Calorie Density – How To Eat More Food And Fewer Calories

Telling people to eat less food in order to lose weight doesn’t work a good deal of the time. We automatically assume that a plate half empty is a stomach half full. Perception is a key ingredient to successful weight loss. For example, the same quantity of food on a 6” plate looks different that it does on a 9” plate. Our eyes make assumptions about satiety that does not necessarily equate to bodily need.

One way to deal with this feeling of deprivation is to actually fill the 9” plate with water dense foods instead of calorie dense foods. What is the difference? According to Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at the Pennsylvania State University, “the more water a food has (fruits and vegetables, for example), the more it dilutes the calories and lowers calorie density. Fat, on the other hand, raises calorie density. So getting fat out wherever you can – especially the animal fats, the saturated fats – is a good, healthy thing to do”.(1)

The same holds true for lowering the caloric density in a meal. By adding fruits and vegetables (water dense foods) and lowering the fat, we reduce the number of calories ingested. You can eat larger portions of water dense foods and experience fullness with your stomach and your eyes. Try eating a medium to large sized salad at the beginning of a meal. Avoid the bread and butter basket – in fact, ask them not to bring it to the table at all. You can also try having a cup of soup (non cream based) as an appetizer and a small salad. By tricking our eyes into thinking that our food plate is full through the use of water dense foods, we are less likely to feel deprived and are more successful in our weight loss efforts.

Reference

1. American Institute for Cancer Research Newsletter, Winter 2009

The Better Life Experts | January 29, 2009