Losing Weight without an Official Diet

It's not always easy to make the best choices about what to eat, especially when we can't immediately think of the healthier alternatives. This article from Cosmopolitan gives some suggestions on how to cut calories at every meal with out sacrificing satisfaction or ending the meal and still being hungry.

Easy Ways to Cut 100 Calories at Every Meal

These food subtractions are so painless, you won’t be able to tell the difference—until you’re pulling up your skinny jeans.

BY ZOE RUDERMAN

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.

•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.