Lose Weight With These Foods

In part one of this blog, we talked about NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), in part two we’ll discuss:

• How to fill your plate with more food but still lose weight

  
  

• Why tracking calories will help you

  
  

• Why food choices matter

We’ve either seen it on social media or had a friend or family member say that they’re “eating more than ever” yet they’ve lost 15lbs. 

How is this possible? If you need to burn more calories than you consume, wouldn’t eating more food equal more calories?

This is where food choices come into play.

 You see, foods can be categorized on a chart between

and

density food. 

Low-energy high-volume foods are foods that take up a lot of room but don’t have a lot of calories. 

Things like: 

• strawberries, 

• chicken breast, 

• kale, 

• and broccoli. 

  
  

High-energy low-volume foods are foods that don’t take up a lot of room but have a lot of calories like:

•  candy bars,

•  ice cream, 

• french fries, 

• and pizza. 

  
  

Now, before you jump on the “good food, bad food” bandwagon. “Healthy” and “unhealthy” foods can be in both categories.

For example, nuts and avocados are high-energy foods and very easy to overeat but are “healthy” foods. 

Halo Top ice cream and diet soda are low-energy foods and considered “unhealthy” but provide few or zero calories and we consider these “unhealthy.” 

What does this mean for you? 

If you’re trying to burn body fat, regardless of whether it’s to just get down a few pants sizes or if you want six-pack abs, you want to fill your plate with mostly low-energy high-volume foods. 

This is going to be: lean meats and poultry, fish and seafood, fruits, and vegetables. 

So let’s paint a picture so you can visualize this.

A single York peppermint patty is 50 calories. 1 cup of strawberries is 50 calories. 

That cup of strawberries is 1) going to look like a lot more food and 2) take up more room in your stomach. 

So what if you eat 4 peppermint patties? That’s now 200 calories.

Well that’s the equivalent of 1 cup of strawberries, 3oz chicken breast, and 2 cups of broccoli. 

4 peppermint patties won’t fill you up at all and feels like it’s only 50 calories. The strawberries, chicken, and broccoli seem like it would be 500 calories, but it’s less than half. 

This is how you can eat MORE and lose weight. And it’s also why you need to track foods in an app to figure how many calories are in those foods you eat everyday. 

Need help getting yourself on track? Reach out to us or visit our gym in West Chester, PA.