Eat more and lose weight
Although widespread, the belief that eating less is the basis for weight loss is simply not true. The key is to consume fewer calories than you burn, which doesn’t necessarily mean eating less. How is this done? By eating low-energy-dense foods, that is food that contains fewer calories but will still make you feel full.
Take sweets, for instance: although small-sized, a little piece of candy contains a lot more calories than a whole bowl of spinach. Raisins and grapes offer another good example: while a handful of the former can contain more than 300 calories, the same amount of grapes will only set you back around 50. Spinach and grapes are low-energy-dense foods, making them ideally suited to curb hunger; eat them until you’re full and forget about calories.
This is why vegetables are so popular when it comes to losing weight. Lettuce, asparagus, and broccoli, just to name a few, are low in calories but rich in other essential nutrients. Throw sautéed veggies over pasta, instead of meat and cheese, to reduce calories and feel full quicker. In fact, you’ll probably leave pasta on your plate, which means even fewer calories. Add vegetables to sandwiches and omelets; avoid high-calorie ingredients.
Most fruits are also low in energy density, so go ahead and fill up on them when you’re feeling hungry. Be careful with dried fruit (like raisins) and fruit juice, however, since they’re lower in volume and turn into concentrated sources of sugar; it’s healthier to just eat fruit whole with breakfast, at lunch, or as a snack.
Fruits and vegetables aren’t the only sources of low-energy-dense food. Legumes are high in protein but low in calories so they’ll make you feel full quicker, just like white meat, fish, fat-free dairy products and egg whites.
On the other hand, reduce your consumption of high-energy-dense foods, such as sweets, nuts, and pastry. Healthy or not is almost beside the point, by eating larger portions of high-energy-density foods, you don’t feel full as quickly as with fruits, vegetables and legumes, your calorie consumption is, therefore, higher, and the key to the equation, to eat more calories than you burn, farther out of reach.
Remember: more food, lower calories.
