One of the most important things to accomplish when wanting to lose weight is to be in a caloric deficit. But have you ever wondered why when you seem to eat so little, it still seems almost impossible to achieve even a tiny bit of weight loss?

One of the possibility of this happening is because of something called CALORIC DENSITY which means that different food will have different density. To put simply, density is the amount of mass over volume which means that for a food which has an equal amount of weight, the more space that food takes, the lower its density.

This diagram below will give you a better understanding of what caloric density means.

 

When trying to lose weight, it is advised to eat food that are low in calorie density. Foods that will keep you fuller but also low in calorie, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, potato and lean meats should make most of your diet.

Meats may not seem to fill your tummy as much, but they are the type of food that requires the most energy and time to digest, which will keep you full for longer. This is because protein requires up to 35% of its calorie to digest it.

Potatoes when baked, steamed or boiled, has the highest satiety(feeling of fullness) rating. They are also rather low in calorie, 100 calories per 100 gram. And as you can see above, oily food or foods cooked with a lot of oil will only take up very little space in your stomach but still has high amounts of calories which does not make you feel full.

So if you are trying to lose weight, choose your food wisely as it will help you in your journey!

REFERENCES
Food Satiety Study:
http://www.ernaehrungsdenkwerkstatt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/EDWText/TextElemente/Ernaehrungswissenschaft/Naehrstoffe/Saettigung_Lebensmittel_Satiety_Index.pdf

Thermic Effect of Food:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC524030/