6 Pro Tips To Make Your Food Low Calories Food
1. Beware of Your Cooking Method
The cooking methods you use affect the number of calories in your meals. Cut down on or eliminate frying and sautéing, and you should never be using a deep-fat fryer, which requires a lot of oil. Stick with baking, broiling, grilling, poaching, or steaming. These cooking methods use little to no added fats.
2. Increase Fibre and Protein
Fibre and protein are both awesome because they fill you up quickly and keep you satisfied. Creating meals that are rich in fibre and protein ensures you’re consuming essential nutrients and will stop you from getting hungry between meals. For fibre, use brown alternatives to rice, pasta and bread, snack on fruit and vegetables and eat whole grains like buckwheat, barley and quinoa. Good sources of protein include eggs, lean meats, oats, nuts and seeds.
3. Reduce Your Carb Intake, Especially Refined Carbs
Refined carbs such as white bread, rice and pasta offer empty calories. They fill you up without many nutrients and leave you feeling hungry shortly after. Cutting carbs in general can help you lose weight, making you eat fewer calories. If you do eat carbs, stick to healthy fibre-rich carbs such as whole, single-ingredient foods like lentils and whole grains.
4. Cook with Lean Meats
Lean meats like turkey and chicken breast are great sources of protein and contain very little fat and calories. When you eat chicken breast without the skin, most of the calories in it come from protein. Lean beef is also high in protein, as well as iron, vitamin B12 and other essential nutrients. Lean cuts of beef include round, loin and sirloin, so stick to these when cooking.
5. Pack in the Veggies
Vegetables are nutritious and packed with minerals and vitamins you need to stay healthy. They come at a low-calorie count and are the best things to fill your low-calorie meals with. Chopped vegetables are a healthy, low-calorie alternative to meat in recipes like soups, pasta sauces, and casseroles. When seasoning cooked veggies, make sure to use herbs instead of butter or oil.
6. Cook With Flavourful Ingredients
One of the biggest key factors in enjoying low-calorie meals is cooking with flavourful ingredients. You’re not going to have an enjoyable time cutting calories if all your meals are bland and tasteless. For example, use small amounts of stronger cheeses to create more flavour but fewer calories in your meals.
