Try to eat at least one raw vegetable each day.

Try a new vegetable each week so that you don't get bored with the same veggies.

Eat a vegetable salad for lunch or dinner most days of the week.

Keep precut vegetables such as bell peppers, celery, broccoli, and jicama in your fridge for easy snacking at home or to take to work or school.

Starchier vegetables such as pumpkin, winter squash, and sweet potatoes are higher in calories and carbs, so limit them to one or two servings per week.

Fresh vegetables are best, but you can choose frozen, as well. If you opt for canned, be sure to rinse the contents before eating, to wash away added salt.

THE 4-3-2-1 BIGGEST LOSER PYRAMID.

Fruit: Serving size = 1 cup, 1 medium piece, or 8 ounces Tips for eating fruit: Enjoy at least one whole fruit each day. Apples, oranges, pears, bananas, and grapes are all easily portable and can be eaten for snacks on the go.

Dark green, light green, orange, purple, red, and yellow-savor fruits from different color groups. This ensures you're getting a variety of nutrients.

Eat fruit for dessert! Many Biggest Losers who have a sweet tooth use this strategy.

Opt for fresh fruit over dried fruits, which are more concentrated in calories and sugar and are less filling.

Choose whole fruit rather than fruit juices. Fruit juice contains less fiber, so it's not as filling as whole fruit, and it's more concentrated in sugars, so it will cause a spike in your blood sugar. When you do choose juice, keep in mind that a serving size is 4 ounces ( cup).

Fresh fruit is preferable, but frozen fruit is fine as long as it's not packaged with added sugar or syrup. If you choose canned fruit, be sure it's packed in water.

Whole Grains: Serving size = 1 cup of cooked grains or 2 slices of bread Choose whole grain foods in moderation, and select those with high fiber content. On The Biggest Loser plan, you will eat 2 servings of whole grains daily. When grains are refined, important nutrients are removed. All that's usually left is starch, which is loaded with carbohydrate calories and little else. Whole grains undergo minimal processing and thus retain most of their nutritional value. The whole grain family includes barley, corn, oats, quinoa, rice, and wheat. These are all great sources of protein, B vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.

Damien Gurganious SEASON 7 Salt is the enemy of weight loss. For every two of those little packs of salt you get in the deli, they can cause your body to hold on to 1 pound of water. The more salt you add, the more your body holds on to the water.

Tips for eating whole grains: When choosing bread products, read the label carefully. If it says "enriched," the product probably contains white flour-meaning it's low in fiber and nutrition.

Choose breads with at least 2 grams of fiber per serving, but aim for 5 grams. When you read the ingredient list, look for "whole wheat" or "whole grain" among the first few ingredients. "Wheat flour" isn't necessarily whole wheat.

Most packaged breakfast cereals are highly processed and loaded with added sugar. Choose cereals with fewer than 5 grams of sugar and at least 5 grams of fiber per serving.

White flour, white sugar, white bread, and packaged baked goods affect your blood sugar and insulin too quickly. You don't want an excess of either in your bloodstream. Unlike their whole grain counterparts, these foods also lack antioxidants and fiber. Choose whole grains, which will keep you feeling fuller longer.

30 Percent of Your Daily Calories: Protein Protein is a macronutrient found in meat, fish, eggs, poultry, and dairy products, and in smaller amounts in beans, nuts, and whole grains. Protein is required to build and repair muscle, skin, hair, blood vessels, and other bodily tissues. Generally speaking, any food containing at least 9 grams of protein per serving is a high-protein food.

Lean proteins contain valuable nutrients that can help you achieve a healthy weight. Include protein with each meal and each snack so your body can benefit from it all day long. When you haven't eaten enough protein, you might find yourself running low on energy or suffering from muscle fatigue. Try to eat a little bit of protein or drink a protein shake within 30 minutes after a workout to help your muscles repair. In addition to helping build muscle, protein also promotes the feeling of satiety, or fullness, thus curbing your appet.i.te and keeping you from consuming extra calories. When combined with a carbohydrate (such as a piece of fruit), protein helps slow the release of blood sugar, sustaining your energy for longer periods of time.

Choose a variety of proteins to make up your 3 daily servings. Try to limit consumption of lean red meat to twice a week and avoid processed meats, such as bologna, hot dogs, and sausage, which are typically high in sodium and contain nitrates. Fish is an excellent source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, and selenium.

To figure out how many grams of protein should const.i.tute each of your 3 daily servings, use the formula below, which uses an 1,800-calorie budget as an example.

1,800 x 0.30 = 540 calories from protein Then convert the calories to grams.

540 / 4 calories per gram = 135 grams of protein You can then allocate protein goals for each meal and snack, based on your total daily protein intake. Daily protein servings, using the example above, might look like this: Breakfast: 33 grams Snack 1: 17 grams Lunch: 34 grams Snack 2: 17 grams Dinner: 34 grams Animal Protein: Serving size = 1 cup or 8 ounces Meat Choose lean cuts of meat, such as pork tenderloin and beef round, chuck, sirloin, or tenderloin. USDA Choice or USDA Select grades of beef usually have lower fat content. Avoid meat that is heavily marbled and remove any visible fat. Try to find ground meat that is at least 95 percent lean.

Poultry The leanest poultry is the skinless white meat from the breast of chicken or turkey. When purchasing ground chicken or turkey, ask for the white meat.

Seafood Seafood is an excellent source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, and selenium. When you're buying seafood, go for options that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines (water packed), trout, and tuna.

Dairy: Serving size = 1 cup or 8 ounces Top choices include fat-free milk, 1 percent (low-fat) milk, b.u.t.termilk, plain fat-free or low-fat yogurt, fat-free or low-fat yogurt with fruit (no sugar added), fat-free or low-fat cottage cheese, and fat-free or low-fat ricotta cheese. Light soy milks and soy yogurts are also fine, but if you eat soy because of a dairy intolerance or allergy, be sure to select soy products that are fortified with calcium. Egg whites are another excellent source of fat-free protein.

If you're not eating 3 servings of dairy per day, The Biggest Loser nutrition team recommends that you consider taking a calcium supplement.

Vegetarian Protein: Serving size=1 cup or 8 ounces Good sources of vegetarian protein include beans, nuts and seeds, and traditional soy foods, such as tofu and edamame. Many of these foods are also loaded with fiber.

25 Percent of Your Daily Calories: Good Fats Healthy fats play a role in weight loss because they help you feel full and satisfied. But remember: Even good fats are a concentrated source of calories, and as such, you need to monitor your serving sizes carefully. Many of your fat calories will be hidden in your carbohydrate and protein food choices. You will have a small budget of leftover calories to spend on healthy fat and "extras."

Fats should make up no more than 25 percent of your total daily calories, and saturated fats should account for no more than 10 percent of your daily calorie budget. Here's how to calculate your daily fat intake, again based on the example of an 1,800-calorie budget.

Multiply your total daily calorie budget by 0.25 to see how many calories can come from fat.

1,800 x 0.25 = 450

Andrea Hough SEASON 9 Here's my new favorite snack. Cut an apple into slices. Then take some nonfat Greek yogurt, add a few chopped walnuts, and sprinkle a little natural sweetener like Truvia over it. It tastes like apple pie!

So with an 1,800-calorie budget, up to 450 of the daily calories may come from fat.

One gram of fat contains 9 calories. So divide the number of calories from fat that you're allotted each day (in this case, 450) by 9.

450 / 9 = 50.

A person with an 1,800-calorie budget would consume no more than 50 grams of fat daily.

Healthy Fats Choose olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil, or walnut oil for salads, cooking, and baking.

When adding fat to a sandwich, try using reduced-fat mayonnaise or a little mashed-up avocado.

Snack on nuts and seeds in moderation. Nut b.u.t.ters, trail mix, and raw nuts pack a powerful energy punch and supply a good dose of unsaturated fat. Keep portion sizes moderate; for example, 14 walnut halves make a 1-ounce serving.

Choose unsaturated fats. Many unsaturated fats, cla.s.sified as monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, can lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise your HDL (good) cholesterol.

Avoid trans fats, an artificial fat found in hard margarines and vegetable shortenings, packaged baked goods, and foods fried in hydrogenated fat. Carefully read labels of packaged foods. If you see the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, put the package back on the shelf.

Decoding Food Packaging Keeping a food journal will require you to become an expert at reading food labels and Nutrition Facts panels. When you're shopping for healthy foods, labels can help you choose between similar products based on calorie and nutrient (such as fat, protein, or fiber) content.

On page 18 you'll find an example of a typical food label. It contains a lot of information, but here are the essential facts you need to know in order to make healthy choices.

Serving size: Everything else on the label (calories, grams of fat, etc.) is based on this measurement. Just because a food label suggests a certain portion doesn't mean that it's the right serving size for you. Look at the calorie and fat content that corresponds to the serving size. If you need to, cut the serving size in half.

Calories: This lists calories per serving. Be sure that the number of calories you record in your food journal reflects the number of calories you've eaten. If the label indicates that a serving is 1 cup and you ate 2 cups, you need to double the calories that you record in your journal to match your double serving.

Total fat: The number of fat grams in a product reflects the sum of three kinds of fat: saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat. Pay special attention to the numbers of calories in "light," reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free products. When the fat is removed from many recipes, salt or sugar is sometimes added to enhance the flavor. This can result in a fat-free or low-fat product that actually contains more calories than the regular version.

Tara Costa SEASON 7 WINNER Eat! Eat! You need to eat! You can't lose weight if you don't eat. Also, read all the ingredients, and if you don't know what it is, don't put it in your mouth.

Saturated fat: Less than one-third of your daily fat grams should come from saturated fats, which are derived mainly from animal products and are solid at room temperature (such as b.u.t.ter and shortening). Some plant oils, such as coconut oil and palm oil, also contain saturated fats. The saturated fat from animal foods is the primary source of cholesterol.

Sodium: For most people, the daily recommended sodium intake is no more than 2,400 milligrams. Some of the foods you eat each day will have more, others less. Aim for an average of no more than 240 milligrams of sodium in each meal or snack.

Total carbohydrate: This number is calculated by adding grams of complex carbohydrates plus grams of fiber plus grams of sugar. If the total carbohydrate number is more than double the amount of sugar, that means there are more "good carbs" than "bad carbs" in the food.

Dietary fiber: Fiber is found in plant foods but not in animal foods. Unless you're on a fiber-restricted diet, aim to consume at least 25 to 35 grams of fiber per day.

Sugar: The sugars in a food can be naturally occurring or added. Check the ingredient list to find out and avoid eating foods that contain processed sugar, such as high-fructose corn syrup. The total grams of carbohydrates in a food serving should be more than twice the number of grams of sugar.

Protein: If a food has more than 9 grams of protein per serving, it's considered a high-protein food. It's important to eat foods that are high in protein when you're trying to lose weight, because protein is a great source of energy and helps you feel full.

Ingredient List A product's ingredients are listed in order of decreasing weight. If the first few ingredients listed include any form of sugar (cane sugar, corn syrup, sucrose, and so on) or fats and oils, the food is probably not a good choice for weight loss. Also, look for products with a short list of ingredients that you recognize. A long list of strange-sounding ingredients is always a red flag. Leave those products on the shelf at the grocery store-don't put them on the shelf of your pantry.

Vinny Hickerson SEASON 12 Every time you wanna quit, envision what you want to be and remember what brought you to this point. Then you'll keep going.

No Excuses Fitness As you know by now, weight loss is all about calories in and calories out. Calculating a calorie budget, planning your meals and snacks, and tracking what you eat in a food journal are all great ways to make sure you are taking in the right number and right kind of calories. But what about the "calories out" part of the equation?

The contestants at the Ranch put in long, hard workouts every day. But you don't have to work out for hours with Bob and Jillian to see results. If you're not already active, start incorporating more activity into your day. Walk or bike instead of driving, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or treat your dog to an extra-long walk. It doesn't matter how small you start. You just have to get moving.