tea per day and no coffee.

If you normally would have 2 cans of soda per day, you’ll shave off around 277 calories from this alone! You won’t miss this sugar infused junk after a few days anyway.

Tip 2

Go ‘Nimble’ with your Bread – If you like bread, switch your current brand to Nimble bread. It’s only 46 calories per slice with a tiny 8 grams of carbohydrate and 0.2 grams of fat. It tastes good too and is high in fibre.

Regular white bread has around 80 calories per slice so let’s say you swapped 4 slices a day, that’s a 136 calorie saving per day.

Tip 3

Have a Protein Shake – Trade one of your meals or snacks for a delicious protein shake. If you have never had one of these, you are missing out. They are good for you and taste really great. Make sure you are buying a protein shake though, not a protein and carbohydrate shake as the latter is designed for body builders to gain weight. The protein you ingest will help your body repair itself from all the cardio training you will be doing. You will be doing cardio won’t you?

If you are replacing a 200 calorie snack, you’ll save at least 80 calories as a good protein shake will have no more than 120 calories per 25-30 gram serving.

Tip 4

Eat slowly – Eat each meal a little slower and chew your food completely before swallowing. Most of us are actually eating more than we need at each sitting. When you have had enough to eat, a digestive hormone called oxyntomodulin, found in the small intestine, is released and sent to the brain. This is when you know it’s time to stop eating.

The thing is, it takes at least 10 minutes for this signal to be sent after the food has been swallowed. Yes, this means that we can be eating for 10 extra minutes after our bodies have had enough to eat. Eating slowly means you’ll reach ‘full’ on less food and often have to leave some grub on the plate. Another bonus is that you won’t get that awful bloated feeling after eating.

Let’s be conservative and estimate you only leave 1/10th of the food on your plate at each meal. Say 3 meals at 500 calories each would give you a total saving of 150 calories a day.

Tip 5

Drink Ice-Cold Water – Throughout the day take your 8 x 8 ounce glasses of water ice cold. The reason is that your body has to heat up this water first and this burns calories. It takes 1 calorie to raise 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. It must raise the temperature up to 37 degrees Celsius. There are 1892.72 grams in 64 ounces of water.

Therefore you’ll expend an extra 70 calories a day by drinking your 64 ounces ice-cold (1.89 Kg x 37 = 69.93). Drink your water in small glasses or cups to avoid it heating up before you’ve got the thing finished.

If we add up our estimates here you’ll see that it’s not very hard or even noticeable to cut back on 713 calories per day! You’ll have that summer body in no time at all. Get active too though, as well as speeding up the process, you’ll feel better too.

Mark McManus

Related Articles:

• Weight Lifting - How to Increase Weight at Every Workout
• How to Lose Weight and Keep it off Permanently
• Is It Conceited To Love Yourself?
• How To Build A Great Body - The Training
• Why I Love Bodybuilding & Fitness

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