1. Give it up -- but just a little: Eat just half of that 500 calorie restaurant bagel and cream cheese, and you'll get only 250. Take the cheese off your deli sandwich and save 100 calories. Even going down one size in your coffee order can save 50 to 60 calories. Making a 250 calorie trade every day results in a 10 pound loss in five months -- just by one sacrifice.
2. Eat a 300 calorie breakfast: Studies show those who skip this meal end up eating about 100 calories more each day. Try an egg sandwich with scrambled eggs on a whole wheat muffin, yogurt with berries and almonds, or even a bowl of whole grain cereal with at least 7 grams of fiber with some nonfat milk. By alternating these breakfasts, experts say you can drop 10 in about nine weeks.
3. Limit the afternoon snack: Limiting the snack to just 150 calories should have 10 pounds off in nine months.
4. Make your day fiber filled: A woman on a 1,600 calorie meal plan eating 35 grams of fiber won't feel hungry when the day is packed with foods like Fiber One bars or cereal, black beans or bean soup, baked potato and more. Filling up with fiber daily can help drop ten in eight weeks without feeling hungry.
5. Blast away calories: Rather than hours at the gym, adding high intensity walking or routines torches 100 calories at a time. Try walking 30 minutes - alternating speed walking with normal walking - to burn 500 extra calories each week.
6. Leave three generous bites of your favorite foods, including your morning muffin, lunchtime pizza or evening steak, on the plate: This is the easiest -- if only we would. You'll save about 75 calories at each meal. While it might take a lot longer, in five-to-eight months, you can drop 10 by eating a bit less.
7. Go to bed: People who sleep fewer than seven hours a night have higher body mass index than those getting enough rest. Why? Two reasons. One, the lack of sleep spikes a stress hormone cortisol, which tends to hold on to body fat. Secondly, a fatigued brain often confuses tired with hungry, signaling cravings for high fat foods.
