Tips to Cut 100 Calories -- Or More -- to Keep Your Weight on Target

Cut Calories to Lose Weight

Making big changes isn't necessarily the best way to lose weight. In fact, small, permanent changes may improve your long-term weight control.

"If you save 100 calories a day for one month, you can lose one pound," says Judith Wylie-Rosett, Ed.D., R.D., professor of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in Bronx, New York, and coauthor of The Complete Weight Loss Workbook (American Diabetes Association, 2007). That rate of weight loss may seem slow, but 100-calorie changes are easy to make and less likely to leave you feeling deprived -- which means you'll be more likely to stick with a lower-calorie eating plan. But if you want to lose weight faster, try cutting about 500 calories each day to lose 1 pound per week, a healthy weight-loss goal.