Eat more, weigh less

By Lovely Ranganath, Dietician, Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah 

Weight loss is easy – if you love small meals and enjoy the hunger pangs that follow them. Fortunately, there’s a better way. You can lose weight by eating more. The key is to eat the right foods… these right foods are the ones with a low calorie density and a high volume.

Let me explain … 

The first group consists of foods loaded with water, fibre, and air and these have the lowest calorie density. The second group consists of dry foods and high-fat foods, which have the highest calorie density. To lose weight and feel full you need to eat more of the first group, and less of the second group. The benefits of choosing such foods are that you’ll feel fuller and not fatter on fewer calories. It also allows you to enjoy more food and more taste, but not more fat and calories. By following this principle you are less likely to feel those uncomfortable hunger pangs between meals and it is also less likely you’ll overeat at your next meal. 

Can’t wait to hear the names of these magical foods? Well, we are not playing with foods that are hard to find…Magical foods that are high in water content include fruits, veggies, low-fat milk, cooked grains, lean meats, poultry, fish and beans. Other high-water foods that can keep you feeling full are soups, stews, casseroles, pasta with vegetables, and fruit-based desserts. The ‘not-so-magical’ foods are the ones high in fat content like butter, whole milk, full-fat salad dressings and sweets. So, while you are adding foods with high-water content to your diet, you should also be subtracting foods low in water … think chips, pretzels, crackers and even fat-free cookies. 

The more water content a particular food has, you can eat a bigger portion of that particular food for fewer calories. The same cannot be said for the fat content, since you get more calories in a smaller portion.  

Sounds complicated, does it?  It is not complicated…consider this example: when you are really hungry, would you choose a handful of strawberries or 2-3 small dates? Common sense tells you that a handful of strawberries will fill you up more than 2-3 small dates. Now, is it not obvious that the more filling choices contain more water? 

I’ll give you more examples. We all like a little sweetness on our cereal, but consider a new approach. Leave the honey with the bees and top your cereal with fruit… take strawberries for example. Honey and sugar are dense sweeteners, while strawberries come full of fiber, nutrients, and water, so you can eat more of them…2 ¾ cup of strawberries will provide 100 calories and 2 tablespoons of honey will give you 120 calories! Strawberries get the thumbs-up anytime, since you save 20 calories and can also end up eating a bonus of about 2 ½ cups of strawberries!! 

Take 1 cup of diced cantaloupe with 56 calories and ¼ cup of dried apricots at 77 calories. Fresh fruits deliver great flavour and sweetness along with lots of water and fiber. On a per-calorie basis, fresh fruits are a much smarter choice than dried fruits or fruit juices. Calories saved: 21 with a serving bonus of ¾ cup! 

Let’s look at two cups of strawberry-banana smoothie made from low-fat yogurt, low-fat milk, ice cubes, a handful of strawberries and a banana, giving you 215 calories. Now take one cup of milkshake made from vanilla ice cream, whole milk, and chocolate syrup at 410 calories. You are saving 195 calories with 1 cup of strawberry-banana smoothie as a bonus! Here, the fruit adds sweetness and flavour while reducing calories. The added ice tickles your tongue like ice cream, without the fat. By keeping the blender on for an extra minute or two, you will add more air to the smoothie. This in turn boosts the volume, reducing its calorie density even more! 

I think you are getting the hang of it !!! A simple, healthy trick is to add some fresh, chopped vegetables to your favourite recipe, and you instantly boost the meal’s volume while reducing the calorie density. A big pile of lettuce and tomatoes will fill your plate, but add very few calories to a meal. 

Here are some examples of foods that range from very low on the calorie-density scale, to very high.

Very low density: (Less than 0.6 calories per gram)

• Most fruits and vegetables
• Broth-based soups

Low density : (0.6 to 1.5 calories per gram)

• Most cooked grains
• Cereals with reduced-fat milk
• Low-fat meats

Medium density : (1.5 to 4 calories per gram)

• Meats
• Cheeses
• Salad dressings

High density : (4 to 9 calories per gram)

• Pastries and cookies
• Chocolate
• Butter
• Nuts

You don’t have to weigh every morsel of food to figure its exact calorie density. You can use the following guidelines to estimate where a food falls:

• Things that lower calories are water (think fruit and vegetables), air (rice cakes, popcorn), fibre (whole grains).
• Things that raise calories are fat (cream, butter, cheese, added fats), ad dehydration (dried fruits).

There are no bad foods. It’s common sense that we have known for years. Balance is good. You can lose weight by only drinking water all day and not eating anything but that’s not healthy. What’s healthy is getting the right amount of calories each day and getting the ideal amount of nutrients at the right time. By using the above concept, you end up eating more food and still consuming fewer calories, which makes weight loss really easy – you can have large meals and need not suffer the hunger pangs!

Bon appetite!!

Photo courtesy: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Ms Lovely Ranganath, Dietician, M.Sc (Food Science & Nutrition), Dip. Fitness & Nutrition, Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah and Al Zahra Medical Centre, Dubai will be regularly writing on Diet and Nutrition on womenone.org.