3 Ways to Create a Low-Calorie Diet Plan

1. Make Smart Substitutions

Write down what you eat in a typical day; a list can keep you aware of what you are putting in your mouth and can help you stay on top of calorie count. Before making drastic changes to your eating plan that may boomerang you right back into your current way of eating, consider substituting low-calorie and low-fat items for your favorite foods. For instance, if you love ice cream and eat it daily, cutting it out entirely may cause you to cheat on your diet again and again. Instead, make a note to look for healthier substitutes the next time you go to the grocery store. There are now dairy-free, fat-free and other leaner ice cream choices, and this can also be said for breads, candies, meats and even condiments.

Knowing that you can still have your favorite foods will prevent your low-calorie diet plan from feeling too restrictive. A large part of any lifestyle change is psychology, and feeling deprived is a major diet destroyer.

2. Carry a Calorie Counter

Use the Mayo Clinic's Calorie Counter tool or talk to your doctor to find out how many calories, based on your age, weight and body type, you should be eating a day. Then buy or download a list of the calorie counts of the most common foods (these can purchased at bookstores in the diet section). You now have the number of calories you can eat, and the number of calories in each food item you may choose to eat.

As you choose foods that are within your calorie count, you'll notice that you are integrating more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Since everyone wants that "full" feeling, you are getting to get a lot more bang for your buck by eating high-fiber, low calorie produce. For instance, you can have about four cups of salad greens for the same number of calories in one cookie!

3. Pack Your Lunch

No matter how healthy your breakfast and dinner are (which you can prepare at home), you may be tempted by high-fat lunches and snacks in the office. People who take the extra 10 minutes in the morning to make a brown bag lunch are exerting control over what goes into their bodies, which means this habit can control how you look and feel within just a month or two.

Making a tuna salad sandwich with low-fat mayo and relish on whole-grain bread and packing baby carrots will fill you up just as much as a deli sandwich, but without the white bread, high-fat mayo and high-calorie meats and cheeses. If you look forward to buying lunch because it gives you a chance to get out of the office (which is a valid excuse), simply take your bag lunch to a local park bench.