4) Chicken, Broccoli and Quinoa
Grilled chicken is a great source of lean protein, which regulates hunger by influencing appetite hormones such as leptin, the 'fullness hormone', and ghrelin, the 'hunger hormone'.
Protein's ability to keep ghrelin levels low and support leptin stability makes it an effective choice for managing your appetite. While leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables such as spinach and broccoli offer satiety with very few calories. Packed with vitamins, fibre and minerals, they also support healthy digestion and have anti-inflammatory benefits.
Team them with Quinoa over white rice for even more benefits. Quinoa is a wholegrain with all essential amino acids, it's rich in protein and fibre. This balance. can help regulate cravings and provides sustained energy.
2) Tinned Beans or Lentils
If you are struggling to lose weight, you might have thought about going on a weight-lossdrug like Ozempic - but choosing to eat tinned beans can have a similar biological effect on your appetite. Dr Megan Rossi, a dietitian and research fellow at King's College London and founder of thegutdoctor.com, says: "Prebiotic fibres found in canned legumes (go for legumes in water, not dressing) are transformed into metabolites called short chain fatty acids by our gut microbiota. These in turn have been shown to stimulate the gut'sproduction of the appetite suppressing hormone GLP-1, the target hormone for the weight-loss drug Ozempic".
Legumes include beans, lentils, and chickpeas. In addition, their low-energy density and high nutrient content make them highly filling without adding excess energy.
If you want to lose weight, what you eat matters most - and while no food in itself directly causes weight loss, certain nutrient dense options can make it easier. These foods will help manage hunger and reduce cravings, in some cases activating hormones that encourage weight loss, or encouraging the body to burn more fat, while providing essential vitamins and micronutrients.
Focusing on whole, nutrient dense foods helps regulate appetite and, when paired with adjusting carbohydrate intake to match physiological needs, it can also promote metabolic flexibility. Metabolic flexibility means the body can efficiently switch between burning carbohydrates when they're available and, during fasting or low-carb periods, tapping into fat stores for energy
5)A cup of Green Tea or Coffee
Staying hydrated helps manage hunger; and drinking green tea or a coffee has added benefits for weight loss. Green tea boosts fat burning and helps to increase the calories we burn off at rest and also during exercise. This may be because the tea leaves contain catechins, a type of antioxidant plant chemical which has not only been shown to support fat oxidation but to have anti-cancer effects.
In addition, coffee can enhance metabolism slightly due to caffeine. Drinking regular amounts of green tea or coffee, though, will not offset those morning biscuits!
6) Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF's)
Ultra-Processed Foods have taken over our supermarket shelves, and for decades have been almost impossible to avoid. These foods have gone through several stages of refinement, and often contain additives, refined sugars and fats, and are low in fibre.
These foods, when consumed in large amounts, can increase blood sugar and lead to rapid hunger rebound, promoting over-eating. UPF's are designed to have a 'hyperpalatable' effect, overstimulating the brain's reward centres. and overriding natural fullness signals. UPF's are linked to an increased energy intake of around 500 extra calories per day. And that's not all - you actually burn fewer calories. when you eat them - arounf 50% less calories in the digestive process compared to calorie-matched whole foods.
Foods To Eat For Healthy Weight Loss - and what you should avoid.
8) Limit Alcohol and Diet drinks
Alcohol is calorie-dense and often mixed with sugary beverages adding further calories. Alcohol's dehydrating effects can also trigger hunger signals as can diet drinks because people often compensate by eating more.
1)Breakfast Eggs
Eggs are an excellent choice for preventing overeating. Eggs increase satiety and reduce calorie intake later in the day. At least part of the weight-managing effect may be down to eggs' protein content, which is crucial for preserving muscle mass during. weight loss and is known to drive satiety.
7) Swerve 'Diet' foods
These 'diet' foods aren't a good alternative to real food, and counter-intuitively they could leave you more likely to overeat. Most are also classed. as UPF's and contain highly refined carbohydrates and oils which can trigger inflammation in the body, which has been linked to obesity.
Eight science-backed recommendations:
3) Whole Almonds or Walnuts
Nuts might be high in fat and calories, but that doesn't translate to making you fat. In fact, they help control blood sugar and eaten whole are less calorific than you'd think, while being full of nutrients and trace minerals. Whole, natural nuts, are rich in healthy fats, protein, and key micronutrients like magnesium and vitamin E. These healthy fats contribute to prolonged fullness and better blood sugar control.
But you are best off sticking to the whole nuts such as almonds and walnuts, the matrix of the whole nuts keeps the fat in the cell wall, limiting its digestion. This matrix is broken down in ground nuts (such as nut butter) making the fat more accessible for digestion. This explains why whole nuts have been shown to provide around 20 to 30 percent fewer calories than what the packet says.