1. Learning how to read nutrition labels. This can help a person determine how many calories a particular food item has and also understand how much fat, carbohydrate, and protein is contained in a food.
2. Learning new strategies for purchasing foods (for example, buying low-calorie foods).
3. Learning methods for food preparation that incorporate lower amounts of oil and fat (for example, using margarine instead of butter or oil to prepare fried chicken, or baking instead of frying).
4. Drinking more water. People— even those who are not trying to lose weight—should be in the habit of drinking 6 to 8 8-ounce glasses of water every day.
5. Learning how to choose correct portion sizes.
6. Learning to substitute low-calorie snacks to help curb the appetite (for example, eating celery and carrot sticks instead of filling up on potato chips).
7. Avoiding alcohol consumption, because alcohol (beer, wine, and other hard liquors) is high in calories.