The main nutritional focus with any weight loss or fat loss goal is to eat less calories than you expend. While some would have you believe there’s more to it than that, it all comes down to calories.
One of the main problems people face when eating less calories is hunger cravings. But this is natural. When your body is used to a specific amount of food and you begin eating less food, you’ll feel hungry.
Fighting these hunger pains can make it hard to stay on track. Fortunately, there’s one thing you can do that can put these cravings at bay. And that’s change the foods you eat.
One of the main determinants of hunger is how full your stomach is. When you have a lot of room for food, there’s likely to be a large sense of hunger. But when the stomach is full, you’re satisfied to the point where you don’t want to eat anymore.
The volume of food eaten is one crucial factor that can affect how full the stomach is after a meal.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have done a lot of testing on what they call the “volumetric” theory of food. The studies conducted have looked at low-calorie, high-volume foods to determine their impact on how much the average person consumes.
Foods that contain water, fiber, or protein have fewer calories and fill the stomach to a greater degree. These are high-volume foods. Foods that contain more filler ingredients like sugar are low-volume foods.
Their findings revealed that when a person consumes more high-volume foods they tend to take in less calories over the course of a day. Another cool finding is they help you feel fuller, meaning less hunger cravings.
The main reason this occurs is because these high-volume foods take up more room in the stomach. As your stomach fills and expands, nerves on the stomach send a signal to your brain that you are satisfied and no longer hungry.
This, in turn, makes a lower calorie diet easier to manage and comply with. You’re no longer fighting against the urge to eat whatever’s in sight. And since these high-volume foods contain fewer calories, you can eat a lot more of them and still see substantial weight loss.
So, what are these high-volume, low-calories foods?
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Lean meats
- Fish
- Eggs
- Legumes
- Whole grains (i.e. oats)
These are some of the most common sources that stop hunger cravings. The researchers suggest that adding these types of foods to each meal is a sure fire way to feel full on less calories.
If your goal is to lose weight, eating more of these high-volume foods will make this task much easier. Give it a shot and see what you think!
References:
1. http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/foods-that-curb-hunger#3
Photo Credit:
1. exerscribe.com
