Losing weight doesn't have to be traumatic. Most of it comes down to small changes you keep, not big ones you abandon in three weeks. Here are swaps and habits worth trying. Some save you 30 calories, some save 200. Pick a few that fit your life and let them compound.

Breakfast

Switch from whole milk to 1% or skim. Have half the bread you were going to have, whether that's one slice of toast instead of two or half a bagel with the rest wrapped for tomorrow. Choose cereals with less than 6 grams of sugar a serving, and buy plain oatmeal instead of the flavored packets, which are mostly sugar. If you're ordering pancakes, ask for a short stack.

Build your omelet around vegetables. Mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and spinach fill it out for almost nothing. Keep the yolks. The advice to eat only whites came from cholesterol guidance that's since been dropped, and the yolk is where much of the egg's nutrition is.

Lunch

Order grilled chicken or a veggie patty instead of a burger. Top sandwiches with lettuce, tomato and onion instead of cheese. Making it at home, go open-faced and save a slice of bread. Buy tuna packed in water rather than oil.

Salads deserve caution. It's the croutons, the cheese and the dressing that turn a salad into a heavy meal, not the vegetables. Get the dressing on the side and use less of it. Consider skipping the fat-free versions. They swap the fat for sugar and starch, they don't fill you up the same way, and a little real fat actually helps your body absorb the nutrients in the vegetables underneath.

Dinner

Bake, broil or grill instead of frying. Trim the fat off steaks and pull the skin off chicken. Stick to a single serving of meat, which is 3 to 4 ounces, about the size of a deck of cards.

Serve yourself a little less than usual, and leave a few bites on the plate. Before you go back for seconds, wait 15 minutes. Your body needs that long to register what you've eaten, and you'll often find you're done.

Snacks

Pour a measured serving into a bowl. Eating out of the bag is how a handful becomes half the box, and this one habit probably saves more than any swap on this list.

Good options: raw vegetables and hummus, a piece of fruit, plain Greek yogurt, a small handful of unsalted nuts, air-popped popcorn without the butter or caramel.

Dessert

Get the smallest one they offer and split it. At a party, ask for a slice from the middle of the cake where there's less frosting. Choose a single scoop on a cone over two scoops in a bowl, and take the sugar cone instead of the waffle cone.

In your Fridge

Mustard instead of mayonnaise. Marinara instead of Alfredo. Real cheese in a smaller amount instead of a fat-free version, since the fat-free ones replace what they remove with sugar and gums and leave you hungrier.

Two swaps from the old version of this column I'd take back. Reduced-fat peanut butter saves you about ten calories and adds sugar, so buy the regular kind and use less. And don't trade guacamole for salsa. Avocado is fat and fiber and it's one of the better things on a Mexican menu.

Drinks

This is the biggest one on the list. Don't drink your calories. A glass of juice runs 110 to 160 calories and won't fill you up. Eat the fruit instead. Skip chocolate and strawberry milk. If you quit soda and drink water for 30 days, that alone can be 150 calories a day or more, which is more than most of the swaps above combined.

You don't have to give up food you like. You have to make the version you eat a little smaller, a little simpler, or a little less often. Start with the drinks, because that's where the easy calories are. Add the measured-snack habit next. Then pick whatever else on this list you'll actually stick with.

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6/13/2010
Updated 8/30/2026