One way to manage or lose weight is to cut calories. The types of food associated with the most calories are fats. Here are eight tips to help you eat a lower-fat diet.

Before we proceed to the tips, here is some food for thought. Your body needs a certain amount of fat each day for cellular function. Fats are important for the production of a whole host of enzymes, chemicals and cellular needs. The problem is that we often eat the wrong types of fats and therefore gain weight.

1. Start with dairy.
There is hidden fat is cheeses and milk. If you drink whole milk, slowly step down your milk fat until you can drink skim milk. Or, choose soy milk, which contains the protein and vitamins you need without the extra fat.

2. Exchange thick sauces and creams for broths.
You eat broth in your soup. Use it as a base for marinating and cooking other foods. Instead of water, use chicken broth to cook rice and noodles. The broth will flavor them so there is no need to add butter or margarine.

3. Try vinegar and oil on your salad tonight.
Creamy salad dressings add a ton of fat. Just look at the label. Use flavored vinegars and vegetable or olive oil to top your salad. Lemon also works but is more bitter.

4. Go without fried foods.
Frying makes the skin crispy and good but the skin is the part of the chicken we don’t need to eat. Opt for baked chicken that has been marinated or try oven fried chicken instead. Remove the skin before battering the chicken.

Oprah said today that she could  not believe she is still talking about weight.

Neither can we.

She is one of the richest women in the world, with personal trainers, coaches, Bob Greene, the founder of the Best Life Diet, and still she struggles. With all that help in her corner, if she still ailed, what hope is there for the rest of us?

But the good news is, perhaps her confession of creeping back up to 200 pounds and eating a whole bag of supposedly healthy Blue Chips will help us all get back to basics. That there is no substitute for exercise, eating right, and above all, being mindful about what we eat.

It is also about the basics, reading labels, and portion control. Any sane person will know a whole bag is NOT a portion. But it is tougher when you look at, say, a can of tomatoes and there are 14 servings in it! You may not think that the calories in tomatoes are going to be that terrible, but what about the sodium–huge, and VERY bad for your heart health.

So instead of talking about weight, let’s do something about it. GEt out and exercise. You can always tape Oprah, and watch it after you go for a walk and hit the gym. Best of all, you can fast forward through all the tempting food commercials!