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Lose the gut, get cut: twenty mix-and-match tricks to help you burn 20 pounds of flab by summer

Men's Fitness, June, 2003 by Linda Formichelli

Sometimes all it takes to improve your life is a small change to your daily routine. Stop flipping off the boss every time you pass his office, and pretty soon you're next in line for a raise. Add a shower to your morning ritual, and watch your sex life shift into a higher gear.

The same can be said for your health and fitness: Just make one small change--like eliminating a single sinful food--and watch the pounds melt off. "Every 100 calories you cut [per day] is a pound each month, so the little things really do add up," says Joanne Lichten, Ph.D., R.D., author of Dining Lean.

We've conjured up 20 minor adjustments you can make to help you downsize safely and swiftly without having to overhaul your life.

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1 JETTISON THE JUICE

Sure, juice has lots of good nutrients, but it can really pack on the calories. For instance, one cup of orange juice has 111 calories, and a cup of apple juice checks in at 117. By comparison, a small orange has only 60 calories. "Think of juice as soda," says Susan Burke, R.D., C.D.E., director of nutrition for eDiets.com and eFitness.com. "It has vitamins and minerals, yet whole fruit not only has vitamins and minerals, but also fiber."

What you'll lose: Just under one pound per month if you replace a cup of OJ with a small orange twice a day.

2 TRADE IN YOUR SODA

Soda, pop, sweetened carbonated beverage--however you say it, it still spells empty calories. A 16-ounce serving of cola harbors a whopping 202 calories. It's worth the aftertaste to get used to drinking diet soda, which carries a mere five calories per can.

What you'll lose: A pound every 10 days if you replace two cans of regular cola per day with its diet counterpart.

3 SHELL YOUR NUTS

Our caveman ancestors didn't get fat, because they had to work for their food. You'd probably eat fatty cow a lot less often if you had to hunt it, skin it and cook it--no one wants to put that much effort toward eating. So crack your own nuts instead of buying them already shelled, and you'll probably eat fewer of them.

What you'll lose: About one pound every 20 days if having to do your own shelling twice a week results in your eating one ounce of peanuts instead of two. Don't let superb finger endurance allow you to shuck-and-chuck down more than you should.

4 FAST-FORWARD AT THE GYM

If you're all business in the gym, pushing yourself on final reps, adding circuit training to your routine (going from exercise to exercise with little rest between sets), you'll do your waistline a favor by actually upping your calorie count to fuel your efforts, according to Richard Cotton, a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and chief exercise physiologist for MyExercisePlan.com.

What you'll lose: About one pound every month by increasing your workout intensity.

5 KEEP SNACKS FARTHER THAN AN ARM'S LENGTH AWAY

A study conducted by Brian Wansink, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, showed that people who kept snacks in a bowl set 10 feet away from them ate 30% less than when they kept the bowl within arm's reach.

What you'll lose: About one pound every six weeks if reducing snack access translates to eating two chocolate chip cookies per day instead of three.

6 TAKE YOUR JAVA LIKE A MAN

Maybe you've always admired those rugged types who take their coffee black. Now you have another motive for cutting the cream and sugar: fat loss.

What you'll lose: About one pound per month if you cut out two tablespoons of half-and-half and one teaspoon of sugar from each of your two daily cups of joe.

7 USE NONSTICK PANS, MAN

There's no need to grease up that stir-fry when you have Teflon-coated pans. "Nonstick pans allow you to use less fat in your cooking and create a huge calorie savings," says Katherine Tallmadge, M.A., R.D., author of Diet Simple.

What you'll lose: A little more than a pound a month if the nonstick pans save you from using a half-cup of oil per week. You can also try a spray, like Pam, instead.

8 NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST

It sounds sensible: Skip the cereal and milk, and you're bound to lose weight. But the truth is, if you miss your morning meal, you're more likely to binge at lunch and end up eating even more food than if you had taken breakfast earlier. Moreover, "if you don't feed your body regularly, your metabolism will slow down," says Burke. Start your day with a breakfast that offers the fiber, protein and fat you need to rouse your metabolism and help you make it through to lunch.

What you'll lose: Just under one pound each month. You'll find it easier to shave off 100 calories--without feeling pangs of hunger--from subsequent meals by eating a solid breakfast.

9 BAG YOUR SNACKS

Another study by Wansink and his colleagues at the University of Illinois concluded that you eat 20% to 23% more from large bags of food than from single-serving bags. Instead of squandering cash on overpriced snack packs, most of which contain more than one serving and plenty of harmful fat, make your own healthy alternative by dividing up a giant bag of pretzels or low-fat chips into one-ounce portions and placing the single servings in individual baggies.

Lose the gut, get cut: twenty mix-and-match tricks to help you burn 20 pounds of flab by summer

Men's Fitness, June, 2003 by Linda Formichelli

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