Cooking Tips to Save Calories for Dieters

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When cooking consider ALL available options. Anything that involves frying will add fat grams, cholesterol and unwanted calories to your daily diet which in turn, clog arteries and create weight gain when 'consumed calories' exceed the body's daily calorie (energy) requirement.

Grilling, 'frying' with no-calorie cooking spray, broiling, roasting and boiling are fantastic cooking methods that will allow you to still savor the flavor without overloading on unwanted fat and calories.

Save calories when working with meats; make sure you choose lean cuts at the market - those with little-to-no fat, and cuts that contain little-to-no marbling (tiny rings of fat). Fat tends to lend a juicer, more tender end-result but there are ways to get around this issue when dealing with the leaner cuts of meat. Try a skinny marinade using your favorite light salad dressing OR roast the meat in the oven - adding a bit of water to the roasting pan then sealing it tightly with foil to seal in the juices. The crock pot can also help seal in juices and deliver a more tender end-result. And last but not least, grab your spice rack and search for that trusty bottle of meat tenderizer.

Sauces, dips & toppings require a 'stop, look and listen' signal to the brain. And NO - you don't have to do without the sauces, dips and toppings in order to achieve a healthier and/or thinner body. It just requires a tiny bit of good sense in checking the labels and choosing the sauces, dips and toppings that are best for your body.

One of my favorites dipping, marinade and salad toppings is Maple Grove Farms of Vermont's Strawberry Balsamic, an all natural dressing. It's gluten free and is the best dang-tasting concoction that I've found for salads and so forth. It comes in a 12 ounce bottle and runs about a buck higher than other salad dressings, but boy-oh-boy, is it worth it! The Strawberry Balsamic variety contains 25 calories per 2 Tablespoons. The entire bottle contains 300 calories - less than a single serving of some high-calorie dressings. Their Ginger Pear variety is also awesome and contains 40 calories per serving. And this is just one example of taste over calories. If I had any dressing to choose from, calories aside, I'd still choose this lovely Strawberry Balsamic.

Sugar and fat comprise the two biggest evils in our daily diet. Why so? Because they are pumped with empty calories - and are extreme in those calories. One tiny teaspoon of oil contains about 120 calories. One cup of sugar contains 800 calories. Without added sugar and fat in our daily diet, most of us would be achieve permanent thinness. But it's very difficult saying 'bye-bye' to those two buddies. After all, they've stuck with us in more ways than one over the years - in comforting us through difficult times, in cheering us on during happy times, and in sticking to our hips and thighs amid the worst of times.

But never fear because Splenda is here! Yes, there are rumors running rampant - particularly on the net regarding the downside of sugar substitutes, but on the other hand - even if all the rumors are true, sugar substitutes present less risks to health than those extra pounds.

As to fat, our bodies do require some fat in order to protect the vital organs, to keep our skin and nails healthy, as well as in processing our foods. In fact, totally cutting fat from the diet can prove fatal.

The size of our eating utensils and drinking vessels can have a big impact on what we weigh. Opting for smaller plates and bowls can make our little brains feel like we are eating more. And for beverages, taking a bit of time to pour 1 cup of water into a glass that we use throughout the day can assure us that when we drink beverages that contain calories, we know how much of that beverage (calories) we are pouring into our glass.

In summary, there are so many different things that we can do to achieve a healthier level of health and to save calories and fat grams which add up quickly and can pack on unwanted pounds. We hope these healthy tips will assist in obtaining a healthier you!

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