In fact, losing weight is as easy as cutting 500 calories from your diet. How? The simple answer is food swaps. All you need is determination and you can easily make food swaps to reduce your calorie intake. Here some some effective ones

• Swap processed and refined sugar with natural sources. One of the biggest culprits of belly fat is added sugars and they are present in abundance in almost every processed food you buy from a store. The same goes for when you are eating out. When shopping for processed foods, you need to carefully scan the labels for words like dextrose, sucrose and fructose as they are the harmful kind of sugars. What you can incorporate in your daily meals are organic fruits. Not only do they cater to your sweet tooth but they also contain a good amount of fiber, which offers a host of health benefits, including helping you lose weight.

• Instead of processed fats, eat more monounsaturated fats (MUFAs). MUFAs help in reducing fats in the body by regulating hormones that account for storing of fats. Not just this but you feel satiated after eating them, the risk of diabetes is reduced and it also enhances your cardiovascular well-being. Olives, nuts and nut oils, avocados, sunflower oil, and flaxseeds are some of the food swaps you can make for items that contain processed fats.

• Go for protein and fiber over carbohydrates. Carbs are as harmful as processed sugar when it comes to the storage of fat in your body. It doesn’t matter if you are within your calorie level, consuming carbohydrates can cause your blood sugar level to rise, which acts as a trigger for fat storage. Some alternatives you can safely consume are lettuce wraps, eggplants, zucchini, squash fries, spaghetti squash, mashed cauliflower, and garlic mushrooms.

These are some of the food swaps you can make to reduce your calorie intake. As you can see, you get the added bonus of numerous health benefits as well. To sum it up, it comes down to replacing harmful ingredients with healthier nutrients, and you are good to go!