When folks decide to lose weight by going on a diet, they often find that they’re constantly dealing with hunger, threatening to force them off the diet. It’s common knowledge that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. So the challenge is to keep that “full” feeling all day long, avoiding both hunger and overeating.
You should be able to feel full with these foods and not be tempted to give in hunger pangs and break your diet.
1. Fish – 150 to 200 Calories / Serving
Count on fish to do a good job of filling you up while providing a nutritious, low-calorie meal. In fact, of all the meats available, fish is the most filling of all! Without consuming any more calories, you could eat a larger portion of fish than of beef, chicken or pork.
You still have to eat responsibly, of course. Fish and ships, for example, is not a healthy option when you’re on a weight loss diet. The breading and batters that are used when frying fish add appreciably to the calorie count of fish, and should be avoided. For a hot meal, cook fish by broiling, baking or grilling it, with a minimum of added fat. A delicious cold alternative is a health light salad sprinkled with bits of cooked or canned tuna or salmon. You can highlight certain flavors with the judicious use of spices and seasonings.
2. Oranges and Apples – About 40 Calories / Serving
This may seem like a surprising choice – fruits aren’t generally thought of as low-calorie, filling foods. Sadly, most people, whether or not they’re dieting, don’t usually reach for a piece of fruit when they want a snack. These fruits are just plain good for you, with a host of nutrients and vitamins and natural sugars. In addition, they’re chock full of dietary fiber, which is great news for dieters because it keeps them feeling full for a long time.
Non-round fruits like bananas can also make you feel full, but they have about twice the calories as round fruits.
3. Grapes – 50 Calories / Serving
Like oranges and apples, grapes are perfect snack foods in the context of a weight loss diet. A great deal of fiber is concentrated into a compact, bite-sized form. Very convenient, highly portable, usually not at all messy and delicious to boot, grapes are a nearly-perfect snack food that will keep you feeling full much longer than any commercial preparation full of processed sweeteners.
4. Whole Wheat Pasta – 300 Calories / Serving
Hungry people crave pasta! Don’t misunderstand – this isn’t an invitation to binge out on mac and cheese or stuffed shells. For one thing, I’m talking about whole wheat pasta, which will leave you feeling much more satisfied than the processed white pasta most commonly available.
Whole wheat pasta fills you up better because it contains much more dietary fiber than white pasta, which has also had most of its nutrients processed out. Portion size is critical with pasta, though, because it’s so easy to overeat. If you eat a portion of pasta about the size of your fist, that should be sufficient to fill you comfortably until your next regular meal.
5. Steak – 300 Calories / Serving
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. A lean piece of beefsteak fits right into a nutritious weight-loss diet – as long as it’s not smothered in high-calorie sauces. Many high-protein dieters, such as those who follow the Atkins Diet, have been aware of this for a long time. In fact, in terms of their efficiency in weight loss, steak is actually second only to fish in the meat category. Lean cuts of beef, of course, are preferable because you will reduce your fat intake.
These low-calorie but delicious foods can backfire on you if you don’t watch your serving sizes carefully! Don’t go overboard on these delicious foods just because they’re low-calorie. And of course, from time to time it’s alright to eat other foods as well. You should always keep control over your portion sizes, though. It won’t be long at all before you’ve got a beach-ready body!
If you found these foods interesting you might also like a list of metabolism boosting meals and Isabel de Los Rios’ DSP.
