While barbecues are great to enjoy while watching football did you know that the average barbecue meal exceeds 2000 calories? That can be an entire day's worth of calories which can quickly add inches to your waist line.The good news is barbecues can actually be prepared healthy. In fact, with a few small changes to your barbecue menu you can turn football season into the perfect opportunity for weight loss.

Please read the following tips:

-Grilling is actually a very healthy way to cook meat just make sure it is not burgers and hot dogs that your making. -Choose lean cuts of beef, pork or poultry -Marinade with nonfat Greek yogurts -Make hamburgers with extra-lean ground beef - there are now 96/4 meats which have only 5g of fat per serving -Eat only white meat skinless chicken and turkey -Replace beef patties with ground turkey patties that are 96/4 proportion lean to fat -Grill up salmon or cod -Grill veggie burgers

Side Dishes: Side dishes are the devil! They are loaded with fat. Coleslaw and potato salads often have 15 grams of fat per serving. Instead make veggie kabobs, use reduced fat mayo, use whole-grain pasta salad, corn on the cob is fine as long as you do not use butter and make your own lowfat veggie dip.

When I mentioned the 2,000 calories above I was not even including alcohol which can add hundreds and for some people thousands of empty calories to your football game.Instead try to drink water with lemon, if you really want beer choose light beer and make pitchers of unsweetened ice tea and serve with lemon.

When it comes to dessert I always grill fruit like mango, pineapples and pear halves. I have always noticed during football season that people are dragging themselves into the gym with their bodies still trying to recover from the calories. This will set you up for a productive week in the gym.