Skip calorie counting: Best foods to help you slim down naturally
Photo: Which foods help with weight loss (Freepik)
How can you lose weight without constantly counting calories? It turns out that losing weight is possible if you eat certain foods. Ukrainian trainer, Yurii Popko, explains which foods you can eat almost without restriction if you want to lose weight.
Rescue foods: What can you eat to your heart's content?
Some key categories of foods help you feel full without excess calories:
Foods that fill the stomach and signal satiety to the brain
It's like inflating a balloon in your stomach. You feel full even though you've consumed zero calories.
Low-calorie, high-volume foods rich in fiber
Some fiber is insoluble and simply passes through the digestive system, but it creates volume and a feeling of fullness. Soluble fiber, like in oatmeal, swells and feeds beneficial gut bacteria, further supporting satiety.
Protein
Digesting and absorbing protein requires a significant amount of energy, up to 30% of its caloric content. This makes protein an energy-expensive food.
Water
Plain water has volume and zero calories. It is an ideal way to fill the stomach and avoid overeating.
Protein is the foundation of a lean diet
Let's start with protein because it keeps you full for a long time. Protein is the main building block of the body and is essential for everyone, whether you're building muscle, losing weight, or maintaining your weight.
Why is it so hard to gain weight from protein-rich foods? As mentioned, protein is energy-intensive. Our body uses up to 30% of the energy obtained from protein just to digest and absorb it.
Choose high-protein foods that are low in fat:
Lean fish and seafood
River fish, which usually have less than 5% fat, are a great choice: pike, crucian carp, pike perch, perch, hake, pollock, flounder. Seafood, like squid and shrimp, is also an excellent option because it is high in protein and low in fat.
Lean meat and poultry
Pay attention to the part of the animal. If it's chicken, choose the fillet: it has minimal fat (about 2 g per 100 g) and plenty of protein (about 28 g). The thigh isn't ideal because it contains five times more fat, and removing the skin doesn't help much.
As for veal and beef, you can check the labels in supermarkets and choose cuts with the lowest possible fat content. Even diet rabbit meat can turn out to be not so lean, with around 11 g of fat per 100 g, which is quite a lot.
Eggs
These are a super source of protein and one of the best. But keep in mind that egg yolks contain fat. If possible, buy egg whites sold separately or separate the yolks yourself. Boiled eggs are preferable, as fried eggs come with added oil, which significantly increases the calorie count.
Cottage cheese
Choose cottage cheese with 5% fat content. Don't confuse it with expensive hard cheeses or moldy cheeses, which may contain 20–30%, or even 50% fat (as in goat cheese, for example).
The issue with fats is their high calorie content: 100 g of pure protein has about 400 kcal, while 100 g of fat has 800–900 kcal, which is more than double. Cottage cheese also contains casein protein, which digests slowly, providing a long-lasting feeling of fullness.
This material is for informational purposes only and should not be used for medical diagnosis or self-treatment. Our goal is to provide readers with accurate information about symptoms, causes, and methods of detecting diseases. RBС-Ukraine is not responsible for any diagnoses that readers may make based on materials from the resource. We do not recommend self-treatment and advise consulting a doctor in case of any health concerns.
