Super Bowl Snack Swaps That Will Help You Lose Weight

Have you stuck to your New Year's resolution to lose weight and eat healthy this year? The Super Bowl can easily wreck your diet with all those savory finger foods and fun cookies shaped like footballs. Yet you don't want to chomp on celery sticks while everyone else is feasting on pizza and buffalo wings.

Whether you're hosting a Super Bowl party or meeting up at a friend's house, you can make your own versions of some of these foods by swapping out ingredients. For example, try making nachos by replacing the corn tortilla chips with bell peppers. Or, rather than using ground beef, which is usually high in saturated fat, try adding ground turkey instead.

To keep your diet on track during the Super Bowl, you can also substitute high-calorie foods that are low in nutrients with vegetables or lower-calorie options. Adding healthy fat and fiber will keep you full and help you resist cravings for those diet-destroying foods.

If chips and dip are your thing, you know that potato chips and sour cream dips can be high in calories and saturated fat. You can swap nonfat Greek yogurt for your full-fat sour cream to save 320 calories and 23 grams of saturated fat. You'll save 149 calories if you substitute raw vegetables for your potato chips. If you have an air fryer, try air-fried zucchini chips. If you are really craving potato chips and nothing else will do, baked potato chips have half the fat of regular chips. However, you'll only be saving 18 calories per ounce.

Some of your sweet favorites can also be tempting at a Super Bowl table. A chocolate brownie can ruin any diet, but not if you replace your butter with avocado. A half cup of butter has 814 calories compared to the 120 calories in a half cup of avocado. Avocado has fat in it, but most of the fat is heart-healthy unsaturated fat. The fiber in avocado will also help keep you full. If you're looking to add even more fiber to your brownies, try this healthy brownie recipe made with black beans.

Pizza might be a staple for any Super Bowl party, but it can challenge your weight loss plan. One slice of hand-tossed cheese pizza from Pizza Hut has 280 calories. You'll almost reach 400 calories a slice if you order a Meat Lover's pizza. Why not make your own pizza using a cauliflower-based crust? An entire cauliflower pizza crust has just 320 calories, and you can control the total calories by adding more veggies and less cheese.

Chili is a great way to fill your belly, but some chili recipes made with sausage or ground beef can tick up the calories. A 6-ounce serving of ground beef has 563 calories and 50 grams of fat. You'll save 306 calories and 46 grams of fat if your chili is made with fat-free ground turkey. You could also consider vegetarian crumbles, which have about the same amount of calories as ground turkey. The bonus with the vegetarian option is the 6 grams of fiber. Add some black beans and some veggies, and you'll have a low-calorie yet filling food to help you lose weight.