Easy Ways to Cut Fat and Calories

Cutting a few calories at every meal will add up to real calorie savings. Her are some culinary "special effects" that you can try to trim some calories and fat.

Substitute leaner meats for fattier ones, such as white-meat poultry for dark, lean ground turkey for ground beef, or pork tenderloins for ribs.

Bake or broil instead of frying in oil, which saturated whatever you're cooking, especially if the food is breaded.

Remove skin from poultry, trim visible fat from meat, and throw out the egg yolks. Why worry about hidden fat when the fat you can see -- and remove -- does most of the harm?

Buy low-fat or sugar-free products. If you haven't recently tried low-fat or fat-free foods (especially cheese), try them again: They've gotten better. If one brand doesn't taste good to you, try another. And you'll always save calories by replacing whole milk with fat-free or using naturally lower-fat cheeses such as mozzarella instead of higher-fat ones such as cheddar.

Mix higher-fat meats, cheeses, and other foods with lower-fat versions if you don't want to make wholesale substitutions.