Shed Pounds the Easy, Healthy Way

If you want to lose weight without sacrificing portion size, here’s some good news!

A major reason for becoming overweight is that we eat meal portions that are too large.

Here’s a way to not worry about portion control at a meal. Eating a salad at the beginning of a meal may cause you to eat less food and thus cut calories without feeling deprived.

In a recent study, women were given different salads as a first course to a meal. The salads came in two sizes, 3 cups and 1-1/2 cups. Each size salad had 3 different amounts of cheese and salad dressing, so that each size salad had a low, medium, and high calorie version.

As compared to women who had no salad at all before a meal, the women who first had a “low calorie” large salad ended up consuming 12% fewer calories for the whole meal. Women who first ate a small low calorie salad consumed 7% fewer calories for the entire meal.

In contrast, those women who had a large high-calorie salad (lots of cheese and salad dressing) actually ended up eating 17% more calories in the meal than the women who ate no salad at all.

This study suggests that if you have a good-sized low-calorie garden salad before a meal, you will consume substantially fewer calories for the total meal.

If you find yourself eating more at a meal than you like, we recommend that you have a sizeable mixed garden salad first. Use only a small amount of dressing, or a dressing that is low in calories. Also, don’t add cheese, ham, luncheon meats or other fatty animal foods. Some avocado is OK. Eat at least 2-3 cups of garden salad before starting the rest of your meal.

Visit shed pounds. to get other health-building ideas.