Drop 5kg with beer!

Seven hundred and fifty litres. That's the amount of liquid the average man guzzles each year. Approximately 128 litres of beer, 200 litres of soda, 90 litres of milk, and a whole lot of litres of other stuff. Feeling a bit bloated? You should be.

But the great thing about drinking so much is that all you have to do to lose weight is make a few adjustments to the types of drinks you're already pouring down every day. Juice with pulp instead of pulp-free. Green tea instead of regular. Do it all and you're gulping 35,456 fewer calories in four weeks. That's a savings of five kilos. So fill 'er up. This one's on us. And off you.



Your morning juice
Unless you're an astronaut or a skinny 10-year-old boy, trade in your Tang and pulp-free OJ for the thick stuff-juice with extra pulp. It may help you resist the lure of the office bread basket. Researchers at Purdue University found that people stayed full longer when they drank thick drinks than when they drank thin ones-even when calories, temperatures and amounts were equal. "Thicker drinks help to fight off hunger longer as they contain more fibre," says New Delhi-based nutritionist Dr Sonia Kakar.
Calories saved in four weeks: 5,460

Your midmorning break
Even if your taste in tea runs more toward Long Island than iced, there's a reason to consider adding a bit more of the stuff to your diet: It's a natural fat burner. But you need to buy the stuff marked 'green'. "Remember that boiling it with milk and sugar like we in India do, will not count," says Dr Kakar. A Swiss study found that substances in green tea called catechin polyphenols can increase your body's metabolism, so you burn fat at a faster rate.
Calories saved in four weeks: at least 4,872

Lunch in a can
Meal replacements really work. In a study presented at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, researchers found that regularly drinking meal replacements increased a man's chances of losing weight and keeping it off for longer than a year. But which one should you drink? Men trying to lose weight need about 600 calories per meal, with 25 per cent of those calories from protein, 25 per cent from fat, and 50 per cent from carbohydrates. That's about what you get from this drink:

Strawberry power blast
1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt or dahi
1 cup double-toned milk
2 tsp peanut butter
1 medium banana
1½ cup frozen unsweetened strawberries
2 tsp sugar
2 ice cubes or ½ cup crushed ice
Directions: Place ingredients in a blender. Blend on high speed until smooth. Drink immediately.
Per serving: 608 calories, 25gm protein, 106gm carbohydrates, 11gm total fat
Calories saved in four weeks: 9,856

Your afternoon indulgence
Need something thick and creamy after a tiny, hurried lunch? Grab a thick milk shake or a smoothie. The damage from a regular chocolate shake is around 220 calories. Shakes from ice cream parlours and coffee shops tend to be a better idea because you can pick a sugar free or even sugarless option-at fast food joints, you're forced to stick to a shake made according to a formula.
Calories saved in four weeks: 9,520

Your post-workout smoothie
Bananas don't just fend off muscle cramps, they also fight hunger. "For a person who is not obese, having one mediumsized banana is not at all a bad thing," says Dr Kakar. To make your own appetite-busting smoothie, blend together a banana, ½ cup non-fat vanilla yogurt, cup frozen orange-juice concentrate, ½ cup double toned milk, and ½ cup crushed ice. A study conducted at Penn State found that men who drank yoghurt shakes that had been blended until they doubled in volume ate 96 fewer calories a day than men who drank shakes of normal thickness.
Calories saved in four weeks: 2,688

Soda for the drive home
Sure it doesn't taste like soft drinks, but it may be the lesser evil. You could also try drinking it nice and chilled. "The colder a diet soda is when you're drinking it, the less you'll notice the difference in taste," says nutrition consultant Liz Ward.

"If you can't stand diet but want to start drinking it, try filling your cup three-fourths of the way with regular soda and topping it off with diet," she adds.
Calories saved in four weeks: 2,024

Beer (330ml)
Calories

Kingfisher Draught
99

Cobra
less than 100

Foster's
145

Your evening beer
There's nothing wrong with "lite" beer, unless you count not tasting anything like the real thing. A bottle of Heineken can set you back around 170 calories. Here are some choices:


Calories saved in four weeks: at least 1,036.