Preventing Yearly Weight Gain

Stop eating when you’re full. Eating 100 fewer calories a day (about three or four bites of food) is enough to prevent yearly weight gain.

Here’s why you shouldn't strive to be a member of the clean plate club: cutting just 100 calories from your daily diet can prevent annual weight gain. On average, Americans gain 1.8 to 2.0 pounds every year. While that doesn’t sound like much, the modest annual weight gain is the reason why, over the course of a decade, the scale reads 20 pounds heavier.

When there are only a few bites of food left on your plate, it can be tempting to finish it rather than let it go to waste. But if your body doesn’t need the extra calories, you’ll be stockpiling it in the form of body fat. Serve smaller portions instead. If you’re at a restaurant and hate throwing food out, take your leftovers home and eat it the next day as a snack.