f you eat 100 fewer calories a day, you could, at the very least, prevent weight gain, or potentially lose up to 10 pounds in a year! The results depend on your metabolism and if you were maintaining your weight or gaining weight when you started cutting. It's really not that difficult to commit to cutting 100 calories because there is no deprivation required — only a little mindfulness.

Why 100 calories? There's nothing magical about it, it's just a nice small, round number, equivalent to a slice of bread or a pat of butter, and it works out to 10 pounds over a year (100 calories x 365 days/3500 calories in a pound of fat = about 10 pounds). That's pretty significant because a 10-pound weight gain is enough to close the gap between prediabetes and diabetes or prehypertension and hypertension — and we don't want to go there!

I don't know exactly what you eat each day, but I have a few suggestions that you may be able to adopt to your own eating plan and help yourself lose weight or avert weight gain and possibly prevent some chronic diseases.

1. Drink eight fewer ounces of soda a day. If you drink one can of soda a day, work your way down to drinking one can every three days instead.
2. Order a small café latte instead of a large or switch to nonfat milk from whole milk.
3. Eat a piece of fruit instead of drinking 10 ounces of fruit juice.
4. Drink one less glass of wine (five ounces).
5. Eat one less slice of bread.
6. Instead of three whole scrambled eggs, try one whole egg mixed with two egg whites.
7. Switch to Kashi Go Lean Crunch for breakfast if you're eating granola or Grape Nuts and have ¼ of a cup more than what you were eating before.
8. Eat half or three quarters of a bagel instead of the whole thing, depending on how many calories your particular bagel contains, or eat one or two slices of whole-grain bread instead (bagels have a lot of calories).
9. Use mustard instead of mayonnaise on your sandwich.
10. Order your sandwich with one slice of cheese instead of two.
11. Don't dip your bread in olive oil or spread it with butter. Research shows that people who dip bread in olive oil instead of using butter eat about 25% more calories because the bread absorbs the oil so easily.
12. Eat half a cup less of rice or pasta. If you choose the whole-grain version of these and other starches, you will feel more satisfied and eating less will be easier.
13. Make a 1:1 dilution of your favorite regular salad dressing with 2 tablespoons salad dressing: 2 tablespoons balsamic, red wine, white wine or other vinegar.
14. Order your salad with no croutons or fried wontons.
15. Eat baked tortilla chips instead of fried tortilla chips.
16. Switch to corn tortillas from flour tortillas.
17. Top your pizza with vegetables instead of meat.
18. Order your pizza "light on the cheese."
19. Instead of 8 ounces (1 cup) of a creamy soup, have 10 ounces of minestrone or other vegetable-based soup with a tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese.
20. Have a broiled or grilled skinless chicken breast instead of a pan-fried skinless chicken thigh.
21. Have four ounces of filet mignon instead of four ounces of New York or porterhouse steak.
22. Substitute a starchy side dish, like potatoes, rice or pasta, with a side of vegetables.
23. Order your dessert without the whipped cream.
24. Try ½ cup of light ice cream instead of ½ cup of regular premium ice cream.
25. Eat one yummy cookie instead of five low-fat or sugar-free cookies.
26. When you eat out, always leave three or four bites of food on your plate.
27. Order the smaller size of any food or beverage that you usually order in a larger size.
28. Eat off a smaller plate
29. Serve yourself with smaller serving utensils.

I'm sure I didn't think of everything, but I may have given you some ideas for what you can do to make little changes in your own diet. Remember that the goal here is to eat 100 fewer calories each day. If you adopt more than one of these suggestions, then you will have an even bigger impact on your weight and health. If you increase your activity level so you burn 100 extra calories, the results will be even more spectacular!