Losing weight is easy, you know. At least, it is easy providing you?ve got the cash to pay for expensive diet food and medication, gym membership, a personal trainer, a dietician? But what if you?re one of the normal every day people that actually can?t afford the extra cost of gym membership in a recession, or someone who balks at the idea of having to nearly double their food bill because healthy options don?t come cheap.

Here are a few tips in order to combat that. They?re all simple little changes you can make to your lifestyle that cost either nothing or very little and can make a huge impact on the effectiveness of your diet if followed correctly.

Out

When at the supermarket, don?t be drawn in by special offers and deals until you?ve done the math, and be aware about the way supermarkets draw in customers by using special marketing techniques. Even the layout of the store is designed to make you buy more, but don?t relent ? stick to buying only what you need. The two key things to do before going shopping are to eat before your trip and to make a list of everything you need. The list will keep you focused on what you require rather than what you want, and it?s a well researched fact that people who shop when hungry are far more likely to buy excess food.

Consider buying canned food instead of frozen. Canned vegetables may taste a little different but they are still very nutritious and if you use them in recipe combined with other food, there?s a good chance you won?t notice the difference. Your wallet will though, with canned vegetables considerably cheaper than their frozen counterparts.
Shopping at the same store will help you quickly plan your way around, but it has another bonus in that you?ll get to know which store brands are worth buying. Try to avoid totally budget and basic brands and instead opt for the supermarket own brand products which are likely to remain rich in nutrients while being much cheaper than branded products. Which products you buy branded and which you don?t will be a matter of personal taste, but try to buy as little as possible from big name companies.

Outside the supermarket, don?t forget the power of walking and jogging. You might need to invest in some decent shoes but after that, they the activity is totally free. Many people buy expensive gym memberships only to then drive all the way to the Gym. If these people had instead jogged the same distance, they could often have lost a similar amount of calories.

At home

You can exercise at home using DVDs and exercise videos. Although these might look expensive you?ll find a vast amount of budget copies of exercise videos in your local charity and second hand stores. You can also visit your local library which is likely to have quite a large amount of its DVD collection dedicated to health and fitness.

Before going out, be realistic about any food you might need. There?s no use saving money at the supermarket if you then don?t pack enough for lunch and then end up using expensive vending machines to make up the difference.

While at home, consider buying a water filter for your tap or fridge and then drink tap water instead of bottled water. They may look nice and talk about spring water coming all the way from Italy or somewhere, but in reality they are incredibly expensive diversions and often don?t taste any different to filtered tap water. If you absolutely have to buy bottled water, buy supermarket brands and try to buy it in bulk as much as possible.

A little sugar is nothing to be ashamed of, and although it can be replaced by sweeteners in your tea and coffee, sometimes there?s nothing quite like sprinkling a little on your cereal in the morning, or indulging with luxury chocolate. Indeed, even if you?re dieting, it can be difficult to avoid sugar which is used not only to sweeten food but add texture, mass, pliability and crispiness. It?s an easy assumption to think we have a good idea what foods have a high amount of sugar in them. Show anyone a can of full fat soft drink and they?ll tell you it?s full of sugar, but will they do the same for a healthy looking chicken meal or a load of bread?

Considering how much attention has been weighed on the amount of salt in your food ? the government ran a series of adverts warning of the dangers of salt a few years ago – sugar has remained largely out of the spotlight. This is the despite the fact that it can cause a variety of problems in high consumption including diabetes and tooth decay. It is also one of the leading contributors of obesity in adults today.

Sales of health food have rocketed in the last decade as we are continuously told that modern unchecked diets are making more people unhealthier and obese than ever before. It?s easy to assume that supermarkets will have played to this fact, offering foods that are lower in sugar, salt and fat than they did years ago. This isn?t the case however, especially in the case of sugar, whose usage has doubled since the 1970s. In some cases such as bread and cereal, the amount of sugar has actually doubled in thirty years.

A survey conducted by ?Which?? Magazine found that certain chicken ready meals from the leading supermarkets contained more sugar than a standard service of ice cream. In some cases healthier items labelled with brands like Weight Watchers actually had more sugar in them than their standard counterparts, added to compensate for the lack of salt and fat.

So how can you cut down on your intake of sugar? Here are a few tips:

? Chocolate and sweets are well known for their sugar quantity and although healthier foods might include more than we expect, it?s still chocolate that is one of the main offenders when it comes to sugar consumption. If you don?t want to give up on chocolate completely, consider forcing yourself to cut back by buying smaller ?fun size? bars.

? Switch drinks like coke to diet, but be aware that ingredients like aspartame (which replaces sugar in many soft drinks) have also been claimed to be detrimental in large amounts. Less well known is that fruit juice is also high in sugar, so be wary when buying and dilute them first.

? Foods such as cheese, meat and fish are generally much lower in sugar content than other foods but the sauces and condiments like ketchup can contain a high amount, so watch out what you?re putting on your food.