Did you know that having a dessert or sweet treat every once in a while actually increases your chances to lose weight successfully? Why? Because if you allow yourself this bit of luxury you can’t do without, you are much less likely to cheat on your diet and then exaggerate it. After all, if you can eat what you want, there’s no need for cheating.

The secret of enjoying desserts when you want to lose weight is to choose low calorie desserts. And fortunately, with some simple tricks you can create low calorie desserts that don’t really taste like boring low calorie food.

There are four ways of reducing calories in your dessert:

• reducing the amount of fat
• reducing the amount of sugar
• reducing the amount of other simple carbohydrates
• reducing portion sizes

Reducing fat
Most fat in your desserts comes in form of butter or dairy products like cream, milk, cream cheese and mascarpone. You can reduce fat very easily without losing much taste.

• Replace butter with a good margarine. That’s not only less fat but also healthier fat. In many cake or muffin recipes you could even use canola oil instead.
• If cream is not used beaten, you can use butter milk or coconut milk instead. They contain much less fat and also taste great.
• Use low fat milk instead of full cream milk. It works just as well and you will barely notice the difference. Plus, you cut calories coming from milk to about one third. Buttermilk can replace milk in shakes and smoothies.
• Use low fat smooth cottage cheese or ricotta in place of cream cheese or mascarpone. Your dessert will have significantly less calories and also be less heavy.
• Buy low fat ice cream. Try to find one that is not too high in sugar. Alternately, you can make your own ice cream with low fat milk and artificial sweeteners.

Reducing sugar
This is a bit more tricky but still possible. In many recipes you can simply reduce the amount of sugar. If you then feel it’s not sweet enough, you have several options:

• You can use artificial sweeteners like Splenda or Aspartame. They are very sweet (so a little will do) but contain almost no calories.
• You can also use natural sweeteners like honey, fructose or maple syrup. They contain fewer calories than sugar, and since they are much sweeter you need less. But remember that they still do contain calories. Natural sweeteners are a great option if you just want to sweeten something a little. But if you want to use a large amount, then rather don’t go this route.
• Add naturally sweet foods like fresh or dried fruit to your dessert. This will reduce your need for additional sugar and at the same time provide you with many important vitamins and fiber.

Reducing other simple carbohydrates
Of all carbohydrates, sugar is the one that causes most damage. But there are other simple carbohydrates that have a quite similar effect on our body. Refined products like white flour also contain simple carbohydrates. These are stored as fat when you eat too many of them, so you should reduce these foods as well when you want to lose weight.

The best way to do this is to swap white flour with whole grain flour. You can completely replace it or mix the two, depending on how much you need or want to reduce calories. The good thing about a whole grain muffin is that it also fills you quicker and better than one made of white flour. So you will eat less.

Reducing portion sizes
One of the best and most effective ways of reducing calories is certainly simply eating less. I’m not saying you should have tiny portions. You don’t really need five scoops of ice-cream, two would also do. Rather stick to smaller portions and enjoy them without having to worry too much about the calories.

Lower the chance of getting heart diseases
Every scientist that has done research on green tea say the same thing, it is a miracle substance. One particular study, which was done in Japan, showed that if you use it on a regular basis you will reduce the chance of getting heart diseases. The study included over 40 000 Japanese men and women.

Prevents cancer
I’m sure you have heard about the things it can do to prevent cancer. Cancer is caused by free radicals. A great substance that fights free radicals is antioxidants. And a large amount of antioxidants is found in green tea, if the tea leaves are heated right after harvest. Luckily I know that my green tea source is just that.

Burns fat
Another very nice effect is has is that it can help you to lose weight. Yes, it is true, it helped me. I struggled for a while with my weight. I’ve been very active in my life. I worked out several times a week. One thing in particular that I did a lot was to play basketball, which is a great fat burning exercise. I did a great deal of lifting weights too.

Of course I gained a lot of weight since I didn’t change the amount of food I ate. Then I found a great multivitamin nutrition supplement that also contains decaffeinated green tea. It has really helped me a lot. Now I’m a bit more active, because the supplement has that effect too, and I have lost all the excessive fat that I had gained. And I’m positive that it is thanks to green tea. Sensitive or not, caffeine should not stop you from enjoy the above described benefits.