Ask anyone who’s trying to lose weight, it’s not easy. On average, if you plan on losing 1 pound per week, you need to eliminate 500 calories from your diet daily since 1 pound of fat roughly equals 3500 calories.Besides working out and eating right, here are a few tips to help you cut calories between the lines:

Chew slowly

The body detects feelings of fullness after 20 minutes. Therefore, this can help you eat less because when you take your time eating, you feel full more quickly. Research shows that people, who chew more slowly, tend to consume less calories.

Opt for smaller plates

Statistics show that dinner plates now are 44% larger than they were 30 years ago. Larger serving plates are directly related to larger serving size, which means more calories.

People who use large serving plates ate 45% more food, on average, than those who used smaller plates, simply because the plates are bigger and the food is there.

Keep serving plates several feet away

A study carried out by researchers at Cornell University shows that those who ate from serving plates that were further away ate less, almost 35% less in fact. This could be for a couple of reasons.

For starters, they aren’t as enticed by the sight and smells of the food in front of them. Another reason could be just plain laziness. If you have to get up to get a second helping, then chances are, by the time you muster up the energy, 20 minutes will have passed by and your brain will have given you the signal that you’re full.

Reduce sauces and condiments

If you make the simple decision to have sauces placed on the side of your dish, you’ll be saving yourself at least 50 calories per meal, if not more.

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, for example, is almost 100 calories while a tablespoon of tomato sauce is over 20 calories. If you can’t avoid reducing these additives to your meals, then try something that contains less calories, like salsa, balsamic vinegar, or brown mustard.

Go easy on the sugary drinks

We’re so concerned with how many calories are in our food that we forget to count those in our sodas, smoothies, many types of hot drinks, juices and, of course, alcohol.

In fact, drinks been linked to a high risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. One half-liter bottle of Coke has almost 200 calories and 44 grams of sugar, which will quickly pack on the weight.

Another thing sugar drinks do, besides upping your dress size, is giving you hunger cravings. The alternative? Try drinking tea – even herbal – and coffee, both are healthy and are low in calories. It’s even better if you drink it without any sugar at all, or with natural sweeteners, like honey. If you add only 1 teaspoon of sugar to your coffee, that’s 16 calories right there.

The Bottom Line

We’ve grown accustomed to having limitless choices of food and drink. Movies and magazines drill it into our brains that it’s okay to eat whatever we wanted anytime, anywhere. In fact, we were told that it’s our right. In addition, how can we not take what's rightfully ours?However, life isn’t easy and accessible like it is in the movies and magazines. In addition, even though we all dream of a world where all the calories we consume are never stored as fat, but burned as fuel, no matter how much of it we consume.

However, the truth is, we eat way more calories than we burn. The end result? Too many unwanted pounds.The silver lining, however, appears when we pay attention. Pay attention to what, how and when you eat. If you start slowly, you’ll quickly find a pattern that’s suitable for you and your lifestyle.