The Best Foods for Fat Loss
How're you doing on this beautiful day? You better be fantastic!
Today I wanted to share with you the best types of foods you should be including in your diet if the goal is fat loss. But before we move on, I want to really preface that there is no good or bad food. No one food is gonna magically make you gain 20 pounds the same as no one food will make you lose said weight. There are foods that are easier to overeat and foods that are harder to overeat.
Before we really get deep into things, I want to spend a minute talking about calories.
Calories is just the term we use for the energy found in food. Meat, potatoes, ice cream, bananas, Lucky Charms all contain calories. If we take in more energy than what’s needed, we gain weight; if we take in less than what’s needed, we lose weight.
In media such as magazines and TV shows, we've established two groups that we label food under, “Good” and “Bad”. I want to make it clear that no one food is gonna throw your hard work out the window as in the context of chronic overconsumption, you will gain weight no matter what you eat.
You can gain weight eating too much ice cream
You can gain weight eating too much broccoli
Although I’d be seriously impressed if someone could even eat that much broccoli.
So now that we got calories out of the way, you might be begging the question, What foods should I be eating?
While I previously stated that any food has the potential to cause weight gain from too many calories, there are certain foods that are just really, really hard to overeat.
Protein
I talked about protein quite a bit in both my fundamentals of weight loss and calories & macros articles. Protein is essential for losing weight for a bunch of reasons.
Protein helps keep you full. Protein compared to carbs and fats, takes the longest to digest, meaning you’ll feel full way longer on a high protein diet compared to a low protein diet.
Protein helps build and retain muscle. Muscle tissue allows our bodies to naturally burn more calories each day compared to fat tissue. This ultimately makes losing weight much easier.
Protein actually helps us burn additional calories. Protein has the highest of what’s called the “Thermic Effect of Food” or TEF. This just means our bodies burn additional calories from digesting protein compared to equal amounts of carbohydrates or fats.
Great sources of animal protein are going to come from chicken, pork, beef, turkey, eggs, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and protein powder.
While excellent plant sources would include tofu, tempeh, seitan, chickpeas, and pea protein.
The amount of protein you should be aiming for to maximize muscle, and keep you full should be in the 0.8-1.2 gram per pound of bodyweight range. Though a good rule of thumb would be to just aim for 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. If I weigh 180lbs, then I’m aiming for 180 grams of protein.
You can also track protein via your hands if manually tracking seems too laborious.
1 palm equals 1 serving (20-30g protein)
Fruits and Veggies
I think we can all agree that we should be eating our vegetables. Fruits and veggies not only come jam packed with nutrients, they’re also naturally low in calories meaning you can eat a lot of em and still not consume many calories.
Fruits and veggies are naturally low in calories due to their water content.
An entire pound of watermelon is only 136 calories. I dare you to eat a pound and still tell me you're hungry.
The fiber they contain is also a huge plus as fiber like protein also takes a long time to digest. Both protein and fiber can act as natural appetite suppressants.
Great sources of fruit include:
Apple, oranges, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, watermelon, tangerines, apricots, and mangos.
Great sources of high fiber vegetables include:
Broccoli, navy beans, collard greens, green peas, avocados, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.
There’s a ton more variety with both fruits and veggies. My Whole Food List has a ton of options, feel free to save a copy!
Low calorie and Zero calorie Drinks
Being in a calorie deficit is hard, but it doesn’t have to be torture. There are plenty of really tasty beverages that’ll give your mouth something to do while also hydrating you in the process.
Fun fact, often times when we’re suddenly hungry or have a craving is really just our bodies wanting water.
If you're having a sudden hunger strike, try drinking a big glass of water and wait 5 minutes. Often the hunger will subside.
Water, teas, sparkling water, coffee, and diet sodas are all great sources of zero calorie refreshments to help keep you full.
And with diet sodas, as of writing this article, there is a lot of criticism on diet sodas as they’re thought to be carcinogenic. As long as you're not downing heaps of diet soda every day, you don’t beat yourself up if enjoying a diet soda every so often allows you to not feel as restricted whilst on a diet.
SHOULD I FOLLOW A DIET?
There’s so many trendy diets out there on the internet. From Carnivore, Vegan, Keto, Mediterranean, Paleo, Pescatarian, DASH, and Vegetarian, it can understandably be super overwhelming.
Whether you follow one of these diets really depends on your own personal preference.
Ultimately, the diet you follow should be what allows you to stay consistent and feel good. If that means you go low carb, then go low carb. If that means you reduce the amount of meat you eat, then by all means, you do you.
But for most people, I’ve found that a balance of animal protein with plenty of vegetables and fruit seems to be a good approach as that allows for the most variety. Being “on a diet” doesn't mean you have to be solely limited to chicken breast and broccoli.
Play around with what meats you consume and the ways you prepare them, same with fruits and vegetables. And you're more than free to season them!
Don't eat non seasoned chicken.
You're not a savage. You're more sophisticated than that.
SHOULD I AVOID EATING LATE?
A common piece of advice given for weight loss is to avoid eating past 9pm. Is eating past 9pm gonna magically turn a banana into a 10,000 calorie fat bomb? No, no it's not.
There are some who'll say eating late at night will somehow trigger fat gain or "disrupt your metabolism" which is also false.
The reason why eating late may not be the best idea is for a couple reasons:
We tend to make poor choices at night. Think of it, when it's 11pm and you're on Netflix watching a romcom like a true classy individual and all of a sudden you start feeling hungry. Are you either more likely to make a well balanced meal, or turn to something quick and easy like popcorn or ice cream? Usually it's the latter. We tend to make poorer food choices when we're tired which can lead to us overconsuming.
Eating late can disrupt your sleep. The process of digestion can negatively impact your sleep quality. Less sleep will lead to greater cortisol levels, making it harder to lose body fat and increase cravings.
Ideally when it comes to meal timing period, whatever you prefer is what's gonna be best for you. For night time, ideally having a 2 hour window between your last bite and when you fall asleep can be a good goal to have.
But for those who work late and have no other time to eat than at night, try to keep your last meal relatively light. And a meal very high in fat may also disrupt sleep quality from digestion, but that's again highly individual.
SO, ARE THEIR BAD FOODS THEN?
Even though I just stated that there isn't one food that'll throw off your progress, there are some foods that'll make sticking with your program much harder. Trying your best to limit the following foods will make your weight loss journey go a lot smoother.
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
Ultra processed foods are exactly what they sound like. Extensive processing to both increase the shelf life to avoid spoilage and increase it's palatability.
Though I want to differentiate ultra processed with just processed.
When I'm talking about processed foods, I'm referring to things that just have a little added salt and perhaps some preservatives. Things like canned veggies, dried fruit, and protein powders are okay to have in moderation.
Ultra processed foods are foods with tons of added sugars, salt, preservatives, and/or oils. UPF's would include ice cream, fast food, soda, candy, TV dinners, and fried foods.
The reason ultra processed foods should be kept at a minimum is for the following reasons.
Really easy to overeat. I want you to think with that gluttonous American mind for a second here. If I gave you a bucket of fried chicken, could you eat the whole thing? If I gave you a pint of your favorite ice cream, could you smash that? Probably! Even if you're not American, these types of foods are just really really tasty, making overconsumption not that hard. I bet you couldn't eat that same pint's worth of plain Greek yogurt.
They're usually really high in calories. Foods such as ice cream, snack cakes, and fried foods are usually jam packed with calories due to all the added sugars, fats, oils, and mixed ingredients. You'll get a lot more volume of food from your own cooked chicken w/ seasonings compared to some KFC.
They're nutrient scarce. Certain nutrients such as iron actually have a big role in controlling cravings. Often when we become nutrient deficient, we tend to develop cravings for sweet and fatty foods. Load up on veggies and fruits to get those micronutrients!
LIQUID CALORIES
One of the biggest limiting factors for weight loss has to be liquid calories. It's incredibly easy to underestimate how much you're actually consuming because "it's not technically food".
I will say with confidence that most Americans are consuming north of 600+ calories from liquids every day! From iced coffee in the morning, to a can of soda midday, to a beer or wine at the end of the day.
Liquid calories are easy to overdue mainly because they’re just so easy to consume. I can easily smash a large bottle of soda whereas drinking the equal amount in water would be way harder.
For the many people who drink soda, pre-made iced coffee, or alcohol, eliminating beverages containing calories can be the difference of losing several pounds! I can attest to this from my own experience.
Growing up, I would routinely drink a liter or more of soda every day! That's nearly 500 calories a day just from sugar alone! Just cutting soda out alone allowed me to pretty much melt off several pounds of bodyfat.
The types of drinks containing the most calories typically come from the following:
Coffee or iced coffee
Fruit juices
Pre made latte's
Alcoholic beverages
Faux electrolyte drinks like Gatorade
To really give you a rundown on how much calories are found in certain drinks, I'll be using Dunkin donuts as an example.
No hate Dunk’s, I love you but seriously, what the hell?
Going on their official nutritional guide, a Large Caramel Swirl Frozen Coffee with cream comes to a whopping 1,120 calories with 22 grams of saturated fat and 172g of sugar!
Now pair that with the muffin or breakfast sandwich most would pair with a coffee, you're now starting your day off with more than half of most people's daily calorie needs.
You can still enjoy your iced coffee if that's a staple for you, but being aware of what's really in that deliciously sweet syrupy concoction is important so you can avoid overdoing it.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol like soda can be pretty calorie dense.
A 12oz can of standard beer can be 103 cals
A 12oz craft beef can be between 170-350 cals
A 4.5oz Bloody Mary is 120 cals
A 4oz of a Margarita is 168 cals
A 4oz of a Mimosa is 75 cals
A 6.8oz of a Pina Colada is 526 cals
And 5oz of Chardonnay is 128 cals
While some of these drinks may not seem like a lot, pair the drinking with tasty food, friends, and other distractions like music, performances, or television and you have a recipe for overconsumption.
Even though most people who do drink do so responsibly, in the rare case you do go overboard and experience the dreaded hangover, you may experience certain cravings for fatty foods.
With alcohol, when it comes to calories alone, you don't have to completely ditch it if it doesn't cause problems for you. But limiting to perhaps a drink every other weekend as a special occasion should be just fine for most people.
CONCLUSION
The goal for this article was to give you the best categories of foods to include in your weight loss journey. I didn't specify any specific food because whether you prefer animal protein or plant protein is up to you, and what types of fruits and veggies are also up to you.
Aim for around your bodyweight in grams of protein through whole foods
Consume plenty of fruits and vegetables. It's really hard to overdue that.
Start each meal with a protein and as many veggies and fruit as you want!
Try to limit ultra processed food consumption as best you can.
If drinking, try to treat it as a special occasion every so often.
Try to limit liquid calories the best you can, the process of chewing food is a satiety mechanism.
I hope that you’re able to walk away knowing what types of foods will really help make your journey go much smoother. Always remember that having a slice of cake at a birthday or a glass of wine on date night isn’t gonna ruin all the hard progress you’ve made!
If you know someone who can benefit from this type of information, feel free to send this their way!
Talk soon,
-Randy
