6 Fat-Melting Food Swaps

6 Fat-Melting Food Swaps

Not all burgers are created equal. That's important, especially when you consider that the average American will consume 100 of them this year.

Take, for example, America's two most famous burgers: the Whopper with Cheese and the Big Mac. A fair fight, right? Well, if you go for the Arch alternative, you'll save 220 calories over the BK Behemoth. (A Big Mac has 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, compared to the Whopper's 760 calories and 47 grams of fat!)

Use that strategy for every burger you eat in 2008, and you'll save 22,000 calories - the equivalent of almost six pounds of body fat. You don't have to (nor should you) live on Big Macs; pick an even leaner burger and save even more.

See, the way you pick your favorite fixes - from burgers to banana splits - could help you make the transition from chubby to chiseled. In researching our new book Eat This, Not That!, we found that the most effective weight-loss strategy doesn't require you to abandon the foods you love, but simply to make better choices when selecting them.

Supplement that approach with plenty of fresh produce and lean protein throughout the week, and you'll trade failed diets and wild weight fluctuations for healthy eating patterns and a lean, new you. And once you learn how it's done, you can stay that way forever. Who wouldn't make that swap?

Pizza
Eat This:
2 slices Domino's large cheese pizza with crunchy thin crust
360 calories
19 g fat

Not That!
2 slices Pizza Hut large cheese pizza with thin 'n cripsy crust
560 calories
24 g fat

Save 200 calories and 5 grams of fat!

In the world of mass-produced pizza, nothing beats Domino's crunchy thin-crust pie. Eat pizza just once a week, and you'll save more than 10,000 calories this year - which is a nice down payment on a smaller waist size.

Turkey Sandwich
Eat This:
Subway 6-inch Turkey Sub with provolone cheese
330 calories
8.5 g fat

Not That!
Panera Bread Sierra Turkey
840 calories
40 g fat

Save 510 calories and 31.5 grams of fat!

Don't sweat the meat in the sandwich: turkey, roast beef, and ham are all lean cuts. But Panera slathers its turkey with a thick layer of chipotle mayo and slides it into a heavy, oily wedge of focaccia, so that turkey is a porker. A Subway 6-incher not enough to quell your raging lunchtime hunger? Double up on meat for just 50 calories more.

Cinnamon Roll
Eat This:
Au Bon Pain Cinnamon Roll
350 calories
21 g sugars
12 g fat

Not That!
Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll
813 calories
55 g sugars
32 g fat

Save 463 calories, 34 grams of sugars, and 20 grams of fat!

OK, there's absolutely no nutritional value in a cinnamon roll. We said it. But when you just have to have one, take comfort in knowing that Au Bon Pain's restrained rendition more than halves the calories, sugar, and fat found in the Cinnabon catastrophe.

Beer
Drink This:
Guinness Draught
125 calories
10 g carbohydrates

Not That!
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
175 calories
15 g carbohydrates

Save 50 calories a beer!

Surprised? Most people think of Guinness as a beer milkshake: dark, thick, and rich enough to inspire guilt at first sip. But switch out a six-pack a week and you've just saved yourself more than four pounds this year. Extend those savings even further with Beck's Premier Light: At 64 calories a bottle, it doesn't get any lighter than this.

Doughnut
Eat This:
Dunkin' Donuts Glazed Donut
230 calories
10 g fat
12 g sugars

Not That!
Dunkin' Donuts Glazed Cake Donut
330 calories
18 g fat
18 g sugars

Save 100 calories and 8 grams of fat!

Both are cloaked in sugar, but their original doughnuts are light and airy because they're made with yeast, and cake donuts are heavy and dense because they're made with cake batter. Remember: Cake is not a breakfast food.

Fruit Smoothie
Eat This:
Jamba Juice Power Mega Mango Smoothie
420 calories
97 g sugars

Not That!
Dunkin' Donuts Large Tropical Fruit Smoothie
720 calories
142 g sugars

Save 300 calories and 45 grams of sugars!

This sickeningly sweet concoction from Dunkin' has an ingredient list straight out of a chem lab and more sugar than seven Häagen-Dazs vanilla-and-almond ice-cream bars. So this tropical excursion will be bad for your equator. The Jamba version is 100 percent fruit, so there's a huge caloric discount and big antioxidant payload.