5 Tips on How to Stay Within Your Calorie Budget

Just 100 extra calories per day for 1 year can add up to 10 extra pounds. After my track & field injury back in 2008, when I continued eating as much as I did before having quit intense training, I noticed that I gained about 10 lbs. Living in a small town, with volleyball being the only sport offered at school, no wonder why the extra calories somehow found their way to the waist, butt and thighs in the form of a few unneeded inches.

Are you having difficulty with a few extra inches and those 10 pounds that seem to have appeared out of nowhere?
The secret to losing those few pounds could lie in your eating habits during food preparation and after dinner. Sure, a spoonful of what you're making here, and an extra piece of bread after supper, and some more spoonfuls after dinner don't seem like much. However, considering that you are eating all your meals, snacks, AND a few extra spoonfuls, you may very well be blowing your calorie budget.

Here are a few tips that will help you avoid unnecessary caloric intake:

1. Don't cook on a completely empty stomach. If you are very hungry while making your dinner, you will start reaching for the chips, bread, cookies, and other high-calorie foods. You will also be more likely to eat what you are cooking, while you are cooking it, before you actually sit down for dinner.

2. Avoid grocery shopping when you are hungry. It is not unusual for a hungry shopper to come back with about 3 bags of different flavours of potato chips, 2 packages of cookies, and a chocolate cake. When junk food is in front of you, you are more likely to eat it.

3. Don't wait until you are hungry to eat. If you are trying to lose weight, you should be eating smaller meals more often so that you don't overeat later in the day.

4. If you are still feeling hungry after dinner, instead of reaching for the bread, make some green tea or water to fill the gap. Green tea is wonderful, and has no calories.

5. If you need to, write down everything you eat, including any calories that you take in before and after your meals. Writing things down helps you see what you are eating, and allows you to make adjustments to your diet if you feel you need to.


I hope you found the above post helpful.
If you have anything to add, feel free to do so in the "comments" section.

Aviva :)

Source: My nutrition notes from my university class.