Do you like to eat, yet want to lose weight? Make low calorie food a big part of your diet. Simply changing the foods you eat without changing the volume or amount of food you eat may be the only tweak you need to make to see the pounds come off.
Plus, low calorie foods tend to be healthy, nutritious, and filling. So what are your choices? You will not have any difficulty find a low calorie food. There are plenty of them.
The best low calorie food options on this list include lettuce and vegetables. Some fruits also make the low calorie food list.
Low Calorie Food List
- Apples (one cup contains 57 calories)
- Arugula (one cup contains 6 calories)
- Asparagus (one cup contains 27 calories)
- Beets (one cup contains 59 calories)
- Broccoli (one cup contains 31calories)
- Brussel sprouts (one cup contains 38 calories)
- Cabbage (one cup contains 22 calories)
- Cauliflower (one cup contains 25 calories)
- Celery (one cup contains 18 calories)
- Clementines (one cup contains 35 calories)
- Cucumber (1/2 cup contains 52 calories)
- Grapefruit (1/2 grapefruit contains 52 calories)
- Iceberg lettuce (one cup contains 10 calories)
- Strawberries (contain 50 calories)
- Sugar snap peas (one cup contains 41 calories)
- Tomatoes (one cup contains 27 calories)
- Radishes (one cup contains 19 calories)
- Watercress (one cup contains 4 calories)
- Watermelon (one cup contains 42 calories)
- Zucchini (one cup contains 18 calories)
All of these come pretty darn close to having next to nothing in terms of calories, plus they provide many vitamins and minerals and something else very important called fiber.
Because a low calorie food is rich in fiber indigestible calories pass through our gastrointestinal tracts without getting absorbed. Plus, fiber delays the absorption of other foods in a meal preventing a spike in glucose and insulin that lead to weight gain.
Fruits also contain plenty of fiber but will also contain more calories than the vegetables listed above. Foods high in fiber take more energy to breakdown than low fiber foods. This means you burn calories simply trying to digest these foods. Whether you actually burn more calories digesting certain vegetables like celery and cabbage than the calories they contain is debatable.
Eating low calories foods gives you a leg up when trying to lose weight compared to high calorie, low fiber foods.
Fiber is filling, too. You’ll get less filled eating a candy bar than a serving of broccoli or cauliflower which leads to overeating.
One problem with a low calorie food is that they are not high in protein so you’ll still need to consume some other source to get your lean protein for the day. But, where these low calories foods come in handy is when you get hungry between meals and need something to snack on.
Of course, they’re terrific to consume as part of an entire meal, too. Keep some in a plastic bag in the refrigerator at home and/or at the office where you have fast access to them when the tummy starts growling.
Word to the Wise
If you eat enough of even a low calorie food you may be taking in more calories than your body needs. And, this means you gain weight. So don’t get too excited because these foods contain few calories as you can nickel and dime yourself to weight gain. But, it is harder to overeat many of the foods on this low calorie list. So give them a try.
See related articles.
“Stop Weight Gain with Green Tea”
“Anti Aging Secrets: Eat Colorful Food”
“What You Need to Know About Organic Anti Aging Nutrition”
