10 Ways to Turn Down Your New Year’s Appetite

Shake off the holiday hungries and get back on track

So maybe we got a little off track during the holidays. Let's just say our appetites seemed to get bumped up a few notches due to irresistible party and holiday fare.

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But now that it's January, many of us are in the market for a way to tame those out-of-control appetites without resorting to popping appetite suppressants or smoking cigarettes.

As luck would have it, there are food choices we make daily that can help cut our appetites -- and the number of calories we consume. Here are 10 tips to help you get your appetite back under control.

10 Tips to Turn Down Your Post-Holiday Appetite

1. Bulk up your meals. There is a lot of evidence that bulk -- that is, fiber -- reduces appetite. So turn up the volume with higher-fiber foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans.

2. Cool off your appetite with hot soup! Have a bowl of broth- or vegetable-based soup (hot or cold) for a first course, and you’ll probably end up eating fewer total calories at that meal. Creamy or high-fat soups need not apply for this job -- stick to the low-cal, high fiber choices like minestrone or vegetable-bean type soups.

3. Crunch your appetite away with a big salad. A recent study found that when people had a large (3 cups), low-calorie (100 calories) salad before lunch, they ate 12% fewer calories during the entire meal. When they had a smaller (1 1/2 cups and 50 calories) salad before lunch, they ate 7% fewer calories overall. You can make the same salads they used in the study: Just toss some romaine lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, celery and cucumbers together, and dress with fat-free or low-fat dressing.

4. But beware high-fat, high-calorie salads! Eating a high-calorie salad, even a small one, can encourage us to eat more calories at the meal than if we ate no salad at all. People in a recent study who had a large, high-calorie salad (400 calories) with a meal took in 17% more calories overall at that meal. People who ate a small, high-calorie salad (200 calories) ate 8% more calories.

5. Stay on course. A little bit of variety in our meals is good and even healthful. But having several courses during a meal can lead you down the wrong path. Adding an extra course to your meal (unless it's a low calorie salad or broth-type soup) usually increases the total calories you consume for that meal.

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