11 Most Filling Foods for Weight Loss

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If you want to lose weight, it’s very important that you are following the right weight loss diet guidelines and incorporating foods that burn belly fat.

But, burning fat and getting lean is really just the beginning.

Research shows over 90 percent of people that lose a lot of weight eventually regain every pound they lost.

Now let’s say you don’t want to end up like one of these unfortunate people. In that case, remember the long-term outcome is primarily determined by how easily you can stick to your diet plan. The harder it is for you to follow a diet, the less chance you will maintain the long-term results.

Two factors determining how manageable diets are include how satiating and how satisfying the diet is.

The only way to feel full and satisfied is by eating a diet with a higher food volume while incorporating foods that burn belly fat.

These high-volume foods naturally stretch your stomach out, helping you feel full without restricting while costing a minimal amount of calories. This makes dieting easy and sustainable.

So today, I want to go over 11 of the most filling foods that burn belly fat for effortless weight loss.

First, we have watermelons.

Now fruit is something that many people limit when they’re on a diet because they’re afraid of the simple sugars that most fruits contain. However, other than vegetables, fruit is one of the least calorically dense foods available to eat.

And this is especially true with watermelon. Over 90 percent of watermelon is made up of water. This is why you can eat a whole cup of watermelon and only take around 30 to 40 calories. This really helps to fill up your stomach, reduce your appetite naturally and burn belly fat.

Watermelon is also one of L-citrulline’s best natural sources.

L-citrulline is amino acid converted inside the body into L-arginine. This leads to nitric oxide production, and nitric oxide helps improve many things like blood flow, exercise performance, energy levels, and post-workout muscle soreness.

Another great option that helps fill you up if you don’t mind spicy foods is hot peppers and hot sauce. This is because hot peppers are rich in capsaicin, which speeds up the metabolism and prevents future overeating.

And several studies show that hot peppers reduce appetite.

For example, in one study, they had two groups eat the same exact entree with one difference.

One group at the entree with a small number of hot peppers, and the other group had salsa instead. And the group that had the hot peppers ended up consuming 200 calories less in their next meal.

Another similar study had two groups: one eating red peppers with their meal and the other eating the same meal except without the red peppers.

Afterward, they were allowed to eat as much pizza as they wanted.

The group that had the red peppers beforehand ate significantly less pizza.

Since tabasco sauce and other hot sauces are very low in calories, feel free to add these sauces as well as actual peppers to your meals.

Next, let’s move on to a carbohydrate that I know many of you try to avoid when your goal is to burn fat—potatoes. It’s no wonder when potatoes have been blamed in the past for causing weight gain.

However, this has a lot more to do with how potatoes are served than the potato itself.

When you add a lot of butter and milk to mashed potatoes, then top it off with gravy, you’ll add hundreds of extra calories that do nothing to help fill you up. The same can be said if you fry or cook your potatoes in a lot of oil.

However, if you grill, oven bake, or boil a potato, you get one of the most filling starchy carbohydrates out there.

In fact, potatoes rank at the very top of the satiety index. This simply means that they’re incredibly filling, especially if you eat the whole potato with the skin because it contains a ton of filling fiber, helping you burn belly fat.

When potatoes are cooked the right way, they contain anywhere from one-third to half the calories of most other grain products compared to food volume. 100 grams of potatoes have about 75 calories; meanwhile, 100 grams of rice has 130 calories.

And even though you shouldn’t preload your potatoes with a ton of butter, there’s nothing wrong with adding a small amount of butter to your potatoes to make them taste better; you’ll still be eating one of the most filling carbs per food volume.

Another very filling carbohydrate is oatmeal.

Oatmeal has been a staple carb in the diets of strong men and bodybuilders for generations.

Not only are oats relatively low in calories, but they’re also very satiating. They actually rank number 3 on the food satiety scale.

This has a lot to do with the high fiber content that oats provide and their ability to soak up water, increasing the volume it occupies in your stomach. The fiber also helps slow down the oats’ digestion. In turn, this helps you burn belly fat as you stay full and consume less calories.

On top of all that, oats also pack a fair amount of protein for a portion of carbohydrate-rich food.

Just remember, when buying oats go with the plain steel-cut or rolled oats and avoid flavored oats. You’ll find that the flavored packets have lots of added sugar, making them much more calorically dense.

Next on the list is vegetables. And I want to go over vegetables as a broad category because many vegetables are so low in calories per food volume that if I listed each out, this whole post would just be about vegetables.

Some of the most satiating and least calorically dense vegetables include celery, cucumbers, and spinach. Veggies that are full of water like lettuce, celery, and cucumbers are particularly low in calories.

For example, 100 grams of celery only contains about 8 calories. Even if you grazed all day, you wouldn’t be able to eat enough celery to even maintain your weight if you tried.

Other vegetables higher in calories than celery, like broccoli and cauliflower, are still great at satisfying your appetite and killing off hunger.

Vegetables are also obviously very healthy since they’re packed full of vitamins and minerals. If you ever need to take the edge off your appetite, it’s a great idea to have a salad or some stir-fried vegetables before moving on to the main course.

Another awesome carbohydrate that you can have as a very filling snack is popcorn.

Popcorn is very filling and satiating, especially for a snack that’s primarily made up of carbs. This is mainly because popcorn is very high in fiber and has a low energy density.

1 cup of popcorn only contains about 30 calories.

Now the problem with popcorn is that it’s often paired with a lot of butter.

You can take any low energy density food with enough butter and turn it into a very calorically dense food. So if you have popcorn as a snack to help fight off hunger and cravings, you ideally want to go with the plain air-popped variety.

Now, if you want a healthier carb that’s filling and packed full of vitamins and antioxidants, you should try to eat more berries.

Berries are naturally low in calories. Specific berries, like blackberries and raspberries, are much lower in carbs than most other fruits. That’s why berries are pretty much the only carb that you can still eat on a ketogenic diet which only allows you to have 5 percent of your calories from carbs.

They’re also packed full of fiber which helps slow down their digestion and keeps you full longer.

Next, we have soup.

To get the most benefits from soup—in terms of satisfying your hunger—you want to make sure that you’re having a soup which is full of vegetables and protein.

Aside from the high fiber and protein count that you can find in certain soups, they’re also mostly liquid. All that water helps to fill up your stomach and decrease your appetite.

This was observed in a study where volunteers were separated into three groups. In one group, they ate a substantial meal. In the second group, they ate a chunky soup, and in the third group, they had a smooth soup put through a food processor.

And the smooth soup was the clear winner because it had the highest rating for satiety and had the slowest release rate from the stomach.⁽¹⁾

Now don’t drive yourself nuts trying to figure out if you’re eating a smooth soup or a chunky soup; just having any kind of soup that’s full of vegetables is excellent at satisfying hunger. Ideally, you should position the soup before your regular meal to help save calories.

Now that I’ve gone over mostly the carbohydrates you can include in your diet to satisfy hunger, I want to go over some great protein sources, starting with eggs.

Eggs once again score very high on the satiety index. They’re also very easy to bring with you if you’re on the go. All you have to do is boil them.

If you regularly have breakfast, eggs are a great choice to start your day because eating eggs for breakfast can help you consume significantly fewer calories throughout the day.

This was noted in one study where they compared having eggs for breakfast to having a bagel for breakfast. Not only did the egg group experience increased fullness, but they also consumed far fewer calories over the next 36 hours after the eggs.⁽²⁾

Another excellent filling source of protein is fish. And even though fish may seem similar to other protein sources like chicken, turkey, and meat, fish actually ranks as the most filling protein source on the satiety index. It even ranks above eggs.

Now, suppose you’re not a fan of fish. In that case, hopefully, you enjoy dairy because cottage cheese is also a very filling source of protein.

It’s so filling because, unlike milk—which is mostly made up of fast-digesting whey protein—cottage cheese is made up of slow-digesting casein protein. While whey protein can digest in as little as 20 to 30 minutes, casein protein can take over 4 hours. So cottage cheese will help you stay full for longer.

Although all cottage cheese varieties will help fill you up, if you’re trying to save calories for fat loss, you’ll want to go with the 0 percent fat or the skim version of cottage cheese.

So there you have it; those are 11 of the most filling carbs and protein sources that can help you burn fat and lose weight faster and easier.

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(1)“The longest GE times (were) for the smooth soup and the shortest for the solid meal”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23093339/

(2)“Participants had greater feelings of satiety after the egg breakfast, and consumed significantly less energy”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16373948/

My passion for fitness began when I was 14 years old. I naturally fell in love with training and haven’t stopped since. At 18 years I acquired my first personal training certification from ACE after which I opened my first of 3 transformation studios in 2011. I love to share my knowledge through personal training, my online courses, and youtube channel now with over 3,000,000 subscribers! I can happily say that we've helped over 15,000 people get in great shape over the years. I'm always here for my customers so if you need help don't hesitate to send your questions to support@gravitychallenges.com

Founder // Gravity Transformation, Max Posternak