How to cut liquid calories

One of the biggest myths surrounding weight loss is that liquid calories do not count towards your daily intake when in fact they can be the biggest contributors towards excess calories.

Cutting down on liquid calories is one of the easiest ways to help you lose weight because it will not leave you feeling as hungry as cutting down on food.

But in order to help cut down on your liquid calories you first need to know where they are coming from.

Cutting 500 calories out of your diet per day will result in a weight loss of 2lb per week; this is a safe and sensible amount to aim for.

If you drink coffee on a regular basis then this is the first area that you need to examine. If you regularly have a large, high fat cappuccino or similar then you could save over 150 calories by switching to a normal white coffee with semi skimmed milk and sweeteners. Skip the full fat foam and the chocolate shavings and you will see a significant difference in your weight.

Even if you have a plain white coffee or tea with sugar then switching to a sweetener can make a huge difference. For example, if you have approximately 4 cups of tea or coffee per day with 2 sugars then switching to a sweetener can save you over 120 calories per day!

Fizzy or carbonated drinks are another big calorie contributor mainly because they are full of sugar. A 250ml glass of cola can be as much as 197 calories, switching to a diet version of your favourite pop can save you over 100 calories per glass. And whilst this may not sound like a lot, if you drink three glasses per day you could be making a potential saving of 300 calories.

You do not have to completely cut out sweet drinks from your diet, you can use drinks that have to be diluted or simply lower sugar drinks.

Many people drink milkshakes on a regular basis without realising the calories they are consuming, the average milkshake contains around 350 calories. If you have one milkshake per week then in one year you will consume around 18200 calories per year!

Alcohol is possibly the biggest contributor towards liquid calories and it is something that many people do not think about. A small glass of red wine is approximately 120 calories, whilst a glass of Irish cream will be 121 calories. Cutting down on alcohol will significantly reduce your weight and improve your health.