Most Americans are looking to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. Diets are hard (and often only temporarily effective, if at all!) because you are often forced to restrict what you’re eating, which leaves you feeling hungry and deprived. That is a recipe for disaster. Managing a healthy weight long term requires a sustainable lifestyle that leaves you feeling full and satisfied!
The best approach is one that you can stick with forever.
Enter the concept of volumetrics! The idea is to incorporate lots of low calorie foods that can fill you up and balance out the smaller amounts of high calorie options in your diet. Think vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins versus high fat, fried, or fast foods.
I like to compare it to an expense account. If you have 2000 calories to spend in a day, would you be satisfied with a small amount of “expensive” options? Or would you rather use those 2000 calories on larger quantities of “inexpensive” foods that can fill you up?
Check out these foods to see how 100 calories compares across different options:
Beverages
• Wine – 4 oz
• Cranberry juice – 6.8 oz
• Soda – 8 oz
• Beer – 8.3 oz
• Sweet tea – 11.5 oz
Snack foods
• Chips – 10 chips
• French fries – 1/3 small order
• Peanut butter – 1 bsp
• Popcorn – 3 cups
Breakfast
• Cheerios – 1 cup
• Granola – 1/4 cup
• Bagel – less than half
• Blueberry muffin – 1/4 medium muffin
• Blueberries – 1.25 cups
Protein
• Shrimp – 8 large
• Salmon – 1.7 oz
• Chicken tenders – 1.15 oz
Vegetables
• Avocado- 1/3 avocado
• Broccoli – 10.5 oz
• Baby carrots – 25 carrots
• Lettuce- almost 20 cups
It’s important to note that none of these foods are “bad foods”. Some are just more “expensive” than others. For instance, if I am really hungry in the morning, it is going to take a LOT of calories worth of a blueberry muffin to satisfy me and keep me full until lunch!
But you better believe, that some days, I will be eating those chips…calories and all! It’s all about having a healthy relationship with food, loading up on lots of the “inexpensive” foods, and allowing a little extra spending when you want it- in moderation, of course! 😉
Looking at that list above, did any of the foods surprise you?
Cultivate Healthy 