EASY WAYS to Cut 100 Calories at Every Meal

The science is simple: Eating fewer calories makes you drop pounds. But depriving yourself by skimping on meals and banishing snacks only makes you hungry and pissed off. Plus, you are more likely to binge in the end anyway. The real solution lies in cutting out just a few little extra items from each meal (truly, your taste buds won’t even realize their absence) as well as making some food swaps so you sacrifice one fat-bomb ingredient and replace it with a more flavorful option. Incorporate a few of these ideas into your day and you’ll soon feel lighter and—as a bonus—healthier.

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• Instead of one croissant, eat two pieces of whole-wheat toast with a smidge of butter or cream cheese on each slice.
• Scoop out the white-bread inside of your plain bagel.
• Order or whip up an egg-white scramble with two pieces of turkey bacon rather than a whole-egg omelette with two pieces of pork bacon.
• Use 4 tablespoons of hummus instead of 2 tablespoons of regular mayonnaise on your sandwich. Or go with mustard, which is practically calorie-free (just 3 in each little packet!).
• Dress your salad with 1 tablespoon each of oil and vinegar in place of creamy ranch dressing.
• Eat your French-or Italian-bread sandwich/hero open-faced so you consume only one slice of bread.
• Opt for a 1-cup serving of no-butter microwave popcorn rather than munching on a bag of potato chips.
• Snack on a medium-size cup of low-fat frozen yogurt in lieu of a candy bar.
• Skip the croutons, halve the Parmesan dressing, and say no to extra cheese on top of your Caesar salad.
• Eat two part-skim string cheeses instead of a plate of three crackers with whole-milk cheese cubes.
• Skip the cheese and sour cream that often come as toppings on a bowl of chili or a baked potato.
• Pass on the roll or pretzel stick that arrives with your soup or salad.
• Order your burger sans cheese.
• Nosh on a handful of pretzels at the bar during happy hour rather than the same amount of nuts.
• Say no when your server offers fresh grated Parmesan cheese on your pasta.
• Replace your vodka tonic with a vodka soda. (Soda water, like regular water, has nada calories.)
• Dunk 10 tortilla chips in salsa, not guacamole.
• Share a small order of spicy wings on the bone instead of breaded chicken wings.
• When you cook at home, use a spray like Pam to coat the pan (spritz for one full second) instead of using a tablespoon of olive oil.
• Put a dollop of Tru Whip on your slice of pie or cake rather than 2 tablespoons of hot fudge or chocolate syrup.

by : Zoe Ruderman
source http://www.cosmopolitan.com

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13 HEALTHY FOODS That Can Make You Fat

Some so­-called smart eats are just junk food in disguise. Cut back on them and your thighs will thank you.

Chips, gooey desserts, anything that starts with fried — you know to fight off these calorie cows with a stick. What's tricky is that some foods with famously healthy reputations are actually worse for your weight than the snacks in vending machines and drive-throughs. We fill you in on what they are and why they keep you from hitting that golden number on the scale.

1.Sushi Rolls

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The veggies and seaweed wrap are low-cal, but a lot of the most popular rolls are slathered with cream cheese or mayo (e.g., in that spicy sauce that comes on many options), and the seafood inside may be tempura-battered. Thanks to those ingredients, a standard roll can clock in at 500 to 600 calories. Also, soy sauce is loaded with sodium. It won't make you gain weight, but it'll cause you to retain water, so your jeans will feel (and look) tighter.



2.Dried Fruit
Cup for cup, dried fruit has five to eight times more calories than the fresh kind because it has been dehydrated and is much denser. Fresh grapes, for example, have 60 calories per cup, while raisins have 460. And many brands add sugar, amping up the calorie count even more.

3.Granola
Since it's loaded with good-for-you nuts and oats, it's too bad that they add oil to make it crisp and tons of sugar for more yumminess. One bowl racks up around 500 calories. Other cereals with the same nutrients but less oil and sugar pack half that.

4.Bran Muffins
Whether it's plain bran or mixed with apples or bananas, the fiber fills you up, sure, but considering all the sugar and butter it delivers, a bran muffin is basically just a round slice of cake. One weighs in at about 20 grams of fat, 420 calories, and 34 grams of sugar.

5.Half-and-Half

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You put so little into your coffee, it seems like a harmless way to get calcium - especially when compared to full-fat cream. But a few spoonfuls per cup of joe two or three times a day quickly turns into 200 or more calories plus the same amount of fat as a big pat of butter!

6.Wraps
No matter what you put in it, the average wrap is a major offender. If you roll it out, it can be 1 foot across — seriously — and pack up to 300 calories. Since the surface area is way bigger than two slices of bread, you coat it with a lot more mayo or dressing than you would a sub or sandwich.

7.Bottled Teas
Most store-bought brands are souped up with sugar or honey, which are crazy-caloric sweeteners. Oh, and one bottle can contain two or more servings, bringing the calorie count to almost 200 — similar to a bottle of soda.

8.Rice Cakes
These light snacks are fat-free and low in calories, but they're also completely lacking in fiber or protein — ingredients that experts say actually curb hunger. That means downing two or three won't do anything but add more calories to your daily total and leave you craving something with substance. And limit the flavored kinds — they don't satisfy you more and they tend to have lots of sugar or sodium.

9.Veggie Burgers
Sure, skipping beef in lieu of a meat-free patty may save you a little fat and cholesterol. But depending on the brand and what you put on it, you could easily end up housing more than 1,000 calories. The cheese that often binds the veggies together and the huge size of the burgers are anything but diet-friendly. Add a bun and some ketchup and you might as well have had the quarter-pounder.

10.Juice
Reaching your recommended daily fruit-serving goal by getting it in liquid form might be the reason you can't fit into last year's LBD. A 16-ounce bottle of OJ or apple juice has 55 grams of carbohydrates, the equivalent of five slices of bread. And most of that is sugar — a whopping 12 spoonfuls of it.

11.Diet Microwave Meals
The lean ready-to-eat dishes tend to be high in sodium — since the manufacturers can't rely on calorie-rich fat to make the stuff taste good, they resort to salt. As a result, scarfing them will make you retain water, especially in your arms and legs, leaving you puffy.

12.Salads
There's nothing better for you or your waist than naked veggies, but the shredded cheese, candied nuts, croutons, and globs of dressing often make salads as caloric as an oversize dish of pasta. And nutritionists are quick to point out that innocent-sounding vinaigrettes, though not as fattening as ranches, can be almost as high-cal.

13.Tofu

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Order this health food at a restaurant and what you'll most likely get is a plateful of sodium, calories, saturated fat, and even sugar. Tofu itself isn't the issue — the problem is that the white stuff is so bland, it's often served doused in decadent sauces then deep-fried to give it flavor and texture, making it a diet disaster.




By Zoe Ruderman

http://www.cosmopolitan.com

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THE 10 BEST weight-loss tips ever

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The 10 best weight-loss tips ever for dieting sucks and never seems to work long-term anyway. These easy habits will slim you down.

Losing pounds doesn't have to be torture (we're looking at you, cayenne-pepper cleanse). Adopt at least three of these behaviors-  they're simple to integrate into your day-to-day routine, and all are enthusiastically backed by nutritionists — and you'll be thinner and healthier in days. (Plus, the weight will stay off.)

1. SNACK, BUT SMARTLY
Grazing between meals used to be on the weight-loss hit list. But nutritionists now know that it's better to satisfy a craving with healthy grub than ignore it and risk a junk-food binge later. The best picks are filling, protein-packed snacks, such as one stick of string cheese, a tablespoon of peanut butter on a piece of fruit, or a medium-size bowl of edamame.

2. TURN OFF THE TV
Dining while viewing can make you take in 40 percent more calories than usual, reports a new study. And texting, driving, or any other distracting activity during a meal can also result in your eating too much. Instead, make each meal something you put on a plate and sit down to, even if you're eating solo.

3. STEP ON THE SCALE DAILY
If your regular weight increases several days in a row, it's a red flag letting you know you need to cut back a little or beef up your workouts slightly.

4. SCULPT THREE TIMES A WEEK
Doing 5 minutes each of push-ups, lunges, and squats (in 30-second intervals) will help build and maintain muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be, so you'll torch more calories as you go about your day.

5. REACH FOR YOUR CELL
Next time your mind gets stuck on a certain food, call a friend and redirect your brain by asking how her day's going. Research shows that cravings only last about 5 minutes, so by the time you hang up, the urge to devour junk will have subsided.

6. EAT A BIG, BALANCED BREAKFAST
An a.m. meal made up mostly of carbs and protein with some fat keeps blood-sugar levels steady and hunger pangs away so you're not susceptible to pigging out come lunch, studies show. Opt for something satisfying for your stomach and taste buds — like egg whites and turkey bacon with whole-wheat toast.

7. WATCH THE BOOZE
One innocent-looking margarita or cosmopolitan can rack up hundreds of calories that do nothing to quench your appetite. Treat yourself just on the weekends and cut back somewhere else or stick to a glass of wine, light beer, or vodka and soda — three drinks that each have about 100 calories per serving.

8. HAVE FRUIT TWICE A DAY
Fruit has no fat and is mostly water, so it'll fill you up while leaving less room on your plate (and in your stomach) for high-cal fare. Don't freak about fruit's carb count — we're talking the good kind of carbohydrates that contain lots of healthy fiber.

9. STAY ASLEEP LONGER
Getting to bed just 30 minutes earlier and waking up 30 minutes later than you normally do can help you make better food choices, researchers report. Also, when you're well-rested, you're less prone to snacking out of fatigue or stress.

10. VISUALIZE YOURSELF THIN
When you feel your willpower breaking, conjure up a mental picture of yourself when you looked and felt slim. The visual motivation keeps you focused on your goal weight and reminds you that it is attainable, since you've achieved it before.

By : Zoe Ruderman

sources: nutrition and weight-reduction specialist Jana Klauer, md, author of The Park Avenue Nutritionist's plan; Natalie Rosensock, rd; certified personal trainer Jason Walsh
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