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Stop Feeling Deprived: A New Approach to Weight Loss
When I am working with someone who is interested in losing weight I am always looking for ways that we can achieve this without them feeling deprived or feeling like they are starving. If I can avoid these feelings and still get the weight loss results the person is looking for, they will be more likely to maintain their weight loss over the long term.
As we know one of the reasons people lose weight and then gain it back is because they either feel deprived because they can’t enjoy foods they enjoy (even if those foods are healthy), and/or they are eating too little and their willpower eventually drains to the point where they have to eat more.
One of the best strategies I have as a coach to achieve both of these goals in a single intervention is to start to manipulate the energy density of their meals. Today I would like to go into this strategy in more detail, explaining how it works and how you can implement it if weight loss is your goal as well.
Calculate Energy Density: The Key to Feeling Full
Energy density is a fancy term that represents the amount of calories per gram of food. To figure out the energy density of a food item you simply weigh it and then divide the calories by the weight of the food.
For example, if the food you are consuming weighs 100 grams and it contains 200 calories then you would divide 200 by 100 and get an energy density of 2 calories per gram for that food.
For someone who is interested in weight loss, reducing the energy density of the foods they are eating can be very beneficial in achieving their goal. The reason is because they can eat a lot more food with very little cost in calories. This helps them feel full and reduces the feeling of deprivation that most people experience when they try to lose weight.
In many cases people can eat more food while still losing weight!
However increasing food volume by lowering the energy density of food is not the only way we can trigger the signals to stop eating.
The 1.75 Calorie-per-Gram Rule: What You Need to Know
There has been other research that has shown that humans will stop eating based on the amount of calories in a food as well.
The research has actually attempted to calculate a threshold at which food volume stops being the predominant signal to stop eating and caloric content is instead causing us to stop eating. What researchers discovered was that when energy density goes beyond 1.75 calories per gram then we will not stop eating because we are physically full and instead stop eating because we have eaten enough calories.
The below graph does a good job illustrating this:
https://www.massmember.com/products/mass-subscription/categories/2155774416/posts/2179549378
Unfortunately, the theory that people can regulate their intake by the caloric content of a food independent of anything else does not fit well with what we see happening all around us.
Clearly many people cannot seem to shut off their appetite based on calories alone, if they could we would not see the growing numbers of people being overweight and obese that we currently do.
Mastering Satiety: Volume and Calories Combined
A recent study (Robinson, 2024) came up with a pretty cool design to test out whether calories can really be a signal to stop consuming food.
In the first of two experiments researchers fed all participants the same meal, a large bowl of chili weighing 607 grams and a large bowl of oven cooked french fries weighing 405 grams. The total lunch weight was 1075 grams.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38825014
Then after the participants ate this meal they were given a “snack box” and were encouraged to consume as much or as little of the food in the snack box as they wanted. At the end of the day researchers then measured how much of the food in the snack box was consumed.
The cool part of this experiment was that the researchers manipulated the lunch of chili and french fries fed to everyone so that there was a low energy density, medium energy density, and high energy density version.
One third of the participants in this experiment got a version of lunch that had an energy density of 1.1 calorie per gram (low energy density). The second third of participants got a version of lunch that had an energy density of 1.7 calories per gram (medium energy density). The final third of participants got a version of lunch that had an energy density of 3.1 calories per gram (high energy density).
Now if humans could regulate their appetite not only by the volume of food they eat but by the calories they consume then you would expect the participants who had the low energy density lunch would eat the most out of of the snack box, the participants that had the medium energy density lunch would eat the second most out of the snack box, and the participants who had the high energy density lunch would eat the least out of the snack box.
Unsurprisingly that was not the case.
The results showed that there was no significant difference in what participants ate out of the snack box in all 3 conditions. The low energy density group ate 1,424 calories from the snack box, the medium energy density group ate 1,509 calories from the snack box, and the high energy density group ate 1,454 calories from the snack box. There was less than 100 calorie difference between all 3 conditions.
However when we look at the total calories eaten in the day there are much bigger differences. The low energy density group ate 1,955 calories, the medium energy density group ate 2,357 calories, and the high energy density group ate 2,767 calories.
That is over an 800 calorie difference between the low energy density group and the high energy density group!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38825014
Is Calorie Counting Enough? The Evidence Says No
So does this mean the theory that humans can regulate their food intake based on the caloric content of the food they are eating is bust?
I don’t think so, but there is a huge caveat at play which was illustrated in a second experiment done by the same researchers.
In this experiment the researchers fed participants a standardized lunch of a sandwich and some water and then had them consume as much yogurt (low energy density of 1.2 calories per gram), ice cream (medium energy density of 1.9 calories per gram), or cheesecake (3.5 calories per gram) as they wanted.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38825014
The participants who ate the yogurt and ice cream both consumed 186 calories. However those that consumed the cheesecake consumed 426 calories!
This illustrates an important point and the reason why calories alone won’t stop us from overconsuming a food.
The Hidden Danger of Processed Foods
In today’s modern food environment, the foods most people consume are so far removed from what humans evolved eating that they override our natural mechanisms to stop eating. No where in nature will you find a food that has an energy density of 3.5 calories per gram; only highly processed foods can reach that energy density.
I think we can regulate our appetite via calories however that likely will only work with natural foods humans evolved eating and to be fair its probably a mixture of both food volume AND calories that can stop a human from continuing to eat. Think about it…the type of meals I advocate most people eat is a mixture of fruits and vegetables, a high quality protein source, and a little added fat.
The fruits and vegetables (in their whole food form) will have low energy density, the protein will be a medium energy density, and the added fats will be a high energy density. This all balances out to 1.75 calorie per gram or less!
This is all fascinating, but what is the practical take away here?
7 Simple Strategies for Lowering Energy Density
Do you need to go around calculating the energy density of the foods you are eating trying to keep them as low as possible?
NO!
Believe me I understand how impractical it is to weigh every food item, figure out its energy density, and then try to construct meals using math….that is no way to enjoy your food or your life!
Instead if you follow some simple guidelines you can pretty much guarantee that the energy density of your meals will be low without having to break out the calculator at each meal.
- Limit highly processed foods. These have a high energy density and are hyper-palatable.
- Limit liquid calories. These tend to have a high energy density, can be hyper-palatable, and don’t help in achieving the feeling of physical fullness.
- Eat lots of fruits and vegetables in their whole food form (not in a smoothie, dried, etc). These foods have a low energy density in their whole food form and take up a lot of room in your stomach.
- Eat enough protein (about 1 gram per pound of [ideal] body weight). These foods take a long time to digest, helping you achieve that physical feeling of fullness and contain lots of valuable vitamins and minerals.
- Be very mindful of sauces and condiments as they are essentially liquid calories.
- Be very mindful of added fats and butter. While some of these may be natural they are energy dense and are essentially liquid calories.
- Eating out will almost certainly mean your food is energy dense so don’t eat out more than you need to. Restaurant meals fall into the highly-processed category, they are designed to be hyper palatable and have lots of hidden calories in the form of added oils and condiments.
In an effort to visually illustrate some of these guidelines take a look at some of these graphs from this workbook.
Here is the one for vegetables.
Notice the energy density on the X-axis. It ranges from 0-120 and is calculated in calories per 100 grams. To get to the units for energy density we have been using in this blog post you need to divide the numbers on the X-axis by 100. In other words all of these food items have an energy density of either 1.2 calories per gram or less.
Here is the one for fruits.
The energy density here ranges from 0-400. This is a much bigger range, why?
This illustrates an important point that is hard to see in the picture.
Everything in the 200-400 range in the picture above is highly processed. Even though it might say bananas right about 400 that is not a whole banana, that is some kind of dehydrated banana. All the unprocessed fruits are near the top of the picture.
Here is seafood.
Notice most of the seafood sits around an energy density of 100 calories per 100 grams or an energy density of 1 calorie per gram, which is very good.
Here are breads and cereals.
Most of these sit around 400 calories per 100 grams or an energy density of 4 calories per gram! This illustrates why highly processed foods are so energy dense.
Does this mean you are to never have energy dense foods like a cheesecake?
No, of course not.
But energy dense foods must be the exception in your diet. If you follow the guidelines above 90% of the time and have some flexibility the other 10% you will be perfectly fine when the time comes for the cheesecake (or whatever else you may want to have).
To conclude, understanding and manipulating energy density can be a powerful tool in your weight loss journey. By focusing on whole, unprocessed foods and being mindful of liquid calories and added fats, you can naturally lower the energy density of your meals. This approach allows you to eat more food while consuming fewer calories, helping you feel satisfied and reducing feelings of deprivation.
Remember, sustainable weight loss isn’t about drastic restrictions or complicated calculations – it’s about making small, manageable changes that you can maintain over time. Start by implementing one or two of the suggested guidelines and gradually build from there. With patience and consistency, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your weight loss goals while still enjoying your meals.
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References
Robinson, E. (2024, June 1). Passive overconsumption? Limited evidence of compensation in meal size when consuming foods high in energy density: Two randomised crossover experiments. Passive overconsumption? Limited evidence of compensation in meal size when consuming foods high in energy density: Two randomised crossover experiments. Retrieved September 17, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38825014/