The Lazy Girl's Guide to Cooking For Weight Loss

By Lizzie Fuhr

Updated on 6/29/2016 at 2:10 PM

POPSUGAR Photography / Jae Payne
POPSUGAR Photography | Jae Payne

If you're serious about losing weight, your lazy-girl habit of taking out dinner every night has got to change. Luckily, cooking at home to support your needs doesn't have to be a crazy struggle or time suck. These tips will help you get organized and make simple swaps! Results are in your reach.

POPSUGAR Photography | Jae Payne

  1. Get organized: Simplifying and constantly cleaning out your fridge will help you on your weight-loss journey. Reorganizing your fridge and bringing healthy goods to the front can make a big difference in your cooking and diet.
  2. Take prep seriously: Prep produce in advance and chop everything early in the week. Even if you don't have specific recipes in mind, wash, chop, and peel your favorite veggies. From there, you're just 10 minutes away from a healthy stir-fry, soup, or pasta dish.
  3. Store for freshness: Just tossing your produce is the fridge won't make it last. Check out this simple chart that lays out where to store your most common produce, whether at room temperature, on a refrigerator shelf, or in the crisper (the coldest fridge drawer).
  4. Make salads for the week: Don't want to deal with cutting up a salad every single night? There's a way to make all the salads you need for your workweek at once. Whether you prefer plastic containers or mason jars, here are the directions you need to know.
  5. DIY smoothie packs: If you're not prepared, making a smoothie can turn into a 15-minute production. These DIY smoothie packs are the perfect solution to this predicament.
  6. Measure out ingredients: If you're following a healthy recipe with nutritional information, stick to the measurements used in the recipe. While you may think it's easy to eyeball oil, sugar, or salt quantities, you may not realize just how many tablespoons (and additional calories) you're using if you don't use proper equipment.
POPSUGAR Photography | Lizzie Fuhr

  1. Go Greek: Skip oil, butter, and heavy cream, and bump up levels of calcium, protein, and probiotics by using Greek yogurt. It can easily sub in for mayo, sour cream, or heavy milk in your favorite recipes.
  2. Mix in tofu: Replacing part of your ground-meat mix with tofu not only helps keep the patties moist, which is especially helpful if you are using a lean meat, but also lessens the calorie and saturated fat count.
  3. Sub in citrus: Instead of topping your favorite vegetables with heavy sauces or cheese, fresh citrus juice adds a bright flavor. Lemon and orange juice also make delicious bases to light and tasty salad dressings.
  4. Bring on the greens: Feel free to get creative and add a handful of greens that aren't in your recipe in order to enhance flavor and increase fiber. It doesn't matter what you're working with; a handful of leafy greens makes every meal dish more delicious and nutritious.
  5. Add avocado: Avocado can up the fiber content and heart-healthy fats in your favorite recipes. The next time you're making a dish that calls for milk, butter, cream, or cheese, you'll want to take a look at our avocado-substitution guide to see how easy it is to replace those ingredients.
  6. Amp up the protein: Start focusing on upping your protein intake in every meal. Studies show that doubling protein intake can help you drop pounds without losing muscle mass. These high-protein snack ideas are a great start.
POPSUGAR Photography | Lizzie Fuhr

  1. Enjoy veggie noodles: Swapping out noodles for veggies is all the rage for good reason! It's an easy technique to cut carbs and bring more nutrition to every single bite. Try these recipes to start.
  2. Bake it up: Frying up fish or chicken may be quick, but it is not an ideal technique for everyday eating. Baking these proteins may be more time consuming, but the reduction in calories and fat make it worth the effort.
  3. Go open-faced: Reducing the calories of your sandwich is as simple as one little subtraction: halve the bread. Instead of placing all your fillings in between two slices of bread, remove the top piece and go open-faced with these ideas.
  4. Cook one serving: It takes a little math, but simply divide your favorite recipes accordingly to cook one serving. This way you won't be tempted to go for seconds or thirds, and mess with your progress.
  5. Watch out for oil: Your meal doesn't need to be swimming in oil in order to get cooked. Just one tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories. Reduce oil when cooking by spraying a thin layer of on your pan and using a nonstick pan.
  6. Rethink your rice: In one study, researchers in Sri Lanka found a simple method for cooking rice that may reduce the amount of calories in rice. Yes, it's a little more effort than opting for the ricer cooker, but if it could save big calories.