How to Lose Weight by Cutting Sugar and Fat

Lose weight by cutting your fat and sugar calories. Skip fried foods, strip poultry of its skin and choose the breast. Learn to get flavor from spices instead of sugar and honey.

It’s a plainer style of eating, for sure, but you can fill up on beans and rice, winter squashes, and lean cuts of turkey, chicken, and fish. Make fruit your dessert and opt for a low glycemic sweetener like stevia, which has zero calories. Beware that stevia can drop your blood pressure a few points, so choose another sweetener if your pressure already is low.

If you long for something creamy, treat yourself to a smoothie made with plain yogurt and sweetened with fruit, stevia or another low calorie sweetener.

Learn to grill your meats with a very small amount of oil. Dry grilling them is even better. Bake using an oil spray and saute your onions, peppers and garlic in water instead of oil. Eat soup to fill up, but make your own and cut all visible fat from your meat. Omit any added oil or butter from your recipe.

Read your labels and know what you are eating. One tablespoon of oil has 120 calories. Try non-fat cheddar, mozzarella and cream cheese. While nuts are healthy, they are high in calories so you may want to skip them or limit them for awhile.

Salads make a healthy lunch or dinner, but they could leave you hungry. So consider pairing salad with a bean soup or sweet potato. Hard boil eggs and remove the yolk for added protein without the fat. Top your salad with non-fat cheese and skip the regular salad dressing. Use lemon wedges or drizzle your salad with balsamic vinegar. Or make your own salad dressing with spices, garlic, vinegar or lemon and as little oil as your palette will tolerate. A turkey burger, salmon filet, or chicken breast also makes a fine accompaniment.

Skip sodas and other sweet drinks, opting for water and unsweetened tea or tea sweetened with stevia or another low calorie sweetener.

If you love ice cream, consider making your own low-fat, low glycemic version sweetened with fruit and stevia. Use plain cocoa rather than chocolate with added fat and sugar. Experiment with lower fat and sugar desserts by looking for recipes substituting apple sauce or plain yogurt for fat.