7 Easy Ways to Limit Calorie Consumption

Limiting calorie consumption can have a very positive impact on your health and waistline. Research is showing that you can slow the aging process by consuming fewer calories. The question remains, how do we do this when we have so many temptations around us? Here are some tips to help you succeed:1. Limit foods with little water and/or fiber, and particularly dry foods that are also high in fat.Examples include: cookies, potato chips, baked goods and crackers.Such foods are calorie dense and provide less satiety per calorie than foods high in water and fiber like vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains such as hot cereals, pasta, and brown rice.2. Limit intake of beverages that contain significant amounts of sugar and/or fat like soft drinks, milk shakes, alcoholic beverages, and even fruit and vegetable juices.Beverages provide less satiety per calorie than foods that require chewing.3. Eat more soups and stews that contain whole grains, beans, vegetables, and/or a little lean animal protein. These foods have a low calorie density and provide a lot of satiety per calorie.4. Start lunch and dinner with a large salad but use a dressing with lots of vinegar and little or no oil. Beans and whole grains are good additions to salads but croutons, fatty meats, mayonnaise salads, creamy dressings, and cheese dramatically increase the calorie density and provide little extra satiety for all those extra calories.5. Limit the variety of dishes consumed at a meal or snack. Increased variety of tastes, textures, colors, and flavors in a given meal will reduce satiety per calorie and make it more difficult to reduce calorie intake while keeping hunger at bay.6. Eat only when hungry. Food consumed when not hungry will provide less satiety per calorie than the same food consumed when one is hungry. Stop eating when you are comfortably full. Stuffing or starving oneself will make long-term calorie control more difficult.7. Skip dessert, or, if you are still hungry after a small meal, limit dessert to fresh fruit most of the time.Note: While small, moderate amounts of physical activity will not promote increased hunger, large amounts of exercise will. There is reason to believe that staying thin by doing a lot of exercise is less likely to slow the aging process than maintaining that same lower weight by consuming fewer calories.J.K.