How To Lose Weight Frugally

Supplement manufacturers and diet companies promise you amazing weight loss results as long as you invest in their products. In reality, a tried-and-true approach to weight loss that involves eating a healthy, portion-controlled diet and increasing physical activity costs nothing beyond what you already spend for groceries and your lifestyle. In fact, you may actually save a few dollars while losing weight by adopting specific strategies.

Step 1

Eat smaller portions of foods you already eat to decrease your overall calorie intake. Cut 250 to 500 calories from your daily intake and, because a pound equals 3,500 calories, lose about ½ to 1 pound per week---a safe and reasonable rate of weight loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. If you eat only one serving of cereal in a sitting, rather than pouring liberally from the box, the box will actually last longer and save you money in the long run.

Step 2

Determine if you are truly eating fewer calories than you burn by using a free, online diet log such as the one at DailyPlate.com. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Northwest Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, reported in a study from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in August 2008 that dieters who established behavior modifications such as keeping a food log lost twice as much weight as dieters who did not.

Step 3

Cut out high-calorie liquids. Stop buying soda, fancy coffee drinks and sugary energy drinks. Eliminate one 150-calorie soda, a 300-calorie mocha latte and a 200-calorie sports drink and save 650 calories daily--yielding a loss of more than a pound per week. Taking these drinks out of your budget also helps you save a few dollars. Drink water, which provides all the hydration you need for free.

Step 4

Increase physical activity on a daily basis. Get outside and take a walk, do crunches and squats while you watch TV, add a few push-ups against the kitchen counter while you make dinner or run up and down your own staircase. You do not need to pay for a gym membership to burn calories. About 94 percent of participants in the National Weight Control Registry--a research group of more than 5,000 members who successfully lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off--report increasing physical activity as a means to weight loss, and walking was the most often used method.

Step 5

Cancel your cable so you watch less TV and choose more active pastimes instead. About 62 percent of registry participants reported watching less than 10 hours of TV weekly. Turn off the TV also to shield yourself from suggestive junk food commercials, advises the Harvard School of Public Health.